Recommended arrival time at MCO
 

Non-status sister will be departing MCO at 0705 on a Thursday. What's a reasonable time for her to be walking up to the check in desks?

Does she have PreCheck or Clear?

Almost any time I travel through MCO, an hour is right around the time. Delta is far easier than other carriers at MCO. this is not SouthWest. lol.

With PreCheck and not checking in bags, a lot easier. The issue with MCO is also the long transportation time between say the rental car garages, the check in podiums, up to security, then out to the gates via the shuttles.

MCO security alone is a horrible crapshoot. The place is run by morons.

Allow lots of time.

I fly out of MCO often, and never allow less than 2 hours. Security can be AWFUL at times.

Two hours minimum unless she has no checked bags, OLCI's and has pre-check.

At 0705 you can allow slightly less time, I'd still give around 90 minutes though. If your sister is taking a shuttle to the airport, it may be advantageous for her to get off on the A side and walk over to the B side where the DL check in desks are, since most shuttle services will first drop off pax on the A side then make the long loop over to the B side.

Before I had status, for a 6am flight I once waited over 90 minutes to get thru security alone. Horrible ...

The geniuses who run (security at) MCO will either get you through in fifteen minutes or 2 hours. I would recommend leaving lots of time even with clear or precheck...

I would say 90 minutes is enough. MCO is home and we always plan to get to garage 90 minutes prior to flight. I don't know how she is getting to the airport, but you are before traffic really starts (may change next year when they start rebuilding I-4). We will use the restroom (either before check-in or after) and use sky priority check-in. We don't seem to run into long lines at TSA. We have the "original" free TSA precheck which continues to work fine for us. However, in the past year TSA has made a mess of things so it doesn't work as well as it did. We have time to buy a sandwich and still get to the gate before priority boarding (say 30 minutes before departure) most of the time.

Without status it might take a little longer, but 90 minutes should be fine.

The key here is "non-status". That changes the equation. .. I can be from the garage to gate in under 10 minutes usually. Without status and experience, I would plan 90 minutes to 2 hours depending on checked bags, etc. Usually 90 mins in the morning is fine. After 2pm, plan 2 hours due to international departures.

TSA MCO is a total crapshoot. She may hit the lotto as some do and be shuffled into Pre, in front of those who are supposed to be using the line mind you....

Be there by 5:30 AM at latest. You will be surprised at how security can be at 6:00 AM. I have flown out on a Thursday morning around the same time (7:30 AM) and while I have PreCheck, I have seen the waits at security. On average it's about 20-25 minutes, but I have seen 30-45 minute waits before (traveling with others). If your sister gets there at 5:30 AM, she should be fine.

Security at MCO is terrible as others have said, at times I can't tell if people in PreCheck are there by mistake because the lines are so disorganized that it seems relatively easy for people to just walk into the wrong line. Last week during a Monday morning (which is a busy travel day) I waited in the PreCheck lane for 20 minutes...many older travelers in front of me, and of course they would be very slow in removing their bags, often making mistakes such as removing their shoes before being told not to do so...only to then remove their belts, sigh.

So 5:30 AM at latest, and to be on the safe side you can plan on being there between 5:00 - 5:15 AM.

Three Sundays ago...had a 7:30pm to ATL. NO ONE at the TSA checkpoint. I mean, NO ONE.

Two Sundays ago...had a 6:30pm to ATL. All security lines were out about 1/4 the way across the atrium. Mad house!

Yesterday morning...had a 6:56am flight. Normal security lines about 3-4 people deep. Went to Sky lane. Was off monorail no more than about 10 min later.


Total crapshoot.


Note: I typically get to the security checkpoint about an hour before my flight (I've honestly never really had more than 30-40 min before I was to the gate and I've flown A LOT this year out of MCO...making DM on segments in a couple weeks)

The randomizer makes the PreCheck line almost worthless sometimes. I've been passed into that before and ended up going thru the scanners well after people who were BEHIND me who went thru the normal security lines.

The reason why you experienced longer security lines for your 6:30 PM flight is because on the Delta side (Airside 4) all the international flights leave at that time. VS has 3-4 flights from MCO to LGW/MAN/GLA (although GLA is maybe twice a week), and then BA has 1 or 2 flights as well. Not to mention the daily LH flight to FRA, and this is all separate from DL's flights to ATL/DTW/MSP/JFK/LGA that leave during that hour. From 5:00 PM - 7:30 PM the security lines for that airside can be very long...5-6 widebody's departing and then multiple DL flights...

:)

If things are still running as they were a few months ago, TSA only has a skeleton crew on until 6 AM. This makes the wait times for those on the early flights (0530-0700... there are a ton of flights) just ridiculous. At 6 AM or thereabouts, they come up to full TSA speed (chuckle) and things revert to a normal snails pace.