I am taking a 7 am flight from PBI and hope to cut things as close as possible. Not being familiar with the airport I am curious if the local brand of TSA is especially problematic and so forth.

Thanks in advance.

I've been through PBI about 3-4x since TSA took over, and both my parents use that airport a lot, and none of us has ever experienced a problem there.

The only thing that might cause a line is if your flight is one that a lot of vacationers would use to get home...eg: 7 am on a Monday vs. 7 am on a Wednesday.

This time of year, I am through there every other week, using the 6:50AM to DCA. Probably the best airport in the country for screening. Fast, efficient, and courteous. Makes for short lines. Take off shoes and any coat, and you should fly through if you have all else out of your pockets. They use Concourse C, along with CO, WN and NW. US flights board 30 minutes before takeoff. In my case, I arrive at the airport at about 6AM, and am down at the gate before the boarding begins. If I don't print my advance boarding pass, I can still use the Preferred check in position. If neither of those is an option, be about 55 minutes ahead of flight time, which is 25 minutes before boarding starts. You will be fine.

US operated out of the B concourse, not the C concourse at PBI.

I never did know a B from a C. I have lived in Palm Beach for 17 years going back to when we claimed luggage outside. At that time of the morning it's just a right turn in the terminal for me. Anyway, the airport remains a piece of cake for departures, compared to most.

It worked pretty smoothly. I arrived at the terminal a few minutes past 6 am. I was renting a car from National and their shuttle frequency is terrible compared to Avis. I took me 15+ min to get to the terminal.

There was quite a long line (20-30 pax) but it moved very fast. They only have 2 screening points on this concourse and SW pax go thru this security point as well. (It is the A+B concourse.)

I even had time for a mini-muffin and some yoghurt in the club. (I was a bit surprised to find a club there, actually.)Good idea because there was no hot breakfast on PBI-DCA. Is that a new cutback because I got it on MSY-DCA in January?

The only reason there is a club is because is was an Eastern Ionisphere club, and nobody else on the B Concourse had more flights than US, and they were #2 at the airport behind DL anyway. There are also a lot of commuters from DC and Philly to PBI, which made opening a club even more attractive to them.

I remember the days of claiming luggage outside, and even using an airstair to board during US's, er Allegheny's first couple of years at PBI. Can you imagine how awful that old terminal would be now with each gate having to have it's own security point! How could they have accomodated PI and People Express, which used outdoor gates between the main terminal and the DL terminal?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by phllax:
The only reason there is a club is because it was an Eastern Ionisphere club, and nobody else on the B Concourse had more flights than US, and they were #2 at the airport behind DL anyway. There are also a lot of weekly commuters from DC and Philly to PBI, which made opening a club even more attractive to them.

I remember the days of claiming luggage outside, and even using an airstair to board during US's, er Allegheny's first couple of years at PBI. Can you imagine how awful that old terminal would be now with each gate having to have it's own security point! How could they have accomodated PI and People Express, which used outdoor gates between the main terminal and the DL terminal?</font>