I've always 'pushed the limit' in getting to the airport, especially for those crack-of-dawn flights. For the 3 years pre-9/11/01, I could arrive at the parking lot 17 minutes before departure and _know_ I'd be on the plane. 15 minutes made me sweat (sometimes even getting to the gate only 5 minutes before departure, by my watch) but I always got on the plane.

Now, even at my small airport (MLB) where half the DL folks know me on sight, I wouldn't try this. The security line wait varies by 20 minutes on any given Monday ... some mornings it's zero wait at 5:15am and on others it inexplicably takes 20 minutes or more to get through the checkpoint.

Moral of the story is the security thing really is a wildcard now. I'd rather plan for it (drag out of bed 20 minutes earlier) rather than get screwed. People do miss the plane in my little burg and DL won't hold the flight just because pax are still in the checkpoint lines (seen it myself at MLB, BWI, MDT, and RDU).

[This message has been edited by theDeltaFlyer (edited 03-11-2002).]