Arrive Early To Airport Or Just On Time?

When you travel to Vegas do you arrive at the airport extremely early because you are excited about traveling to Vegas or do you arrive just on time? We find ourselves arriving early to the airport when traveling to Vegas but just on time when traveling back home.....

 

Two hours ahead of flight departure time either way. I don't want or need any airport stress.

 

Always early.

 

About 90 minutes goin' either way works for me...

 

We arrive extra early at the airport going so my husband going to the SEMA Show can bug all the other men at the airport to see who loves cars as much as he does. This year, he did meet a really nice guy that actually hung out with him one day we were there. Thanks man, I had the best day that day away from cars so I could hang out with slot machines and Caesars buffet.

 

I'm a horrible flyer (panic attacks on the plane and such), so we get to the airport super early no matter where we're going so I'm not in a rush and in a panic trying to get through customs and security to make the flight on time.

 

I hate to rush and/or being rushed. That and we're not frequent flyers and don't fly for work. We like to get there early, have plenty of time to get through security and get something to eat. There's free wifi (nexus tablets), you can watch planes and people watch. I've had to rush once and I didn't like it.

 

Early, but only by an hour. I like to have enough time to get through security and comfortably have enough time for a coffee and snack. Also, I hate lines and I like leg room. So I get the extra legroom on Jetblue and that gets you through the quicker security line.

 

I like the 2 hour early arrival suggestion. Most of the time it takes me 15 minutes to check my bag and go through security at our small regional airport in NH....but I have seen lines like you wouldn't believe sometimes for no reason known to me and running from security in my socks to board last with my A pass in a middle seat just thankful I didn't have to wait hours for the next flight.

I like to relax, watch people, have a meal or watch a movie, make a few phone calls or whatever.

Jimbo338

 

From Canada you need to be there three hours early. I enjoy shopping and looking at Duty Free, sometimes pick up some Swarovski or perfume as a "pre-souvenir" to the trip. Also, like having a cocktail or two before the flight. Because I only travel for pleasure, to me the airport is a wonderful place that is like Christmas - you get on an airplane and arrive somewhere wonderful and magical.

 

I'm in Chicago. I don't have a choice but to arrive early at those behemoths. But even if I weren't, there is usually some reading or snacks that I need to overpay for at the gift shops so I would still be on the early side.

 

We always plan on being 2+ hours early at Chicago Midway, since we take two commuter trains to arrive there ... don't like surprises if they are running late. And then, you never know how backed up the TSA lines will be. Normally, everything goes smoothly, and we have plenty of time to relax and have breakfast at Midway, while we wait for our call to line up for boarding.

 

Ditto on this. I fly out of Minneapolis/St. Paul and the lines to get through security at Terminal 1 can be very long. Once you get through security it's a breeze but I get there 2 hours early to make sure I have enough time.

 

I show up 90min -2 hours before and im always done checking bag + security in 20 minutes or less and have way too much time to wait

Pretty scared for tomorrow as i only have 55 minutes between connecting flights and will have to clear customs as well. It will be tight if we leave a few minutes late

 

Headed there I get to my airport about 30-45 min early. It's nice that its such a small airport, and my grandparents always take me who live 3 minutes away from it. Makes it very easy and stress free.

Headed back home I always get there 1.5 hours early, I don't know McCarren well enough yet to take any chances.

 

Anyone on the board fly AA out of DFW and have recommendations for how early to arrive to fly out to Vegas?

 

Agreed.

However, I always get a dose of stress handed to me, right when they start boarding when I hear: I better go pee.

 

Generally 2+ hours early. Sometimes even earlier for Vegas because then I can have a few beers in the airport and read a paper or something.


I do not want to...
- Rush to my gate
- Be nervous going through security if I'm going to make it because some moron has 5 bins to put stuff in
- Be worried that I hit some bad traffic on the way to the airport


Flying first class would remove one of those for me as the security line wouldn't be an issue.

 

My next trip I have a 6:10 a.m. departure out of CAK on Frontier. Anyone who has been to CAK in the past at 5:00 a.m. in the morning...there used to be not much going on. Now that they have increased the passenger traffic at CAK, I will have to show up 1 hours before my flight in the past I could do 30 minutes.

The increased business is good for CAK so I don't mind, now they have 7 flights: USAir (two Regional Jets), Frontier (A320), Southwest (737) and AirTran (two 717's, & 737) flights all leaving between 5:22 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. in the morning, quite a bit of traffic for this small airport. But yet I never seem to have to wait more than 10 minutes to get through security....they do it right at CAK.

 

Do not plan on getting to McCarren any less than 45 minutes before you fly, they will not even let you check in at 44 minutes. Believe me, I've been bit by it before where multiple issues getting the Rental car back to the garage put us tight on time; getting to the counter at just about 42 minutes before my flight. Being the last flight on that airline that night, they had shut down the counter already.

They have (or I was at least told McCarren wide has) a hard 45 minute rule for check-ins. I would not suggest playing with that rule.