One of the hops in my American holiday is from Phoenix to Washington. A certain delightful airline has rescheduled that flight for 06:00. When should I arrive at the airport? I’ll be flying business class if it makes any difference. And what time does Phoenix airport open?
4Am.
I dont know if Airports “close” but some ticket counters are open at 4AM there.
https://www.alaskaair.com/content/airports/arizona/phoenix/sky-harbor-international.aspx
Are you checking luggage? Personally I’d arrive 90-120 minutes prior to take-off for a domestic flight. As far as when it opens… I’ve never known an airport to close. Some of the shops and lounges will be closed that early, but the airport is open.
As a point of reference, the Admiral Clubs for American Airlines open at 4:15am.
I believe the TSA recommends two hours before flight time for domestic flights. If you are a foreign national it’s probably a good idea to follow that recommendation. But the airport is unlikely to be crowded that early and you’ll probably be fine getting there just one hour early. It wasn’t a problem for me recently but I have the TSA pre-check now.
This article from The Onion suggests taking no chances.
Phoenix Sky Harbor is a major airport with several terminals and hundreds of daily flights (odds are you’re on Southwest or American). Probably a fair number of flights will be leaving between 6-7 am. So leaving yourself 2 hours is probably a good idea; you may only need one hour, but then you can get breakfast and read a newspaper pre-flight.
I will be the odd one out and say you’re totally fine arriving an hour before the flight. With business class seats, you will very likely have minimal waiting to check in/check bags. You can probably look to see if Phoenix has shorter lines for security for premium passengers (note this is NOT the same as PreCheck!). And for the first round of flights out of the airport, there’s no reason to expect long lines at security.
But when I say I would be fine arriving 1 hour before, that means one hour. Not “eh 45 minutes is close enough to an hour.”
ETA: and the TSA recommends “at least 90 minutes.” But they don’t live by the seat of their pants like I do.
I would have also said 1 hour, but at that time of day, airport staffing may be reduced, so fewer people taking off, but fewer check-in persons as a result. Be prudent, 2 hrs…
Have I mentioned that I’m a night owl and HATE getting up early? I’m probably going to end up sleeping on the flight.
That’s fine. I’m often asleep as soon as I get seated. I’ve slept through the seatbelt demonstration many times.
Just reading this makes me anxious.
Airport arrival is one of the only things you can control when you’re flying - I always get there at least two hours before. That way, things outside of my control start going wrong I can say, “well at least I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare.”
Plus, getting to the airport at 4:00am usually means you get your pick of the litter when it comes to seats that are near outlets, if you don’t happen to get one of those fancy terminals where all the seats are wired.
I am the same way. I am likely one of the few that relax when wheels up! When I get to the Airport i relax a little, then more when I clear security, then more when I get on the plane.
2 hours. A lot of business people fly at 6:00am. DFW most certainly is crowded at that hour.
Yeah, I have better things to do than sit around for an hour at a charger… like sleep. I just checked for today’s wait times at Phoenix, from 4-8am it was mostly under 10 minutes and all under 20 minutes.
Now, if the flight were at 10am or 4pm, I would say that security lines can be unpredictable and to arrive earlier. Or if you’re someone who has trouble walking, or has to load up on a bunch of crap (“I need a liter of water, organic soy nuts, a magazine, six candy bars, some new headphones, a quill pen, a scarf, a backup suitcase, a SIM card and change some dinars and euros before I get on my flight otherwise those two hours will be hell on me!!!”) then obviously more time may be needed.
I’ve voting 4-4:30AM as well. Several times in the last year, I’ve dropped people off at MSP, to catch early flights (6-7AM,) and been surprised by how long the security lines were at that time.
I hear ya - we’re all wired differently. My local airport isn’t much bigger than the one in Wings.
But… if I’m flying somewhere, I’m awake early anyway. Once I’m ready to go, there’s absolutely nothing I can do at the house that I can’t do at the airport. And if we’re taking about an early flight, every minute I wait at home translates into a little more driving, standing in line, etc., as the rest of the world wakes up and starts going about its business.
I’d much rather drive through empty streets, park in peace, and deal with employees who haven’t yet begun to get beat down by the day’s crowds.
So you have no idea they’ve changed the way you buckle them recently?
4 AM. I despise the security theatre masquerade but I’d rather be there in plenty of time rather than be sweating bullets because some TSA employee wants to be Employee of the Month and enjoys being a jerk for the sake of being a jerk.
I’m a bit more of a risk taker. For a flight out of Phoenix I’'d show up at 4:45-5am. If you aren’t familiar with the airport you’ll need more time.
Other airports I allow more time but I’ve never had much issue getting to the terminal there.
Phoenix is large, but you shouldn’t have that far to go to get to your gate. You’ll hit lines at 2 places: check in and security. For check in, since you’re flying business class, you should be able to use a short line. Whether you can take the priority line for security will depend on the airline. Some airlines will have a priority line through security and some won’t. If you can find out in advance, it will help you make your decision.
Remember that the airline will start boarding 30 minutes (or more) before departure time, so you’re actually shooting to arrive at the gate sooner than departure.
I’d recommend that you arrive 90 minutes to departure if you get priority access to check in (likely) and security (unknown).
120 minutes to departure if you don’t get priority through security.
120 minutes