<p>I’m taking a quick two day trip to DC from Boston to visit some friends after I drop S at college. I’ll be returning to Boston. The cheapest round trip fare I can find is $209 on American Airlines. Are there any low airfare carriers that operate this route that wouldn’t appear on the regular travel sites? I live in California so I don’t know all the airlines back East.</p>
<p>Independence Airlines flies from Boston to Dulles (in VA…greater DC area). I think their flights to DC are about $69 each way. They are NOT on the regular travel sites. Just google…Independence Airlines. The other one to try is Air Tran. They fly from Boston to Baltimore…about the same price round trip. Google… Air Tran for that one. DS’s roommate flew with them a LOT for very little money.</p>
<p>Thanks! Dulles is pretty far out and I’m not planning on renting a car, so I’d prefer to fly into DCA. I’ll check it out, though.</p>
<p>Try Air Tran…they fly into both Dulles and National. Good prices.</p>
<p>I agree with Independance Airlines being a good, inexpensive airline. I flew them earlier this year and had no problems. Check <a href=“http://www.flyi.com%5B/url%5D”>http://www.flyi.com</a> for more info. At the time, it was cheaper to get tickets through Orbitz than directly from the airline ($39 each way for Dulles to Logan).</p>
<p>Also, I’d never fly Air Tran. They’re just ValueJet with a different name…</p>
<p>I looked at the Dulles website and see there is a coach that goes to the orange line West Falls Church metrorail station for $14 round trip.</p>
<p>I think the trip from Dulles to downtown DC is another hour.</p>
<p>I don’t think the price difference (Independence vs. American) is worth it. Independence is $128 but then I have to get to the metro ($14) and hotel shlepping my bag. American is $209, and there is probably an airport shuttle from there to the hotel-- or at least the metro.</p>
<p>Marite, I did find my friend from France who was with us in Kinshasa-- she lives in Brookline, and that’s why I’m returning to Boston-- she doesn’t get back from vacation until Sept. 1.</p>
<p>Kinshasa:</p>
<p>Terrific! If you have time, PM me and we can get together.</p>
<p>
They have come a LONG way since their days as valuejet. We used to be dedicated Delta fliers. No more. Airtran has been wonderful. New planes with decent legroom, fresh air, not canned oxygen on the planes (don’t ask me the technology), good prices and its very easy to earn free flights. We’ve flown Airtran a LOT in the past several years. It has been a pleasure. Problems we experienced were with other carriers (Continental, Delta, AmericaWest). Not with AirTran.</p>
<p>Try Orbitz and then investigate the websites of the airlines listed to see if they’re running any specials.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I put in a vote of confidence for Air Tran as well.</p>
<p>Getting from DUlles into DC (or any of the VA or MD suburbs) is easy…my personal favorite method is SUper SHuttle…they’ll take you to the exact address you want to get to…most expensive ticket I’ve ever seen is $32 and most are half that…the big downtown hotels have free shuttles into town, too…</p>
<p>Of course DCA (Reagan Nat’l) is easier if you’re going into downtown DC…there’s a Metro stop right in the airport, and most of the downtown DC hotels are no more than 2-3 blocks from a Metro stop…and it’s easy to flag a cab in downtown DC, too…w/an “in zone” cab ride expense of $5-$6…</p>
<p>Kinshasha, check out airtran. They fly into Baltimore but it’s easy to take the train from their to DC. Some of their schedules are kind of screwy but I flew from Dayton to BWI for just $49 round trip this past summer. They do fly out of Boston.</p>
<p>BWI (Baltimore) to Providence is $29 each way on Southwest… good for purchase through Aug. 8</p>
<p>Try the bus if the flights don’t work- there is a bus that goes from Manhattan to Boston, costs around $20…we did the NYC t0 DC trip, took four hours and dropped us near Georgetown…</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.staticleap.com/chinatownbus/[/url]”>http://www.staticleap.com/chinatownbus/</a> … dc –> nyc –> boston.</p>
<p>it’ll run around $70, though, so that soutwest offer kathiep posted might be your best bet. :)</p>
<p>It’s not worth flying into Providence and spending another hour and a half either driving or going on Amtrak. Air time DC-Boston is about 1hr30mns. United seems to have round trips for $88-93 (going from Dulles, I believe).
The Chinatown bus would take 8+ hours. DC to NYC does not end at the same terminal as Boston to NYC.</p>