I'm in Buenos Aires and flying out Monday night on United from EZE to IAD. Generally people are saying 2 hours early for an international flight, but I want to go as late as possible to be able to have something to eat in the city rather than airport food, seeing as how it's a nighttime flight. Do I really have to be there 2 hours early? How late can I get there?

Do you have status with UA?

I fly out of EZE all the time and plan to be to the airport at least 3 hours before my flights. Why do I say plan?

It normally takes you about 45 minutes from Buenos Aires (Capital Federal) to get to the airport, however as most US flights depart in the evening, you're usually leaving for the airport at rush hour. It has taken me 2+ hours to get there before.

Once at the airport, the lines for the ticket counters can be long as can the line for security and clearing customs. This is really hit or miss, but a lot of flights leave around the same time.

I would not recommend taking any chances and sucking up eating the airport food.

I always aim to be at EZE no less than two hours before departure as I don't see any point in making it any tighter to be honest.

That's always been my rule of thumb. I leave our apartment in Palermo 3 hours before flight time (I fly UA in the evening departure bank). I've done this at least 40 times in the past 8 years, and even when the autopista has been clogged, and with foul weather, I've always managed to get to the airport within 70 min.

John

I generally leave before the peak of the evening departures, and fly in a premium cabin, so while I don't have any check-in wait to speak of, I've had trips where either the security line or the passport control line took an excessive (and unexpected) amount of time. I usually get there about 2.5 hours before flight time, because I allow for traffic, which I usually don't get (being on the closer-to-EZE side of town, right near the highway onramp, and just before peak traffic).

Remember, if you miss your flight, you might not get home for at least another day.

Besides, the early arrival allows me to play WLIW.*

*Which Lounge Is Worst

I would leave the apartment/hotel 3 hours in advance.
What you can do is have a late breakfast and then have a very late lunch around 4-5 pm and buy a couple of empanadas or humitas so you can snack in the airport.

If you're flying UA from EZE to IAD, that would be a 9pm departure? At least it will be in July when I make the flight.

Even if you cut it close, you're dining in BA at 6pm - probably not a lot of good options at that time for a nice dinner?

I usually end up asking for a late check-out, take a shower before I head to the airport and, as a previous poster suggested, grab some empanadas.

You'll get fed as soon as you take off from EZE.

what about the protesters barricading the roads to/from the airport? does this still happen? I could see where that might add a bit of time.

I haven't heard of this in awhile (but maybe others have different information). I did one have striking truck drivers blocking the right lane for a portion of the inbound direction and it took me an hour just to the first toll plaza

The only time I've heard about the access to EZE being blocked was when Aerolineas employees were striking. Now that they're supported by the State, all should be good

For absolute latest arrival time to the airport, I believe I have seen the scrolling sign at the UA check in counter in EZE that says “Flight closes at 8:00 pm” for the 9:00 pm departure. I believe everyone has to check in at the counter even with OLCI and no checked luggage because last time I did OLCI, no BP was produced.

That being said, I would never plan to arrive EZE at 8:00 pm for a 9:00 pm flight.

Happened to us on the autopista two years ago....and it was nothing to do with AR.

Fortunately we were coming from out of town and our taxi driver managed to avoid the worst of the jams.....it certainly got the old ticker beating faster though as we were on a miles redemption and could have lost the whole lot.
There was another Flyertalker on the flight who only just made it from the centre of the city and despite the captain waiting as long as he could quite a lot of folk missed the flight.
I do agree it is a rarity.....but it can happen.

Here are very recent experiences out of EZE --

Not counting travel time that from downtown BsAs can take 30 min on aerage, depending on mode of transportation - bus or car.

Check-in -
No status - account for 30+ minutes if there are multiple flights departing close to each other for your carrier (can't say much about UA, I fly AA)
Status - Anywhere between 10-30+ minutes. Why? Because, there are MANY people with status and only 2-3 positions open. Can get worse for 1st class when someone starts to get picky about something or other and there is only one person doing check-ins.

Security -
Here is one of the worsts experiences. It is not uncommon to see only ONE WTM open at peak times for about 200+ people. Sometimes, you find 2 WTM open. To this you have to add the following people who are allowed to cut in line -- crew, ground staff, handicapped, people pull from the line by ground staff that know they will miss the plane and let's not forget.... argentines who believe they are more important than you and need to first in line with a smile. Pluses: no need to take the laptop out of the bag, WTM set at higher tolerances. Waiting time - 10-40 minutes. More oftern towards the latter.

Passport control --
Not as bad as the WTM, but similar experiences with argentines cutting in line. Crew, handicapped and staff have their own line. Account for 15 minutes. My worst waiting time was close to 30 minutes.

Civilization awaits after you cross those two hurdles.

Cheers....,

--J

In all my years I can honestly say I have not had any experiences similar to yours. Yes security and immigration can be busy at times but I find the queues do move very quickly. I have never encountered any Argentines skipping the queue either.......the Brasilians are good at that dodge though.
As for the waiting times to clear security and immigration..although EZE is not the best they certainly aren't much different from some International airports especially in the States.
What civilisation awaits at the other side? Certainly isn't the lounges.