If you’re far enough out, book the BWI ticket and wait for schedule change Saturday to bless you with the opportunity to move to IAD or DCA for free. I’ve moved from BWI to one of the other airports at no charge a few times.
I’ve only done this for domestic trips, but when I did - I was able to do it in the app. At one point when I could change an international flight this way, it appeared possible - but I didn’t want to change what I had. I’ll always just plug in “WAS” as the airport code when I search to get all three airports at once.
Pricing is mostly about demand between two city pairs compared to the number of flights offered. Delta will charge what they think they people will reasonably pay for any given city pair. It's not necessarily about what *you* would pay, but what people leaving that airport in general will pay. It's a fairly complicated algorithm so that's an over simplification but gets to the gist of it.
DCA and IAD are likely more expensive because more people want to fly from those airports than BWI or Norfolk (compared to the number of seats for sale), and there are people willing to pay more to do so.
No they aren’t. That’s not how fares work. Very explicitly not how they work.
What’s probably happening is delta thinks they can sell those tickets to government Y fares and beltway high rollers spending OPM.
Or if we actually go look at filed fares, someone has a low fare to Okinawa from BWI.
I was booking for my April 2025 trip to Tokyo a few months back and my home airport is RIC. They wanted almost $1k more to fly out of RIC for premium economy than DCA. I booked DCA. I got an alert today from google flights that the price for the same flight I booked for $2700 premium economy had spiked to over 7k overnight and went WTF...
I previously had this issue when living in the DC area and found that Delta flights from Richmond were a better price, as well as the parking prices. Might be worth looking into.
We are sitting in Marbella Spain and flying home to Atlanta on Saturday on Iberia. Found out wife’s dad is gravely ill and prob wont make it til Saturday. Prices direct flight home for her on Thursday and Delta.com cheapest fare is $4000 one way. Same flight same Delta plane booking on Virgin Airways 860 euros. Bought ticket on VA sight and Delta u should be ashamed!!!!
Any reason you’re set on sky team allegiance out of those 2 airports? Might have better pricing/route availability with one world on JAL metal out of DCA or star alliance on ANA/United/AC out of IAD.
If you’re far enough out, book the BWI ticket and wait for schedule change Saturday to bless you with the opportunity to move to IAD or DCA for free. I’ve moved from BWI to one of the other airports at no charge a few times.
When you did this did you have to call? Or did you do it on the app?
I’ve only done this for domestic trips, but when I did - I was able to do it in the app. At one point when I could change an international flight this way, it appeared possible - but I didn’t want to change what I had. I’ll always just plug in “WAS” as the airport code when I search to get all three airports at once.
I see. Thank you for the info!
Pricing is mostly about demand between two city pairs compared to the number of flights offered. Delta will charge what they think they people will reasonably pay for any given city pair. It's not necessarily about what *you* would pay, but what people leaving that airport in general will pay. It's a fairly complicated algorithm so that's an over simplification but gets to the gist of it. DCA and IAD are likely more expensive because more people want to fly from those airports than BWI or Norfolk (compared to the number of seats for sale), and there are people willing to pay more to do so.
Going to copy/paste the top paragraph of this to the 100 questions per day about pricing. Thanks in advance
Thanks for the insight. This is really helpful information
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I don’t think they’re competing with SWA to Okinawa…..
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No they aren’t. That’s not how fares work. Very explicitly not how they work. What’s probably happening is delta thinks they can sell those tickets to government Y fares and beltway high rollers spending OPM. Or if we actually go look at filed fares, someone has a low fare to Okinawa from BWI.
Bwi isnt far but not as close as dulles and dca. Thanks for the information though!
I was booking for my April 2025 trip to Tokyo a few months back and my home airport is RIC. They wanted almost $1k more to fly out of RIC for premium economy than DCA. I booked DCA. I got an alert today from google flights that the price for the same flight I booked for $2700 premium economy had spiked to over 7k overnight and went WTF...
I previously had this issue when living in the DC area and found that Delta flights from Richmond were a better price, as well as the parking prices. Might be worth looking into.
I definitely will be, thank you!
We are sitting in Marbella Spain and flying home to Atlanta on Saturday on Iberia. Found out wife’s dad is gravely ill and prob wont make it til Saturday. Prices direct flight home for her on Thursday and Delta.com cheapest fare is $4000 one way. Same flight same Delta plane booking on Virgin Airways 860 euros. Bought ticket on VA sight and Delta u should be ashamed!!!!
Any reason you’re set on sky team allegiance out of those 2 airports? Might have better pricing/route availability with one world on JAL metal out of DCA or star alliance on ANA/United/AC out of IAD.
Honestly I’m just so used to doing one route with one airline so I haven’t even thought about others. But I’ll definitely look into it now!