What time should I arrive at the airport?
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Anonymous
| Leaving from IAD on an international flight on a Friday night in July (9pm flight). Airline is foreign so we can’t use TSA-Pre. It’s been a while since we’ve been on an international flight so we’re just trying to plan accordingly. |
Anonymous
| Ugh, didn’t mean for this to appear twice! |
Anonymous
| The official guidance for Dulles says three hours for international. I think this summer is going to be a bit crazy for international travel though. It’s like three years of pent-up demand. In your shoes (which I will be in June!), I’d get there four hours early, so 5pm or so, and just plan of having a nice dinner at the airport before you fly. |
Anonymous
| Are you sure about not being able to use TSA pre check? I flew with a foreign airline (Emirates) and was able to, but this was a few years ago. |
Anonymous
Pretty sure OP is flying Aer Lingus. They do not participate in Precheck (annoyingly for an airline with a lot of service to US airports). https://www.tsa.gov/precheck/participating-airlines 9 PM is actually after the big rush of late afternoon/early evening flights leave- it's crazy busy from 5-7 PM with a ton of big planes to Europe and the west coast all leaving in that period. It's actually much better to arrive on the tail end of that- if not checking bags I'd get there at 7, if checking bags 6:30. This assumes you can check-in online and avoid having to get in any lines to get your passport checked,etc. If not probably add 20 minutes. |
Anonymous
| NP. Have a BA flight out of IAD on a Friday in two weeks, leaving at 6 PM. What time should I plan to be at the airport? I let my TSA precheck expire due to COVID and unfortunately never got it renewed. Surely arriving at 4 is enough? |
Anonymous
Normally I would say that's more than enough, but that's the busiest time of day for the security checkpoints. They also start boarding a full hour before departure time because of the size of the plane. I'd give it an extra half hour. |
Anonymous
| Why risk it? You can always have a drink near your gate and relax before you board. |
Anonymous
So, not risking it, what time? We will be traveling with DC, so our ability to get a drink before the flight will be slightly stunted. |
Anonymous
This is helpful, thanks. |
Anonymous
To give you an idea, I looked it up on flightaware.com- you can search all departure or arrivals for an airport during a given timeframe. For this past Friday: 4-5 PM- 13 flights departing 5-6 PM- 74 flights departing 6-7 PM- 28 flights departing 7-8 PM- 8 flights departing 8-9 PM- 3 flights departing 9-10 PM- 5 flights departing 10-11 PM- 36 flights departing The 5-7 PM batch is the main United afternoon "bank" of flights departing, along with a bunch of flights to Europe, and the 10-11 PM bank is much smaller, but still sizable- those are mostly small regional planes which overnight at their arrival airports and then come back first thing in the morning. Definitely good to be in that lull between them if you can be. Definitely good to be |
Anonymous
It doesn't have to be a shot of tequila. It could be a cup of camomile tea. The point is, get to the airport, get through security, find your gate, and relax. So much better than being stressed because you didn't allow extra time for the unexpected. Cause the unexpected always happens. |
Anonymous
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Give yourself at least 12-14 hours
https://www.theonion.com/dad-suggests-arriving-at-airport-14-hours-early-1819573933 |
Anonymous
Yes, that is generally my MO. What I was asking for specifically is what TIME we should arrive based on expectations of what Dulles will be like in a Friday night in summer. |
Anonymous
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Frequent traveler here. For 4-6pm flights, I arrive 2.5-3 hours early. For 8pm+ flights, I arrive 2 hours early.
I could shorten these by 30-45 minutes, but that accounts for the unexpected and I just sit in the lounge and do work if I have extra time anyway. |