Anyone flown out of Laguardia recently on early am flight?

[cforza]

We have a 7:15 am flight on a Friday. I'm trying to figure out just how bad the lines will be, how long check-in should take and quite frankly how close I can cut it. Do I really have to get there 2 hours pre-flight? Doing that will mean waking my kids up at about 3:30 am, which will completely ruin the whole first day for everyone. We will only be in Disney for 3 days, so we can't afford to just rest the first day. Can anyone help?

 

[ncrams]

For these early morning flights, have booked a room for the family near the airport, and made the trip down the night before. it was a treat and made getting up early the next morning with the kids, less horrible.( 5AM was better than 3 with an hour's drive).

Ken

 

[Jen D]

Well, it may not be representative, because it was three days before Christmas, and the day after the Richard Reid shoe-bomb incident, but we had a 7am flight; we arrived at about 5 minutes until 5am, and the lines were positively horrendous. Never seen anything like it. Thw curbside was massive, with just two guys; inside all counters were open, but the line snaked all the way out of the main ticketing area, down the hall, around the corner, and way way down--- we made it on time, but only because they pulled people out of line as flight times got close.

Now, obviously, with Christmas travel, this is a worst-case scenario. But I tell you to let you know-- it's easy to feel that at that time of morning the airport will be a ghost town-- but it may not be.

 

[Ludwig Von Drake]

Ken -if I may ask, What hotels are near LGA? Thinking of booking early am flight, and this would certainly ease some of the am stress!

 

[disneyjunkie]

I just checked lodging.com, there's a Best Western that has a shuttle service to the airport.

 

[ncrams]

Courtyard - runs a shuttle, down the road from the airport
Marriot Hotel - runs a shuttle, across from the airport

others include Clarion, Wyndham...etc...
which are within a couple of blocks of the airport

use travelocity.com, expedia.com and you can find more...

possibly use hotwire.com or priceline.com to lock in a better one night rate...though which hotel is an unknown until booked and paid for...have not personally use either of these bid services.

 

[Roxie A]

I had a 7:00 am flight out of CLT last Mon. (bust travel day) tried to get to the airport 2 hours early but ended up being there 1 hour early and made the flight no problem. Flew out of LGA Tues at 4:00 pm no lines at all but when I got back to CLT at 6:00 the lines were horrendous.

If you get a hotel use Priceline - go to www.biddingfortravel.com !!!