How early do you arrive to McCarran for your flight back home?

@TiffyChick if I leave her alone in the Miracle Mile shops for 22 minutes -

 

Are you asking him to pitch a tent @ the airport?

I'm with most folks here - If a car is coming for me, I tend to have it arrive 2-3hrs before the flight leaves. I have access to The Club through one of my credit cards, so I can go relax in there. My gate is always at the exact opposite end of that terminal, so I get some nice exercise as well.

But during covid, I'm probably not going to sit in the lounge & will forego the free snacks/pop and stay in the nice open terminal instead.

 

My return flights are always between 5:00a - 6:00a, so I plan and get to LAS one hour before the flight. At that hour, there isn't much activity with lines and waiting.

 

Enough time that I can stop at Ethel M’s to get chocolates for a niece and nephew, as well as their uncle who has been sufficiently gambled out after a few days in LAS.

 

Depends on the airport. But I love airports. Especially the lounges.

Because Vegas has a centurion lounge I'll probably arrive a couple hours before the flight. In my home airport of Dallas Love Field. Living 6 blocks away, I've left after they started boarding and still made it before.

 

usually around 1.5 hours before takeoff...gives me time to order and wait for the lyft, drive time and hopefully no traffic, then bag check, TSA and walk to the gate, I usually only have 30-45 minutes before boarding. TSA always checks me for something so I factor time for that, lol...

if I get there extra early, I blaze right through everything and have a long wait, 1 hour before and the TSA lines a long and slow, never fails. but so far have never missed a flight, only cut 3 close, 1 going to vegas and 2 coming back

last trip with uber/lyft doing the premium rides and/or long wait times, my friend who owns Fuel Bar gave me a ride to the airport to bypass the lyft crap

 

Two hours always no matter what airport. I’d rather be early than late.

 

Lyft, taxi, or relative if she knows I'm in town. It always used to be from the car rental facility after returning my car.

 

I mean, I don't disagree... If I were the one working behind the counter. I must also point out, however, that *you* ECLV were the one hell-bent on getting us matching "Bestie" bracelets, so, I guess that makes you the girl at the counter.

 

THIS is true..... See you in June

 

For those that are surprised at my choice to stay at the airport the night before, I have to share that I have missed flights before and have had to stay overnight because I couldn't get on flights with standby. So, I would rather *know* ahead of time that I'm staying at the airport overnight -AND- have the comforts I require rather than sleeping in an uncomfortable chair with no privacy. A small pop-up tent doesn't take up much space but gives privacy and a dark color blocks out light so you actually can get some sleep. It's not that big of a deal. I'm actually surprised more people don't do it, especially if they have an early morning flight.

 

I feel you’d sleep better at Bally’s - comfy beds, Red Lobster 12 minutes away. See you in June!

 

I'm not "surprised", but I reserve the right to mock you.

I've spend more nights than I care to recount/remember at the airport. The only thing worse than missing a flight, is being stressed about whether you'd make it on time.

 

Mock away! And please meet us for drinks in June!

 

I was curious after reading this thread, so found this link:

https://www.sleepinginairports.net/sleep-guide/sleeping-in-las-vegas-airport.htm

I seem to remember someone posted a trip report years ago which included him mentioning that he slept in the airport and it generated a bunch of comments. IIRC, it might have involved the opposite of TiffyChick's situation, as the gentleman arrived late at night and would sleep at McCarran after his inbound flight arrived!

 

Try sleeping on the floor at the Denver airport because Untied {f-bomb}ed up and blamed it on the weather!

Lesson learned: NEVER fly a connection through Denver on Untied if there is any significant weather in the area.

 

I'm one of those people that get there real early, maybe 3 hours. It's either get there early or just worry about getting there. Luckily, they have a real nice AmEx lounge that I can hang out in, but even it there wasn't the lounge I'll be there very early.

 

I always try to get the first nonstop back to Houston when I leave. I will generally leave the hotel at least two hours before my flight. I don't usually sleep well the night before a flight, so I'm up very early anyway.

 

We usually leave hotel 2 hours before flight. I'm too old to enjoy the stress of walking right on to the plane. We like arriving in time to have a quick bite. Always seem to get there minutes after they cut off breakfast service...I digress. Last year, the president at the time was in town and leaving about the same time as we were. They had traffic stopped coming into the airport. It was like Armageddon. People were fleeing their cabs and ubers and walking with their luggage in tow, some clear from Tropicana. Quite a sight. Those cutting it close were panicked, some literally running with their bags...only to find that all the flights were delayed for the same reason.

 

I try to arrive 1 hour before the boarding time. I usually end up waiting at the gate for a good 30 minutes which is tolerable.