i fly out of Mitchell Field in Milwaukee or O'Hare out of Chicago for the evening flights.
i either return on mondays or tuesdays and have found mondays at MCO to have more crowds than tuesdays for the time i am there.
i usually have my car service pick me up from the loews hotels around 6:15-30 for the 8:45 flights.
i use United or American and both require a 60 minute prior luggage check in for going to O'Hare from MCO.
traffic is not bad and about a 20 minute drive unless there is an accident involved on the road.
if the traffic is average, you will be at MCO within 20 minutes.
from there you would be checking your luggage and paying any fees required depending on the airline.
it always varies how long the check in process takes me for the luggage. it has ranged from 10 minutes to 30 minutes thoughout the years i have been going.
security check points usually have a lot more TSA employees working in the day shift. last year i found less TSA working than usual. it was only a 25 minute process for me last year.
referring to what my schedule has been in the past, it has taken between 55 minutes for the lowest time involved to 1 hour and 15 minutes for me to get through.
what time i have left to wait for boarding, i pick up food at the food courts at the airport.
on the airlines i have used, boarding usually starts about 40 minutes prior to departure.
since you have to deal with a rental car, you need to give yourself more time than the 2 to 2.5 hours i go by.
if your car rental is located at the airport, it will be fast and no time lost.
if you have to return it off site and use a shuttle, that could eat up time.
i have used car rentals in past years.
returning at the airport doesn't cut into time at all.
i don't know what day of the week you are leaving but can tell you i once flew back on a friday and never again.
too much traffic........
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