Originally Posted by
Vidiot
My mother and I will be visiting Venice in a few months, and we have an early flight out. We're booked on the 6:20am Air France flight to CDG (where we'll connect to our separate flights home to the US) on Saturday, November 3.
I see that the airport's website recommends that you get there two hours ahead of time for an international departure. I've also read online that VCE is variously a.) completely quiet that early in the morning, b.) that the terminal (or the check-in counters) don't open until 5am, and c.) that it's a jam-packed madhouse and that we'll need every moment of those two hours to get checked in, check our bags, and get through security and to the gate.
Which of these is most accurate? If we follow the airport's recommendation and get there by 4:20am, will we have to cool our heels waiting for Air France to receive us at 5am?
We have an easily cancelable reservation for Friday night at the Best Western Titian Inn Venice Airport in Tessera which looks very close. If we take their earliest shuttle, it departs the hotel at 4:45am which I assume would get us to the airport at 5, but I wonder if that cuts it too close once we get to the airport. Does anyone have experience with this flight or this situation? Thanks in advance.
I have taken that flight several times. It would be helpful to know if you are flying business or economy class as the check in lines move faster for business class passengers.
I see no reason for you to stay at a nearby airport hotel. When we take that early flight, we leave a wake-up call at our hotel in Castello area of Venice for 0400. We have packed and showered and paid our bill the night before. We have also arranged for a water-taxi to meet us at 4:15. We arrive at airport about 20 minutes later (not much traffic on the lagoon at that hour). Arriving at 0500 should not be a problem.. The only glitch would be if there was a lot of fog in the AM and that is something you can check the night before, to allow yourself more time.
After too many of those early AM flights, I now take flights out ofVCE which leave after 10:AM. My next flight from VCE/CDG/LAX leaves around noon.