Has anyone flown out of DCA Reagan International Airport?

[turtlebean]

Just wanted to bump this thread b/c it is two years old...any changes? Trying to decide whether to go out of familiar BWI, or save overall (after parking and cheaper flights) $50 and go out of DCA. It is 30 minutes further to drive to DCA than BWI for us, too. Is the traffic crazy and congested around DCA, or easy to navigate? Does economy parking ever get full? Checking online right now there are about 300 spaces left Trip would be end of July, if that makes a difference. TIA

I was the one who originally started thread. We had no problems flying out of DCA that year and will most likely fly out of DCA again this year when we go back to Disney. I prefer BWI out of any of the DC area airports. It's just easier to get in and out of and better parking options. All of the airports are about equal distance from my house. The flights are just so much cheaper for us if we fly out of DCA (by several hundreds of dollars). We flew out early Saturday morning and there was no issue with traffic or parking. (I live in Frederick, MD, so we have to take the dreaded 270 and 495) I had thought about parking off site, but glad we didn't. Our flight was delayed due to weather and we did not get back to DCA until 11:45pm (our original arrival time was supposed to be 8:37, we didn't leave MCO until well after that time). I saw the last shuttle bus pull away for the off site parking as we were walking across the street to wait for a shuttle to the economy lot. The only thing I didn't care for with the airport is the layout of the terminals. We flew Airtran and Jetblue, which were together, but everything else was on the other side of the airport. They had limited food options in our terminal, so the walk felt like forever to get to where most of the other food options were. We always eat breakfast at the airport b/c we like to take early flights. Just give yourself enough time and you will be fine. We will be flying out the end of July as well. This time we are suprising my oldest and flying down one day early, so he can wake up at Disney on his birthday. This means we have to leave on Friday and will probably either choose a later flight or have to take into consideration rush hour traffic or use metro as our last resort.

If you have an early flight, parking should not be an issue. Parking was much more expensive at DCA. I believe it was around $100 for the week when we flew, probably more now. Compare that to BWI where you can usually park offsite for around $7/8 a day. If you are only saving $50 total to fly out of DCA, it's not worth it. But if you will save a couple hundred dollars, then it would be worth considering. If you are leaving on a Saturday or Sunday, traffic should be minimal as long as there isn't any huge event going on in/around the airport. If you have to take the GW parkway, drive the speed limit. We saw tons of police doing speed traps. Even at 6:00 in the morning.

 

[nordkin]

We just rturned through DCA yesterday and parked at the Courtyard by Marriott for $8 a day. Was super easy to book through this site http://www.airportparkingreservations.com and had to be booked through the site and not through the hotel.

We used the hotel shuttle and it was a lot easier then DCA's economy parking.

 

[gdrj]

Just wanted to bump this thread b/c it is two years old...any changes? Trying to decide whether to go out of familiar BWI, or save overall (after parking and cheaper flights) $50 and go out of DCA. It is 30 minutes further to drive to DCA than BWI for us, too. Is the traffic crazy and congested around DCA, or easy to navigate? Does economy parking ever get full? Checking online right now there are about 300 spaces left Trip would be end of July, if that makes a difference. TIA

I really like DCA (it is closer for me), if you are driving during rush hour on the way to airport or home I would avoid.

Much better off flying out of BWI than DCA if you need to park. If, by some chance,parking is full at DCA your options are EXTREMELY limited. You also need to plan for unexpected traffic.

Very True. I know there a number of off-site parking lots for BWI. I recommend Pre-Flight Parking. Their website will have a coupon and you can make a reservation that gtd's you a spot PLUS you can register to free club and earn free parking.

https://www.preflightairportparking.com/reservation/bwi/baltimore-washington-international-thurgood-marshall/airport-parking/5

I like DCA. Because its smaller, I find a few things about it very convenient. I don't think the parking fills up all too often, but I'm not totally sure about that. (I've had problems with IAD filling up and then having to use the overflow parking.)

But, if all you're going to save is $50 total (not per person), then I don't think the added driving time is worth the savings. The extra 30 min. drive time could easily stretch to an extra hour - one way.

If you use DCA there are off-site parking options at hotels. Need to be aware of shuttle start times and stop times. A number of them don't start until 6 AM and end at 11 PM. Also you don't want to use this if you are running close on time, shuttles seem to run every 1/2 hour and may stop at multiple hotels. There a few websites that offer this, and you should be able to do without paying a service charge.

Last thing I beleive one of the hotels is near a Metro Stop so you could use that instead of shuttle.