Review of United flight from Washington to Roanoke in Economy

Normally I wouldn't review this flight, but seeing as no one had reviewed the new Capital One Lounge at IAD yet, I figure I'd write up this quick review so people can take a look at this lounge. Since then, Chase has taken over the old Etihad Lounge so I'll try to review that next time I'm flying out of IAD.

I had an Amtrak trip blow up on me early in the day (luckily it was early enough for me to recognize it would be futile to wait for it).  In order to make the trip happen, I was lucky enough to spend miles for a last-minute economy ticket to ROA.  Even the Uber to Dulles was double the price of the Amtrak ticket, but at least I got to where I needed to be earlier than before.  Had I stuck to Amtrak, I would have arrived in Roanoke at 1:36am instead of 6:15pm–sometimes the money saving is just not worth it.

When I got to Dulles mid-afternoon, there was surprisingly a short line for CLEAR; a bit surprised to see this on a random Thursday afternoon.

capital one lounge (IAD)

This is the first review of the Capital One Lounge on Flight-Report.  For those of us who live in the area and have the muscle memory to go straight down the escalator after TSA Pre, resist that.  Instead, stay on the same level and go back to the lounge–it's not actually very well labeled.

The lounge was decently busy when I was there.  Check-in was very fast and friendly–they even offered to show me around the lounge if I wanted.

You can find lockers immediately to your right after entering.

To the left of check-in is a coffee bar with barista-made coffee and pastries.

There's a lovely collection of pastries, different tea options, and fresh fruit.

There are a variety of different seating areas.

Outside of the Polaris Lounge, this might be the best food spread at IAD.  The pictures mostly speak for themselves.

The Capital One Lounge at IAD partnered with Will Patton, who is the beverage director at Bresca and Jont in DC.  He's a fantastic bartender and I'm glad to see he's getting recognition outside of just the DC bar/fine dining scene.  There is a variety of complimentary beverages, but you can also upgrade for money.  There are even half bottles of Krug Grand Cuvee available.

Naturally, I had a Bee's Knees.

I also grabbed some food, which was hot and delicious.

I stayed in the lounge working for about 1.5 hours before leaving. On my way out, one of the staff handed me a chocolate to-go and mentioned I can scan the QR code on the back to fill out a survey. It seems like Capital One is really intent on making a great lounge experience.

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My ride to Roanoke was on N87302, a 9 years old ERJ-175LR.

Pre-boarding began at 4:48pm ET with passengers needing assistance. I was surprised by how many 1Ks were on this flight–maybe this is why they upgraded the plane: there are more business travelers on the route?

Given how late I booked (literally in the Uber on the way to the airport), I was the only 1K who was not upgraded to first. Instead, I got a nice picture of the economy cabin, which is arranged in a 2-2 layout.

This flight I would be in 10A.

For such a short flight, United Economy Plus is plenty fine for me and 10A is right over the view. We pushed back at 5:15pm, right on time.

We took off at 5:24pm, it's always less exciting taking off from IAD than DCA.

5 minutes after takeoff, the FA announced there was no time for a normal service, but to let them know if anyone needs anything. Then a few minutes afterwards one of the FAs came by with a cup of water for anyone who wanted it. This flight has always been inconsistent in terms of service, sometimes there's nothing, other times there is water, sometimes there is water + a snack.

Trash was collected a few minutes later. Here is us flying by the Maury River to the left. 

We began to turn around with Roanoke in the distance.

A nice clear day for flying:

We landed at ROA at 6:06 and reached our gate 7 minutes later.  There was a bit of a wait for the ground staff to get ready, but we still arrived before our scheduled 6:27pm ET arrival time.