Wait times at SAN?
 

Anyone departed SAN this week who can tell me what the screening wait times looked like? I have a big group going overseas next weekend with an early flight, but the Delta counter doesn't open until 0400. Getting them there before that would be fairly useless, and the latest stories on wait times has me wondering if they will make their flight out.

Well, if getting there at the time that the check-in counter opens is not early enough then nobody will make the flight. I doubt that they'll send the flight out empty.

Did you book this through group sales? If so, maybe they can help.

Solid point. I was hoping to have them arrive around 0500 for a 0715 flight but it is an international group and with all the "massive wait time" stories I guess we'll have to go with getting there as the counter opens. *yawn*

SAN has a noise curfew so no flights can takeoff before 6:30am. Lots of flights are scheduled between 6:15 and 6:30 so that they're ready to go with departures start at 6:30. That will produce a morning rush at the curb, ticket counter, and screening checkpoints. I would imagine that it is pretty busy at 5:00am.

Went through SAN on Monday at about noon returning from B2B in SF. In the LUV terminal, TSA-Pre was open with about 30 people in line: maybe 10-15 minutes

The general security line was stretched out to baggage claim 2. So, it wasn't too bad. I've seen much worse: 30-40 minutes at most for security.

Which weekend day? If Friday or Sunday, I could imagine it being somewhat busy; Saturday, not so much.

I have never seen Delta counters open at 4. 5:30 maybe, but people do line up before counters open.

The Delta website lists an opening time pf 04:30 daily.

I know that Alaska, for example, does open their counter at 04:00.

I flew out this past Friday mid day on AA and had a wait under two minutes. I was PRE but there were so few people it didn't matter.

The morning's can be jammed at SAN, especially mornings cruise ships come in. I'd think you're 5:00am arrival for a 7:15a flight will be OK but 4:45 will be better.

It can really vary wildly at SAN these days. The summer season is upon us and that means tons of tourists which exacerbate the surges even more.

Off season travel through SAN is an absolute breeze- 12 minutes from curb to gate last time I did it in February.

Summer is typically less than an hour normal and less than 30 mins pre-check.

I will note that SAN is currently listed as officially understaffed by the TSA and is not scheduled to receive any additional staff or resources from any appropriations on the horizon.

Bottom line- Your mileage may vary. But it's definitely not a Chicago at least.

LarryJ makes an interesting point. There are probably close to two dozen departures between 6:00 am and 7:00 am with a good number scheduled for departure for 6:30 but obviously not going to take off until 6:30 owing to the departure curfew. It makes for some good plane spotting as this is probably the one time of the morning you will see significant taxiway congestion at SAN.

That all being said, in summer, I can imagine a goodly crush of passengers at the security checkpoints at 5:30 or 6:00 am. Meaning Pre-check is definitely the way to go that time of day (provided it is open)....

Two out of three times I've been through SAN recently (the past five weeks), the Pre-Check line has been closed on Thursday afternoons (around 4pm). Is there any way to know if Pre-Check is closed ahead of time? It will greatly affect when I decide to travel to the airport.

For what it's worth, I got through Pre-Check in T2W in ~5 minutes today at around 12pm.