What time to arrive at Dulles?
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Anonymous
| I have a 4pm flight to SF, Ca out of Dulles tomorrow. What time should I arrive? I haven't flown anywhere since 2020, so any travel tips are welcome. |
Anonymous
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Need some more details.
Checking bag? Any kids with you? Ages? PreCheck (assume not?? Do you need extra time to move through the airport? Slow walking, need assistance, etc? Which airline (probably doesn't matter but helpful) |
Anonymous
| I flew out of IAD last weekend, arrived at the parking garage (#2) at 7:20 for an 8:45 flight. Walked to security (carry-on only, TSA Pre) and was at my gate at 7:45. |
Anonymous
Checking one bag. No pre check United. Thanks! |
Anonymous
Personally I'd be okay with 75 minutes before departure time in that situation, but if you haven't flown in a long time you are understandably a bit more anxious about it, so I'd say 90.minutes. Security lines won't be that long because you will be getting there just before the big late afternoon/evening rush, which really gets going around 3:30 or so and lasts until around 7. Huge chunk of big international and west coast departures from 5-7 PM, so worst security lines are from around 3:30-6 PM most days. Early Monday mornings are also pretty bad as the consultant road warriors get going. |
Anonymous
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Arrive at 2pm if you want to avoid being stressed out about it. You're likely flying United so that's the C or D gates, meaning you need to take a train then walk "back" to the C/D terminal because the train station was built at the site of the future terminal not the current terminal.
Or I guess 2:15pm, assuming you're on United 315 which leaves at 4:10 not 4:00 on the dot. No hopes of an upgrade. Currently 64 people on the upgrade list, which is pretty common on IAD-SFO. 3 people on standby so the flight will be fairly full. If you haven't checked in already, do so now online and 34C seems the best seat currently available in economy. If you have a Capital One VentureX or Chase Sapphire Reserve card, both have their own lounges at IAD and they are decent. |
Anonymous
| Left today and was at my gate 30 minutes after walking in the door. I would plan to be in the concourse 1.5 hours early to have enough time to check your bag, get through security, and relax. |
Anonymous
are you driving and parking or getting dropped off? |
Anonymous
Driving and parking |
Anonymous
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If you have to park and get to the terminal, two and a half hours. 75% that’s overkill, but tomorrow could be that day (with holiday spillover) where you don’t get right through. I had an international flight last summer and with Precheck and online checkin with curbside drop off, we were at the gate about 25 minutes after being dropped off. Walked right through security and it was empty. But you might have to go to a couple of satellite parking lots, wait for a shuttle, wait for checkin and bag drop off, have a long line in regular security, have to wait for a train or worse a people mover, and then hoof it to the furthest gate. Don’t forget they close doors about 15 minutes before departure time.
I’d much rather be safe and bored. |
Anonymous
do you have reserved parking? |
Anonymous
I never knew this |
Anonymous
That's only for the C gates. If you are going to the D gates they still have the goofy huge buses. The new terminal that will be served by the fake C gates station is under construction, finally. |
Anonymous
No...I will look into that, thanks. |
Anonymous
Thanks. I agree! |