Originally Posted by MiLa

I'm also a newb and commuted to the DCA base for a little over a month before being activated in ORD. For where I live ORD is a significantly easier commute so a no-brainer for me. Out in DCA it isn't too bad getting between DCA and IAD. I usually had a hard time getting to IAD because it was all RJs so went to DCA a lot. You can take the metro and there are a couple of different bus options. Look at the 5A bus the leaves either from Rosslyn or L'Enfant Plaza. The other option is switching from blue line to silver and taking the silver line all the way out to the last stop. From there you can get on the Silver Line Express bus to IAD. They have all the info online. I used both options depending on the timing of trains and buses. If you got to the station at the right times the 5A bus is faster, but sometimes only runs once per hour. The timetables are available online. The Silver Line Express runs every 15-20 min, but there are a lot of stops on the metro on the way out to the last stop. Also make sure to check the time tables because the metro and buses aren't 24 hours so early mornings and late nights may not be available, especially on weekends... I only once had to go to BWI because my commuter flight diverted there. As previously mentioned I was able to get a one way car rental for $25 using a United discount code found on Flying Together... All that being said there may be another reason to pick ORD over DCA with equal commutes. From my experience (which I admit is limited being that I was only there for a month, and also during a typically slow time of year), there was very little open time in DCA on the 737. This meant that there was very little opportunity to aggressive pickup. As a commuter, I think it's good to aggressive pickup because if you're not flying, you leave yourself open to short calls and field stby. I ended up with a combination of 6 shortfalls/field stby's in the last 2 weeks that I was there. It seems to me that other bases have a lot more open time. In my short time in ORD I have been either used for flying and even was used for a trip on a VDO day and got some add pay. It seems like there has been a lot more open time available here.... Anyway sorry for the long winded response. This was just my experience and it may vary for others.