Gate c at the airport

I understand that using gate c at the airport can cut your security line check-in time. Does anyone have any info on this?

 

I assume you mean Concourse C, but wouldn't you have to be going to one of the gates on that concourse? Once you are through security, I'm not sure you can go easily go anywhere else except perhaps D, but not sure that's even possible.

 

Is long wait times an issue?

I don't think I have ever had to wait more than 5 minutes to get through security at the airport, though granted we do generally tend to fly out later (usually a 5-7:30PM departure).

 

I'm wondering if you're talking about the one little C gate entrance at the old C/D gate area? Now that they've moved the C gates entrance to the other side, behind the Southwest sky-caps, yes, I do think it's faster to go over there if you're going to a C gate. Many of my return SWA flights are going out of the B gates now, so it's faster to just go through that area, though once you get behind security, you can easily go between the C and B gate areas.

 

I think maybe you were talking about this? If not, it may be of help anyway.

https://www.vegasmessageboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91230

 

It took me 7 hours once. Of course, that was Sept 2001 - only a day or two after planes started flying again.

The other 36 times I've flown out of McCarran, security has been a breeze.

 

Wow, so you were stranded there after the attacks? Was there any noticeable increase in security at the hotels? I know that in the year or so after Sept 11 that Vegas thought it was a high-risk target and I remember car searches entering parking garages, etc.

 

I actually misspoke (er, mis-typed). I left VA a day or two after the planes started flying - McCarran three or four days later. I remember I had a 1:30 flight and everyone was saying to get to the airport EARLY. So, I got there at 6 am, got to the ticket counter at about 7:30, and the gal immediately said "oh, you'll never make that flight; I'll put you on the 4:30". She was right, I wouldn't have made the 1:30.

About all I really remember about that trip was how dead everything was. We switched to Caesars after the attacks and it suddenly became about 1/3 of the price we had previously booked Aladdin for. I think there were five of us, and I don't think we ever had a problem finding a $5 or $10 BJ table with room for all of us pretty much anywhere on the strip.

 

Flew out of c gates yesterday, the SW ticketing area was packed, lines were huge.

As Smartone posted, if you head towards the d gates, there is a lone line for c gates. We were the only ones in line when we went though at 8:30am. Seeing how the Terminal was packed, I can only imagine the security line was also.

On another note, around gate C5, there is a great place for burritos, called blue burrito. Really hit the spot on the flight home. It must have been 3lbs.

 

Main terminal at McCarron in 5 mins? What am I doing wrong? My last trip I was only one in line in MSP, but LAS was a diff story.

 

Well, I was saying that we do generally fly home later in the day... so I am not sure how busy security is when its 11AM-4PM, as an example, but its otherwise just been a few people ahead of us in line when we go up there and they have enough stations open that after you get past the initial guy guarding the gate we end up in a line with only 2-3 people ahead of us.

Thats why I was asking if this is really an issue: I've just never seen a long security wait at the Las Vegas airport (I've seen some pretty big ones back home though)

 

There's 2 trams; one that goes from terminal 3 to the D gates and and second that connects the D gates with the C gates (terminal 1).

Are people saying that it's easier to go the to D gates via terminal 3 and then connect back to the C gates?

For what it's worth, my last flight in March was 7am out of the D gates and it took 5 minutes to get through security and another 5 minutes to get to the D concourse.

 

There are actually 3 trams. One from the terminal 3 back to the d gates, one from the main terminal to the d gates, then a tram from the main terminal to the c gates. The last is located, on the map you posted, to the left of the main/d gate tram. That's the security line that was non existent last week.

D gates tend to get slammed, imo, early am when all of the allegiant flights leave in the same hour.