Originally Posted by
swiftaw
Flying on UA 3573 out of BWI on Thursday morning. departure time is 5:30am, and as it's an ERJ-170 I would assume boarding will start at 5:05am
The first light rail of the day arrives at BWI at 4:50am, and I'm wondering if that's pushing it a little tight to get through security and to the gate. I do have TSA pre.
Anyone familiar with how busy BWI is first thing?
Definitely pushing it... I found the worst 2 times of day with the new security checkpoint are 4:30-6:00AM and 3-5PM, with so many airlines and quite a good number of departures in one terminal and usually only 2 lines open (though you are TSAPre).
I'd say you want to be there no later than 4:30-4:40AM if your flight is at 5:30. It's also a decent haul both to the security checkpoint from shuttle area, and subsequently to the United gate area from the checkpoint.
Hotel packages are pretty good but Lyft/Uber should do just as well, I always just find them extremely expensive from the city or DC