Does the flight depart at 630 or begin boarding at 630? If its the later metro is probably ok, but if your boarding starts at 6:00 then probably need to take an Uber.

Yea that’s not a risk I’d take. Take an Uber unfortunately.

The Curb app calls a cab, similar to Uber but in my experience a lot less expensive.

If you have TSA pre-check and Clear you should be fine. I fly out of DCA frequently and can get from curb to gate in 30 minutes on most mornings.

Yeah unfortunately it departs at 6:30, so you’re right I should probably just take the uber

Alright :(

Ooh ok thank you I’ll look into it

Yeah I don’t have either so I’ll probably just have to get a car to the airport. Thank you

Yeah 16 minutes from Metro arrival to boarding is maybe a bit too close. You're relying on Metro to be very on time at that point. But it'd be interesting to see how long it actually takes you. My experience with the early TSA line at DCA is smooth even in the non-precheck line, and none of the gates are a long walk.

Edit: and especially since your plane isn't coming from somewhere else, there's no turnaround time for the plane to be cleaned and refueled. It's a high likelihood of leaving on time or even earlier.

Depending on how far you have to go you and if you are traveling light you can take a capital bikeshare bike there... even early morning. its an amazing ride pre-dawn.

Not on a Thurs or Fri morning. That's prime families flying to Orlando time. (Learned that the hard way at BWI once.)

You can take a bus there. Buses run before the trains to National. I took one from Bethesda to National once. I think at about 5 AM. It does take quite a bit longer than the train as I recall.

Schedule a cab through DC Yellow Cab. DC yellow cab has picked me up at 5 AM before and probably will be cheaper than Uber. Uber will rake you because you’re going to the airport.

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I have PreCheck and Clear. As such, I've regularly gotten to DCA 30 minutes before departure and been fine.

Last week, I had a 4 PM departure. I thought this would be a bit before the rush. Nope. PreCheck was winding around the rope line because DCA TSA is badly understaffed. (I don't know if TSA is trying to make a point to Congress, but I'd have thought they'd want their DCA operation to impress lawmakers.)

Anyway, TSA took 15 minutes, at which point I got to the gate with eleven minutes before departure—four minutes after the door closed. I begged and they let me on, only for the captain to complain to the gate agent for reopening the aircraft door to let me on (I was surprised too).

Now, I'm getting to DCA 50-60 minutes early like a normal human. At least until TSA staffs up.

I had a flight last Friday @ 7:30am. It was pretty crowded - long lines everywhere. I left early and took an Uber but there was an accident so it took 50 min to get there instead of 15. The line at curbside was long and slow - by the time it was my turn, they said I was 3 min past cutoff and wasn’t allowed to check in my luggage.

Take Uber. But check for traffic beforehand to avoid this mishap I experienced.

Probably better safe than sorry, good luck!

Wow ok thanks for sharing

I see thanks

Not understanding why this was downvoted. There's a Capital Bikeshare dock right at DCA. If OP lives within a reasonable distance -- and better yet snags one of the e-assist bikes -- this is a good option.

What terminal? Terminal A is crazy at that hour - need at least 30 mins to get through security line

I've had such bad luck getting to DCA from DC on several occasions in the early morning, like 4:30 or 5am.

A couple of times there were no Ubers or Lyfts available at all.

Then the one one time I tried Curb, it failed me miserably. They contacted me just before the scheduled pick-up to say they couldn't find an available cab to send. I got the impression talking to the Curb dispatcher that they're NYC based and call down to DC to get you a cab. Given that experience I decided not to use them again and schedule directly with a DC cab company.

I’m going out of terminal 2 concourse c, but I think I’m just gonna go with a cab/Uber considering all the stores on here

Yup, I ride in from downtown pre-dawn... way more fun than the metro, $2.50 vs a $25 dollar uber.

I think they discontinued the early AM buses (10N) to DCA. I think they stopped during the pandemic and then just never resumed it before eliminating it.

If you have TSA Precheck you should be okay. If not, I wouldn't chance it. The security lines are shorter since the remodel but if you end up in line for more than about 10 min you'll be cutting it really close.

Could you imagine if you got there and there were no spaces for bikes available? That’s one of the biggest reasons I don’t like using capital bike share.

Ha, right, that’d be a disaster.

I use it a lot and yeah that can happen, but you can mitigate the risk by checking for empty docks at your destination before you set out.

True. I’m guessing not a lot of other people are going to be dropping bikes that early at dca. The downtown ones, mid afternoon though, I’ve had so many times where there were plenty of spots open that were full by the time I got there.

I travel pretty frequently for work and it seems like it's always an early flight. My advice, sked a cab! They're cheaper, they don't cancel at the last minute, and you can use an app to track them, pay in advance, etc... I've used yellow cab - no complaints.

My last 6AM flight, I sked an Uber the night before, and at 5:15AM, Uber had an issue and it was a fucking mess to get to DCA on time.

That’s tight even with PreCheck.

Empower is another app alternative, cheaper than Lyft/Uber and drivers get 100% of the fare.

Do you live near any bus routes? It might take a little longer but generally the buses start earlier. My husband and I took the bus to Union Station for an early Amtrak once.