Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport – Terminal A

Small airport, limited food options BUT… it makes for easy drop off and pickup and it’s the closest airport to DC. My fiancé and I head to DC several times a year and this aiportant/​terminal is always a no-​brainer. Southwest flights from Dallas Lovefield to DC Reagan are super cheap here and getting in and out is easy peasy.

Washington National is the only airport I fly into in D.C. It totally violates every current FAA regulation because the runways are so short. Take offs and landings are bracing when your plane practically skips across the waters of the Potomac. It’s every Congressman’s favorite airport though, so it’s not closing anytime soon, Dulles or no Dulles. It’s small. The «terminals» are actually three sections of one terminal, so no fooling around with a shuttle from one terminal to another. Five minute walk to baggage claim and ground transportation. It’s also served by two metro lines. I only have to go one station (!!) on the yellow line to get to my brother’s apartment. No Starbucks or food court, but who cares? One stop away in any direction and you’re surrounded by coffee shops, wine bars and restaurants. It’s a cool old lady of an airport, one with a scandalous past and a lot of stories to tell. Forever five stars.

A pretty bland, but doable terminal in otherwise beautiful airport.
There are not many food options: one is a bar in the center and the other is the Cibo express which has expensive sandwiches, chips, fruit and other snacks.
One plus– there are plenty of charging areas for your phone at no charge.
Another plus is the ability to sit on the ledge in front of one of their huge windows to watch planes take off (hopefully not yours).
The terminal is small so it can be an issue finding seating.
There is a Dunkin Donuts coming soon so that’s a redeeming quality.
My recommendation is to eat before you get here and pray your flight isn’t delayed because if it is, you’re kind of sol.

Terminal A… Cold War-​era fallout shelter Terminal A. The «old» airport, as many know it, is still terribly dated. Narrow and dark… it would make a good set for a claustrophobic horror movie.
I almost always fly in and out of this terminal. I’m cheap, so I guess I deserve it. The old airport was supposed to be upgraded with a renovation a while back, but all that meant was installing cheap siding over the beautiful shell walls that I detailed in my past review for National, making the corridor even more narrow and even more uninteresting. There is so little space, in fact, that the snacks and drinks are displayed like artwork from floor to ceiling along the side walls and the only restaurant (Page) is dead center in the middle of the gates. Perhaps I have to give them credit for thinking creatively when it comes to saving space.
If you’re stuck here waiting for a flight, pull out your credit card and snag a seat at Page. It’s unfortunate that you have to pay to charge your phone, but that’s the way it goes in good ol’ Terminal A. If you don’t do that, good luck finding an outlet or a seat. If you’re arriving from a flight, make sure your ride is on its way, because there is literally nowhere to wait for them. It’s not uncommon to see dozens of travelers sitting on the air conditioning units directly inside the doors of the airport looking forlorn.
On the bright side, it only takes a minute to get to the baggage area (aka the terminal entrance), the wait for luggage is usually quick, and the bathrooms are clean and line moves quickly. I can deal with it.

Terminal A is the oldest and smallest of DCA’s three terminals, and it shows. Meh food options (even when compared to the other terminal), lots of non-​working power outlets (a particular gripe for gadget-​obsessed DC-​ites) and lots of people. On this last point, unfortunately, it’s also the terminal that Southwest flies out of at DCA. Translation: Almost always uncomfortably crowded, because SWA turns around its gates so quickly and attracts fewer seasoned business travelers than other airlines at DCA.
If there’s one good thing to say about Terminal A, it’s that the security lines tend to move faster than Terminal B or C, especially since they finished the security area renovations. So if you tend to run late for flights, Terminal A’s security line could save you a missed flight.

A pretty boring airport to be honest. If it wasn’t for the tabletop iPads, I wouldn’t have known what to do with my time before my flight. Biggest problem? If you are in a rush and want to grab a quick bite or drink before you depart, the iPad bar is not the way to go. I’d recommend finding a bar that serves the traditional way instead of using an iPad.

Having the opportunity to regularly travel across and occasionally outside the country, and not a professional airport reviewer by any means, and not a regular business traveler — but as a primarily pleasure and needs traveler, I have developed as what I believe is a concise a method for measuring the worthiness of each airport visited. My criteria are: 1) ease of access to and from public or private ground transportation [Score:5.0]; 2) convenient parking when having to leave vehicle or dropping off [Score:5.0]; 3) access and convenience of retrieving and dropping off rental vehicles [Score:3.5]; 4) atmosphere, ambience, public facilities, seating areas and access to communications, charging and Wi-​Fi [Score:4.0]; 5) overall human customer service — including but not limited to ticket counter, TSA, Hospitality, Retail, Support Services, Restaurant and Baggage Handler knowledge, communication, attitude and demeanor [Score:3.0]; 6) ease of flight information access throughout facility via signage, boards, screens or clear understandable PA system announcements [Score:3.0]; 7) distance, maneuverability, access and convenience of trekking from gate to gate and/​or concourse to concourse for connecting flights [Score:4.0]; 8) quantity, value, convenience, quality and comfort of eateries and/​or retailers; and last, but not least [Score:2.5]; 9) baggage handling, claims and retrieval location, process and lost and found assistance [Score:4.5]. Taking all the aforementioned categories, I’ve devised a scale of 1 star to 5 stars with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best an airport can be! This airport rates a: 3.7. Most positive point (s) at this airport are: access to DC, closeness to Arlington and Alexandria and short walking distances within Airport. Most negative points here are: disposition and curtesy of staff, constant reparations taking place throughout terminals, few and far between clean restrooms.

Very impressed with the ease and simplicity of this airport. I would’ve thought in a huge, international city that the airport would be a crazy mess. It was completely opposite. When you are dropped off at the departure gate for Southwest, you are literally just steps from TSA screening, which was quick and not scary. Then just down a short hallway are all the gates for this terminal situated in a circle around a bar/​restaurant. The terminal provides multiple spots for charging electrical devices, there were several large, clean, well stocked restrooms located in convenient places and the seats were roomy and spread out. As someone who doesn’t fly frequently, I was pleased with this whole experience.

I don’t travel out of Terminal A often, but when I do it’s out of A. This is because most of the smaller airlines fly out of here (Southwest, Frontier, etc.).
Pros: Small terminal so security process is generally short and painless. Baggage claim and check in counters all in one area.
Cons: Limited food options, and not many places to sit and/​or get work done.

I’m gonna be short and sweet here.
Wifi: Free with so little strength my phone can hardly pick it up
Food: underwhelming selection, luke warm beverages, seemingly just on the verge of expiration pre-​made sandwiches, and of course doubled in price because you just don’t have any other options.
Terminal: Crowded and loud. I’m by no means a traveling expert however I fly a few times a year. I’ve been to a decent amount of airports in the good olé’ U S of A and it’s just not a great one. Dulles Airport just feels more clean, well thought out, and inviting.

It is an Airport terminal, that is outdated, with terrible offerings in the food and drink department. At the same time, I could honestly care less if they had amazing offerings as I just want to get to my destination. Airports are full of «single-​serving» things and this terminal is no different.

It’s small and easy to navigate, but has basically nothing. As long as you don’t arrive too early it should be fine. Security is super quick for the last flight out on a weekday night. There are charging stations, which is nice and is definitely not the norm. You’ll see signs for a walkway between this terminal and the metro. Don’t be fooled! You’ll be dragging your stuff around for 20 minutes. Hop the shuttle instead, which goes door to door. The security are nice enough. Bags were out quickly upon arrival. And of course you’ve gotta cut this terminal some slack because it allows you to fly southwest in and out of DCA.

Terminal A is one of the worst parts of flying out of the conveniently located Reagan National Airport. The terminal is incredibly outdated and very small with limited dining and seating options. I was happy to learn that JetBlue now flies out of Terminal B. Sadly, Southwest still flies out of Terminal A. The Terminal is a long way from the Reagan Airport Metro station. I highly recommend taking the elevator down a level and walking outside to the bus shelter so you can take the free shuttle bus provided by the airport to the terminal, which will drop you off right in front so you don’t have to drag your suitcase all the way to the terminal from the Metro station which you will soon realize when you are lugging your suitcase behind you and are still not there yet. This also happens to be a terminal that includes bird’s nest behind the numbers for the gates because who doesn’t love having birds inside the airport?!

This airport was supposed to be torn down at the end of WW2. It has been saved several times by Congress, who is too lazy to drive the extra 20 miles or so to Dulles. This terminal doesn’t have enough seating and have very few food choices. Whomever runs the food service ought to lose their job. In the two hours we were there, frequently the cashiers just disappeared, and people would select food items and just walk away. Despite typically outrageous airport prices; they can’t be making any money. Also, any announcement from one gate will drown out other gates. It was also a treat trying to decipher announcements from our gate, as the agency has such a strong Caribbean accent it was impossible to understand what she was saying; but that’s on Frontier, not the airport.
In addition, the runway is probably the shortest commercial runway in the US. Remember that next time you have to take off in a blizzard.

Sorry but this has to be one of the worse terminals on the world. The security is always hit or miss, the décor is dated, and there are limited food options. Part of me believes this is because the terminal is small and home to the more disconnected airlines such as Southwest, Aorta, and Spirit.

Come on, I feel like I’m in 1980s waiting for my flight to Fort Lauderdale. Not enough seats while waiting. Not enough charger areas, counters etc. I like the circular shape of the terminal but that’s about it.
There are some food options but if your a picky food eater, Good luck! They have a CIBO express which sells deli stuff, drinks, magazines etc but it is overpriced. Eat food before coming but seeing other people eat that mediocre food makes me want to try it as well.
At the end of the day it is a terminal and you don’t have to stay here more than a few hours but more charging stations won’t hurt.~

This is the smaller/​older terminal of Reagan airport. They’re undergoing renovations that are making it look nicer, but it’s still tiny and has fewer shopping options than the bigger terminal.
The downside if you’re coming to the airport by metro is that the metro stops at terminals B and C, so you have to walk or take a shuttle to get to terminal A from the metro stop.

Free wifi, great bartender, good food, and spots to sit and put your feet up.
A lot of people say this terminal sucks, but it’s not bad. It’s small and not like the other side I hear of this airport which is HUGE but the check-​in lines are fast and the AC is pumping cold air which I love.
You walk down a corridor after checking your bags and boom you have some snack spots, a juice bar, an alcohol bar, and a cologne and perfume. I’m allergic to gluten so I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to find anything to eat but I ordered a sandwich with no bread and it was PILED on, see pics, it was so good with some homemade sauce they make. A crown and coke sandwich, pickles, chips so legit.
Also when waiting for your flight they have chairs that you can sit on and put your feet up and watch planes take off which I’ve never seen in an airport and to me was awesome. Again– FREE WIFI.

Echoing everyone else’s review. When will the airport authority do something about this? If you’ve only arrived at this terminal via shuttle or otherwise been dropped at the front door, know this: It gets worse.
Traveling out of Terminal A when arriving by Metro is a pure nightmare. The walk to the terminal is super long and really difficult while rolling a heavy suitcase and carrying a super heavy shoulder bag. If they let you check your bags before walking way back there, that would be a start. Beyond that, really crappy food selections, and really gross bathrooms.
The terminal isn’t usually packed when I fly out at 6 am, but now that I’m flying out 12 hours later, I see just how bad it can be. Too many hungry people, not enough food. Too many people needing to potty, not enough toilets. Too many people wanting to enjoy their day, not enough hospitality in this Terminal’s entire body.

Is there a worse terminal in any major airport in the US? Built in 1941 and expanded in 1955, you can almost see the DC-​3s taxi’ing up to the terminal.
Terminal A is old, ratty, and just plain miserable. If you’re flying Southwest, Jet Blue, Frontier or AIr Canada, plan to get here early. The narrow space for the security check just doesn’t have enough space for more staff. It’s slow and it’s aggravating.