OT - Travel information

DWadeno3 · Post #1 » by **DWadeno3** » Sat Aug 11, 2012 7:44 pm

Heat fan here coming in peace. I'm an American living in Europe and will be visiting friends and family in the US in September. On my way back to Germany, I'll most likely fly through Washington since those flights have the best fares. The only problem is that my national flight will land at Ronald Reagan airport whereas my transatlantic flight will depart from Washington Dulles. My question is, is it worth it to take a much cheaper national flight to Ronald Reagan and what's the best way to get to Dulles from there? Or should I just pay more and fly into Dulles right away? Thanks in advance!

Post #2 » by **montestewart** » Sat Aug 11, 2012 7:54 pm

DWadeno3 wrote:Heat fan here coming in peace. I'm an American living in Europe and will be visiting friends and family in the US in September. On my way back to Germany, I'll most likely fly through Washington since those flights have the best fares. The only problem is that my national flight will land at Ronald Reagan airport whereas my transatlantic flight will depart from Washington Dulles. My question is, is it worth it to take a much cheaper national flight to Ronald Reagan and what's the best way to get to Dulles from there? Or should I just pay more and fly into Dulles right away? Thanks in advance!

It depends on how much more money. There are a variety of options (buses, shuttles, taxis, etc.) that transport between the two airports, but no subway/light rail. It's been a while since I had to use one of these options, but I recall them being a little pricey and time consuming. In light traffic, it's maybe 45 minutes from one to the other. Bad traffic could easily double that. Certainly less hassle all in one airport. Hopefully, someone that's done it more recently will chime in.

pancakes3 · Post #3 » by **pancakes3** » Sun Aug 12, 2012 12:47 am

I can't see how it would end up being much cheaper for you to do the dual airport route. In my experience, a shuttle service will charge you somewhere between 40-60 dollars flat fee. Taxis usually have flat fees too and run from 50-80 dollars, more if you use a towncar service. It's a 40-50 min drive unless you hit rush hour - many different routes but the gist is to go north for a bit and then straight west for 35+ minutes. If you're in zero rush and have the time to kill, you could take a metro from reagan out to Vienna and it's only a 15 min drive ($20 cab ride) from there but that would be a lot of calories burned to save a few bucks.

I agree with Monte. Stick to the 1 airport.

Nivek · Post #4 » by **Nivek** » Sun Aug 12, 2012 12:56 am

Another factor to consider: What's your time/sanity worth? You'd have to go through security at the originating airport, and then again at Dulles. The lines at Dulles can be ridiculous depending on the time of day.

A cab will run you $65 minimum -- it could go higher with traffic, again depending on the time of day. As pancakes says, a car service will run you a bit more. The travel time between airports is a minimum 40 minutes -- likely more with traffic.

The ticket price difference would have to be several hundred dollars (like $500 minimum) to make me do what you're thinking about doing. And even then I might just pay the difference to avoid the hassle.

My 0.016 Euros.

DWadeno3 · Post #5 » by **DWadeno3** » Sun Aug 12, 2012 11:14 am

Appreciate the answers and given that the ticket price difference is only around 250$, I'll just fly into Dulles right away. I found the car services you mentioned and given that I would only have around four hours between flights (plus I have to check in and out again), it's too much of a risk to get into rush hour anyways. Thanks for help though and good luck next season.

payitforward · Post #6 » by **payitforward** » Sun Aug 12, 2012 3:13 pm

I would only add to check Philly, Newark and even BWI -- if the prices are close, any of them are easier airports to negotiate than Dulles -- a real pita that airport.

Good luck to you as well -- but we'll need it more than you!

Induveca · Post #7 » by **Induveca** » Sun Aug 12, 2012 4:06 pm

Check out airberlin. They have great rates and fly out of/to MIA. Also French airline Corsairfly also has great rates into Paris.

Cheapest I've purchased on airberlin was 650 round trip into Berlin. Cheapest was around 600 into Paris. From Paris airberlin regularly has 60 euro flights.

Neither comes up typically in kayak searches. Unless you're taking United (for frequent flyer purposes) there is no financial reason to connect in DC.

DWadeno3 · Post #8 » by **DWadeno3** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 7:30 pm

Induveca wrote:Check out airberlin. They have great rates and fly out of/to MIA. Also French airline Corsairfly also has great rates into Paris.

Cheapest I've purchased on airberlin was 650 round trip into Berlin. Cheapest was around 600 into Paris. From Paris airberlin regularly has 60 euro flights.

Neither comes up typically in kayak searches. Unless you're taking United (for frequent flyer purposes) there is no financial reason to connect in DC.

Yeah I'm flying United/Lufthansa for frequent flyer purposes, but also because they actually have the best connection from Frankfurt to San Francisco and aren't really more expensive than the other ones. You're right about airberlin and Delta also offered some pretty good fares through Atlanta or Dallas (even though their departure/arrival times suck for the most part). The Dulles-Frankfurt connection with Lufthansa is actually fairly priced though, just like the Frankfurt-San Francisco connection I'm flying on the way to the US. It's the national flights that kill me. The San Francisco-Minneapolis connection in particular is just brutal, just like flying into Dulles instead of Ronald Reagan.