Tag Archives for washington dulles.
One of the unique features of Washington Dulles airport is that, despite building an expensive train system, they still use “mobile lounges” to ferry passengers across the airport from their D concourse and to bring passengers from some international flights directly to customs and immigration. These people movers were built in the 1960s.
United Airlines is the major tenant, operating out of temporary facilities that were build in… 1983. The idea was that new, permanent facilities would replace the C and D concourses, but never did.
The issue here is what is best for passengers, not United’s shareholders which received nearly $10 billion in taxpayer cash already during the pandemic. United’s efforts at Washington Dulles have been subsidized for nearly 40 years. That’s too long rather than a justification for more subsidies at the expense of passenger choices and competition.
Sometimes the easiest route to serving alcohol in an airport club is just to… change the law. That’s what’s happening in Virginia. And it’s going to get you served in new Capital One spaces at Washington Dulles and National airports, and at the Chase ‘The Club’ collaboration at Dulles.
Virginia’s legislature has passed an ’emergency’ law (i.e., goes into effect right away rather than waiting until July 1), to extend “mixed-beverage carrier licenses to financial institutions, their subsidiaries or contractors.”
The lounge will be 5200 square feet on the A concourse. The A concourse is also home to the Air France and Virgin Atlantic lounges, though all concourses are connected airside and the A concourse connected to the B side with the Lufthansa, Turkish, and British Airways lounges.
It will include a 1,000 square foot bar/lounge, over 900 square foot dining room, 1,400 square-foot work area, family room, prayer room and kitchen. It will be two levels, seating 74 on the main level of the terminal and 44 upstairs.
The Virgin Atlantic lounge at Washington Dulles uses a QR code for ordering plated meals, and that code is given only to Virgin’s own passengers – and not to guests entering the lounge via American Express or Capital One credit card – creating two levels of service for passengers who are visiting. Is that acceptable? And is there a better way to handle the economics?
American Airlines Flight 77 from Washington Dulles to Los Angeles was one of four flights hijacked on September 11, 2001. The Boeing 757 was crashed into the Pentagon, killing 59 passengers and crew and 125 in the building as well.
About half an hour into the flight five hijackers stormed the cockpit, sent passengers and crew to the rear of the aircraft, and took control of the aircraft. Impact was at 9:37 a.m. Eastern time. But two of the hijackers almost didn’t make the flight,.
American Airlines is launching service between Austin and Washington Dulles in August. This flight is absolutely ideal for me. I live in Austin and in the Before Times my most frequent destination was Washington DC – a minimum of once a month, and often twice.
But the flight times are terrible – scheduled to allow a single plan to operate the route, rather than being scheduled for the business travelers who would actually take the flight.
The Lufthansa business class lounge at Washington Dulles is now part of Priority Pass. That’s a great new option in the airport.
There are already other lounges on the B concourse that are part of the program, like the Turkish Airlines lounge, but in normal times that gets so crowded they cut off Priority Pass access. Another lounge should help equalize the traffic and make it possible to get into your preferred location.
Washington Dulles is a very bad airport. And the reasons why are simple. It’s far from the city but once you make it to the airport you’re still nowhere near the airport. There will eventually be a train to the airport but it – too – will stop before the actual airport.
The reasons Dulles is so bad are legion, but it’s not limited to corruption. Sure contracts go to friends, the Office of Audit doesn’t do formal audits and jobs go to unqualified friends and relatives. But the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority oversees both Washington Dulles and National airports, and National is so much better. The real reasons are much worse.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
