IAD to DCA transportation to catch connection

I live in Washington DC, so I've never made a connection of any type here. I haven't had any awful experiences getting through Immigration or retrieving luggage at IAD, but we all know that timing can vary.

The good news is that there's Metro (subway) service between the airports with just one change required. Although there's occasionally an escalator or elevator out of service, it would be extremely unusual for both forms of intra-station transportation to be unavailable, so I wouldn't worry about that aspect of the transfer as long as you can manage your luggage on an escalator, if necessary.

Significant system issues causing noticeable delays are sort of unusual, but I can't say they're unheard-of.

There's a lot of Metro info available here:
https://www.wmata.com/service/rail/

On my PC there's a small, clickable "Trip Planner" block near the left margin of that webpage. Use "Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport" as your destination.

WMATA suggests taking the Silver Line in the direction of Largo or New Carrollton, getting off at Rosslyn and taking a Blue Line train in the direction of Franconia-Springfield. That is the shortest route and will take roughly 82 minutes (depending on the transfer time required at Rosslyn).

You should be able to use a credit card to tap as you enter the fare gate at the beginning of the trip and exit at the end of the trip. The current fare is $6.75.

Google Maps gives a driving time between the two airports of between 35 and 85 minutes for mid-afternoon departure on a workday. You could check the WMATA website for service delays while in line at Immigration or waiting for your luggage and make a call about taking a taxi at that point if it seems better (assuming no weather issues that could affect traffic).

This is really good information. Thanks much.

In case if we have bags with us, we would like to take Uber or taxi. If we take typical Chicago evening rush, how long it could take ? Online forums I can see from 90 to 120 minutes. If this is so, it is still good for us. (excluding any major hiccup, I understand).

I don't even own a car, so I'm not a reliable source. You can see the range of travel times coughed up by Google in my earlier post. It's very hard to say how that option could turn out. The travel time by Metro, though slower than the best-case or even the average-case by car, is likely to be much, much less variable.

Wow, that is not a trip I would want to take. I fly on points all the time, too, so I am no stranger to having horrible connections offered to me by airlines, but I would not have accepted this even if it cost me nothing, I would have found some other way to get there. But, I get it, sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do, so onward.

Can't help you much with the best choices to get from IAD to DCA, but I'd expect that with over 5 hours to play with, you should be able to make it. Hopefully your inbound flight will be on time. Just take into account that you will probably not be at your sharpest after the long flight from Frankfurt, so plan accordingly. It won't exactly be fun after the long inbound flight, but you should make it. Just be careful.

Actually, I'd be more worried about missing the connection in Chicago than in DC. Personally, I find ORD to be a chaotic and challenging place to connect. 1 hour 14 minutes is a tight connection for ORD IMHO. Hopefully you won't have to change terminals (or drag a lot of bags). Presumably, this is all on United (it's exactly the kind of "bargain" business class option they love to offer), hopefully all on one ticket. If this is all on one ticket, then they'll get you to your destination eventually. If this is not on a single ticket, and/or if you have to change terminals in ORD with a bunch of luggage, you better be on your toes there in Chicago (which is probably a big ask after what you will have been through in the previous 24 hours).

Where does your onward flight from ORD take you? Hopefully not someplace too far away (and with no additional connections...). In any case, does not sound like my idea of fun (and I put up with a lot of fight choices that many here would avoid).

Good luck.

Thanks David. This was good insight.

Here is what tempted me :-) economy is available with better connection and then I checked more, if I pay additional 17,000 points, I can get business, though IAD-DCA hassle is there. Our route is FRA-IAD-DCA-ORD-MCI.
ORD connection is in economy as well. It is on single ticket with Air Canada program, but different carriers.

Metro is your best bet especially as you will be smack in the middle of Dc evening commute. If you don’t dally you can make it on Metro.

It's going to come down to how badly you want the business class seat(s) versus how much hassle and inconvenience are you willing to put up with, one of those "is it worth it?" questions which only you can answer.

Do be very clear with yourself about exactly which legs are going to be in "business class" - and on what aircraft (not all "business class" is the same, it varies by aircraft). The long trans-Atlantic flight is where getting the business class seat would get you the most benefit (that is, greater chance/ability to sleep). The domestic legs (all of them) are less consequential. But check carefully to see how much of this "business class" ticket is actually in business class seats.

Another consideration (for me) is: daytime or overnight flight? A long, uninterrupted-by-layovers flight in a solid, lay-flat business class seat is valuable to me because it means I'll get good sleep and arrive feeling pretty good. That counts more for me on the outbound flight to Europe, since it's an overnight, and lets me hit the ground running (sometimes literally). It effectively "buys" me an extra usable day at the beginning of my trip. Coming home - when it's usually a daytime flight - that's not quite as important (and if I arrive at home feeling completely trashed, I can sleep in my own bed and recover the next day without it wrecking my vacation). But you do your own calculations.

I'd take a look at the gates at ORD your flights would typically use. If it's all in the same terminal (likely United's) then that reduces the risk and hassle of that connection a lot (especially if it's on one ticket and your checked bags don't need to be retrieved, dragged to another terminal on a bus, and then re-checked). If it's just an on-time arrival then a short walk to a nearby gate in the same terminal, then no worries.

Ah, the romance of travel. Keep repeating that phrase on that day!

I second heather’s recommendation to take the Metro.

I lived in northern VA for years. Just flew back a couple months ago to visit a friend near IAD. I landed at DCA and took the Metro out towards IAD: opposite your trip, but it’s a very easy, one-stop trip, as acraven describes. You should be fine with 5 hours as long as no system problems.

You couldn’t pay me to hop in a car between the 2 airports with a connection deadline at rush hour. Even though you’re heading against traffic for that time of day, things go wrong so often that I wouldn’t risk it.

I second heather’s recommendation to take the Metro.

I lived in northern VA for years. Just flew back a couple months ago
to visit a friend near IAD. I landed at DCA and took the Metro out
towards IAD: opposite your trip, but it’s a very easy, one-stop trip,
as acraven describes. You should be fine with 5 hours as long as no
system problems.

You couldn’t pay me to hop in a car between the 2 airports with a
connection deadline at rush hour. Even though you’re heading against
traffic for that time of day, things go wrong so often that I wouldn’t
risk it

Metro seems to be most suitable. Do you remember, how long is the walk from terminal ? I will have couple of bags of 50 lbs, so trying to guess if that would be convenient enough. And also, does train have enough space or they are packed usually during peak hours ?
Edit - I searched more and got the idea now. Thank you

I got off the stop before IAD, so can’t comment on the walk there, but at DCA the Metro station is right at the airport and the walk was quite short. You could look at Google Maps to get an idea for IAD.

You should be fine with space on the train. You are picking it up near the end of the line and going opposite rush hour traffic for that time of day. It might be more crowded when you make your connection, but you’re still heading in to the city against traffic, so I’m sure you’ll be fine.

Understood, thank you again

Hi, Northern VA resident here.

Did you say what day of the week this will be? Mondays and Fridays are lighter for traffic and Metro due to hybrid work schedules. As mentioned, you’d be inbound/reverse commute for most of the journey. Mid to late June, traffic lightens up a little around the region once school’s out for the summer.

The Metro ride takes a chunk of time. I wouldn’t rule out going by road if you have a driver who knows what they’re doing and is paying attention to day-of traffic conditions. There’s more than one way to cut across town. In brief, your connection should be doable with that amount of layover.

Did you say what day of the week this will be? Mondays and Fridays are lighter for traffic and Metro due to hybrid work schedules. As mentioned, you’d be inbound/reverse commute for most of the journey. Mid to late June, traffic lightens up a little around the region once school’s out for the summer.

The Metro ride takes a chunk of time. I wouldn’t rule out going by
road if you have a driver who knows what they’re doing and is paying
attention to day-of traffic conditions. There’s more than one way to cut across town. In brief, your connection should be doable with that amount of layover.

Agree on this. It would be Tuesday evening.

I think it will be fine by metro or Uber/Lyft unless your flight is hours late. If you google something like transfer IAD to DCA an Uber site pops up with information and looks like an online form to put in your details and get more information. There are also private transport services. By car, the toll-free Dulles access road that you would probably be on only allows traffic to and from the airport with other traffic restricted to a parallel toll highway, This tends to help the airport traffic,. If it were me, I would take the metro which is how I usually go to either airport.

It is a bit of a walk from the Dulles terminal to Metro, about 10-15 minutes. There will be a change at the Rosslyn station to the blue line, that is basically just up or down an escalator to the other platform. Metro stations have elevators too. One handy recent thing about Metro is that you don’t have to buy a ticket, just tap in and out with a credit card. It is true that traffic almost always flows smoothly on the Dulles toll road but there are frequent backups after it merges into I-66 E through Arlington for a few miles and there aren’t any faster alternatives to that. But you should be able to make it by road with that kind of cushion even if 66 is slow.

And my inner Rick is saying, several 50 pound bags seems like an awful lot for your 5 day fast paced driving trip of (most recently) Germany and Alsace, perhaps lightening that load would ease this transit as well as finding trunk space for it all securely in your rental car.

And my inner Rick is saying, several 50 pound bags seems like an awful lot for your 5 day fast paced driving trip of (most recently) Germany and Alsace, perhaps lightening that load would ease this transit as well as finding trunk space for it all securely in your rental car.

This is a valid point, and we will keep most of our luggage at Airport, while keeping only essentials while travelling.

I’m a DC resident and use the Metro for all of my airport transportation. This is a pretty easy connection. Even if the trip takes 82 minutes, that’s potentially to faster than traveling by car. You will have to go up an escalator to change trains at Rossyln but it’s an easy connection. The trains run pretty frequently that time of day so if you miss one, wait 10 minutes or less and catch the next one. Pay attention to the train line as three stop where you’re making the connection and you want the blue line.

Probably I will check in google map, if car is faster at that time and accordingly decide then.