Early Flight, When Should I Arrive?

[Kevenswife2]

My flight leaves MCO at 6:40 AM, Saturday Dec 4. I would have never chosen 6:40 in the morning, but I got the tics through Hotwire at a great price. Do you think 5:00 am is early enough? The flight's through Delta, our seats are already assigned so I only need to visit the self-serve kiosk to check in.
Rental car's through Budget, which is onsite, and return should go quickly.

I guess I'm concerned because I've always arrived over 2 hours early, and it's a Saturday, but who wants to be at the airport at 4:30 AM for their trip home?

 

[helenk]

5:00 am should be fine, the other year we had a 7:00am flight and we got there an hour and a half before and had plenty of time. We even had time to stop and get something to eat.

 

[Kevenswife2]

Is MCO very busy that early? Will there be a line to get through security?

 

[CarolMN]

I doubt it will be very busy that early in the morning. The best thing to do is to check your airline's website and see what they recommend for MCO. Note what time the ticket counters, security checkpoint and curbside check in services open - no sense arriving before that time.

Since you said you got Delta (congrats on getting a good price), here is the link you need. Just enter MCO for the airport code and then click on the "GO" button.

http://www.delta.com/cwswaittime/travel/wait_time/index.jsp

Best wishes -

P.S. Since the security checkpoint for MCO doesn't open until 5 am (according to Delta), no way would I arrive before then. have fun!

 

[Kevenswife2]

Thanks, that's just what I needed to see. I'll tell DH there's no point in being early if the security checkpoint doesn't even open until 5 AM....and honey, I saw that in print on Delta's website!

Gee...now we can sleep in 'til, let's see...3:30 AM! And that's after closing down one of the parks the night before. Boy is DH going to be grouchy! GRRRR

 

[rsschneck]

We had a 6:00 am flight through Tampa a couple of weeks ago. The tickets were through Delta, but there were many flights leaving about the same time.

Anyway, the ticket counters to check in started @ 4:00 am. We were one of the first to check in our bags and then we went through security. The security line area did not open until 4:30am. So, we were lined up to start going through security. Starbucks opened at 5:00 am and there was a line for that as well. Plane started boarding call by 5:30 am.

I would say if you gave yourself 1 1/2 to 2 hours that should be plenty of time. There are a lot less people traveling at that time. Seems folks move a little slower though! Including myself!