how crazy are things at DCA?

[Anonymous]

Husband wants to get there 3 h ahead of our flight-- going oversees but connecting through Philly. Seems like an overkill but maybe it's really crazy now? Leaving Friday, if this makes a difference

[Anonymous]

To me, 3 hours seems like way too much for a flight to Philly. Are you flying out the weekend before 4th of July or something? Do you have TSA pre? Ive never had it take me longer than 20 mins to get from the curb to my gate.

[Anonymous]

https://www.ifly.com/ronald-reagan-washington-national-airport/wait-times

[Anonymous]

We got to the airport (DCA) two hours early for a 6:30 AM flight connecting through the US to overseas and missed the flight! There is a one hour baggage cut off rule. We could make the flight but our bags wouldn’t. The lines were excruciatingly long at American! They are not very good at line control when it comes to making sure people with close cut off flights are put to the front of the line.

[Anonymous]

^ and Federal rules do not allow you to fly without your bags ( we were hoping our bags could go on a later flight but they said no)

[Anonymous]

I've flown out of DCA in each of the last 3 weeks and it's been fine, although I haven't checked luggage and I have TSA Pre. The precheck lines were less than 5 minutes. If you plan to park, reserve parking. I got lucky this week even though I forgot to reserve, not so lucky the week before.

Most of the baggage check is now self serve, but depends on the airline.

[Anonymous]

If you plan to drive, really monitor the parking situation. When we flew out of DCA about a month ago, the website showed zero spots available. We ended up taking an Uber. I know they say reserved parking will be honored, but I don’t totally trust it, having driven around those garages in the past and seeing no spots for the reserved folks to take.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We got to the airport (DCA) two hours early for a 6:30 AM flight connecting through the US to overseas and missed the flight! There is a one hour baggage cut off rule. We could make the flight but our bags wouldn’t. The lines were excruciatingly long at American! They are not very good at line control when it comes to making sure people with close cut off flights are put to the front of the line.

Wait why did you miss the one hour bag cutoff time (I am not sure that's true, I think it's 45 minutes) if you arrived 2 hours in advance?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've flown out of DCA in each of the last 3 weeks and it's been fine, although I haven't checked luggage and I have TSA Pre. The precheck lines were less than 5 minutes. If you plan to park, reserve parking. I got lucky this week even though I forgot to reserve, not so lucky the week before.

Most of the baggage check is now self serve, but depends on the airline.

Agree with the above for domestic flights, but not international. The international lines are taking a long time because each country has different Covid requirements/documents that have to be checked manually by an agent. No self-service for baggage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got to the airport (DCA) two hours early for a 6:30 AM flight connecting through the US to overseas and missed the flight! There is a one hour baggage cut off rule. We could make the flight but our bags wouldn’t. The lines were excruciatingly long at American! They are not very good at line control when it comes to making sure people with close cut off flights are put to the front of the line.

Wait why did you miss the one hour bag cutoff time (I am not sure that's true, I think it's 45 minutes) if you arrived 2 hours in advance?

Because the lines were that long even at 4:30 AM! As said above, every country has a different Covid requirement right now.. Some require tests, some require pre-registration with the countries tourism office, etc. so the gate agent has to look up the requirements for your specific country you’re flying to and then manually check your documents. Some requirements were loosened on June 1 and all of the agents haven’t been updated with that information yet. So they’re having to call supervisors, etc. It’s been a shit show!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got to the airport (DCA) two hours early for a 6:30 AM flight connecting through the US to overseas and missed the flight! There is a one hour baggage cut off rule. We could make the flight but our bags wouldn’t. The lines were excruciatingly long at American! They are not very good at line control when it comes to making sure people with close cut off flights are put to the front of the line.

Wait why did you miss the one hour bag cutoff time (I am not sure that's true, I think it's 45 minutes) if you arrived 2 hours in advance?

Because the lines were that long even at 4:30 AM! As said above, every country has a different Covid requirement right now.. Some require tests, some require pre-registration with the countries tourism office, etc. so the gate agent has to look up the requirements for your specific country you’re flying to and then manually check your documents. Some requirements were loosened on June 1 and all of the agents haven’t been updated with that information yet. So they’re having to call supervisors, etc. It’s been a shit show!

Were you able to use Verifly to check-in online and upload documents that way? I think you can use that the for vast majority of requirements- upload vaccine card scans, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got to the airport (DCA) two hours early for a 6:30 AM flight connecting through the US to overseas and missed the flight! There is a one hour baggage cut off rule. We could make the flight but our bags wouldn’t. The lines were excruciatingly long at American! They are not very good at line control when it comes to making sure people with close cut off flights are put to the front of the line.

Wait why did you miss the one hour bag cutoff time (I am not sure that's true, I think it's 45 minutes) if you arrived 2 hours in advance?

Because the lines were that long even at 4:30 AM! As said above, every country has a different Covid requirement right now.. Some require tests, some require pre-registration with the countries tourism office, etc. so the gate agent has to look up the requirements for your specific country you’re flying to and then manually check your documents. Some requirements were loosened on June 1 and all of the agents haven’t been updated with that information yet. So they’re having to call supervisors, etc. It’s been a shit show!

Were you able to use Verifly to check-in online and upload documents that way? I think you can use that the for vast majority of requirements- upload vaccine card scans, etc.

On the way home yes, but the country we are flying to did not accept it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've flown out of DCA in each of the last 3 weeks and it's been fine, although I haven't checked luggage and I have TSA Pre. The precheck lines were less than 5 minutes. If you plan to park, reserve parking. I got lucky this week even though I forgot to reserve, not so lucky the week before.

Most of the baggage check is now self serve, but depends on the airline.

Agree with the above for domestic flights, but not international. The international lines are taking a long time because each country has different Covid requirements/documents that have to be checked manually by an agent. No self-service for baggage.

Do they do that at DCA or do they check in again in Philly? When I've done international connections via DCA (although pre covid) it was treated as a domestic flight. The only post covid international flight I've done from DCA was to Canada and the screening was all done in advance on ArriveCan and uploaded to my record, so it didn't require checking docs.

[Anonymous]

We just flew over Memorial Day weekend. The airport was no problem even without tsa pre and checking a bag. Our issue was that even though we reserved parking in advance, we had to find an open spot in the lot. That was stressful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've flown out of DCA in each of the last 3 weeks and it's been fine, although I haven't checked luggage and I have TSA Pre. The precheck lines were less than 5 minutes. If you plan to park, reserve parking. I got lucky this week even though I forgot to reserve, not so lucky the week before.

Most of the baggage check is now self serve, but depends on the airline.

Agree with the above for domestic flights, but not international. The international lines are taking a long time because each country has different Covid requirements/documents that have to be checked manually by an agent. No self-service for baggage.

Do they do that at DCA or do they check in again in Philly? When I've done international connections via DCA (although pre covid) it was treated as a domestic flight. The only post covid international flight I've done from DCA was to Canada and the screening was all done in advance on ArriveCan and uploaded to my record, so it didn't require checking docs.

You generally can't get a boarding pass for either leg of a flight like this unless you meet all requirements for the entire trip.