"Please plan to arrive at least 2 hours before departure..."
 

I received from DAL today a "Stay on top of TSA changes" email this morning offering tips on how to stay on top of "the busy summer travel season."

Among those tips was "For your upcoming domestic flight please plan to arrive at least 2 hours before departure..."

For domestic trips I generally arrive one hour prior to push, and the two-hour suggestion strikes me as over the top. I suppose at some chronically slow airports, but I can't imagine in most cases getting there two hours early.

Am I being naive?










https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7b419302ad.jpg

I got it too, I think somebody in marketing should have made an exemption for FO, GM, PM, and DM to NOT get this email. I think most of us know airport wait times better than the TSA itself.

This should have gone to people with no status, this email seems like one that was meant to inform people who fly once a year.

I have received two of these emails in the last couple days. The food thing is going to trip up the people that fly once or twice a year, so if you are going to be in the regular TSA line, 2 hours is a good idea. Couple that with summer road construction in my area shutting down major interstates and traffic jams getting to the terminal b/c cars are allowed to pull up to the terminal and wait for people arriving, I don't think these emails are unwarranted. I will give myself a bit of extra time at my home airport.

My returning international flight yesterday was a suggested three hours from HKG. We were late leaving the hotel and had about two hours when we got to the airport. No problem. With Sky Priority no wait to check in. Wasn't too bad going through customs and security. We could have stopped at the lounge, but since they started check in about 55 minutes before departure, we decided to wait on line and settle into our business seats.

I got this email as well, but I don't think this applies to people using PreCheck. Taking out small electronic devices, such as phones, has been going on since January for the normal lines, but in PreCheck it's the same old routine. (At least it was as late as last Friday when I flew)

I think this is also Delta preemptively telling tourists to expect long security lines.

What's with the powders? Is this new?

I noticed that too, but never had an issue with PreCheck. I usually bring protein powder for shakes while I travel.

https://www.tsa.gov/news/releases/20...deral-airports

It looks like the TSA has some recommendations for powders, but no new restrictions.

I've never noticed that before either. That's definitely new. I do the same and have brought liter sized bags of protein powder on before with no issue. It would suck if it now is subject to the 3 oz rule. I suppose I could break it up in to daily servings instead of a weeks worth in one container but that's pointless effort. Plus if I'm carrying a week's worth that would take up the majority of my 1 liter bag.

Taking food out applies even if you are precheck. Nowadays I give 'em a good look at the apple (or any food) in my carry on and pull it out ahead of time. Don't think it applies to you? You may be delayed for a secondary.

That said, I have no intention of arriving two hours ahead as a rule.

Jim (precheck, GE, Clear, Skypriority )

A handful of times, my wife has bought bath salts while on a trip. The TSA screeners always flag the bag and pull it aside for extra screening. Usually just a quick visual confirmation of the package is good enough. I wonder if dense powders block the x-rays so they just want to get a visual confirmation.

From the above-referenced link:

That will be tough at BOS. As far back as I can remember, they don't even have bins at the PreCheck lines in Terminal A. It'll be interesting to see a bunch of apples rolling around on the x-ray belt. Maybe they will have to bring the bins back - I've got a trip this weekend so I'll report back.

All Pre-Check lines should have bins but not accessible to prevent folks slowing down the line. I frequently require (request) a bin when traveling with two laptops in the same bag. Typically, requires my yelling three times I have TWO laptops because they typically think I am pulling out a single laptop which should remain in the bag.

I got one of these from UA yesterday, and DL today. From the frequent traveler's perspective, it's just nonsense.

I got this today and just assumed this was a thinly veiled marketing email to sell me a CLEAR subscription.

I got pulled aside for having an unopened bag of dry cat food in my bag. I was annoyed. Has the TSA gotten worse at being incompetent at its own job?

As an FYI... most email applications have a 'delete button', often symbolized by a trash can. When you find an email you consider irrelevant, you can press it and the message goes away.

No, it doesn't apply to me as pre-check. This applies to the regular line to get more people to purchase pre-check. Since these rules came into effect I've never had to remove food nor has my bag gone to secondary. Don't know what you're talking about or where you made that up from.

Exactly this. Pre-check is excluded from the new screening rules. Anecdotal evidence doesn't mean its the standard.

Had plenty of different foods in my bag recently and not pulled once on a Pre-check line (it was pulled when Pre-check was closed for a red eye, once, and cleared within a few seconds)

I guess the food thing only applies to me because I've gone to secondary for as little as an apple. :rolleyes:

​​​​​​​Jim

Are you sure you didn't get routes to a normal line? I've had them tell me I'm PreCheck and not tell me the xray lane I'm in isnt.

More cynically, I've seen a few decks discussing the correlation between time spent at airport and airport concessions sales. Delta doesn't get much of a cut of that, though

What is it with DL and apples lately? :D

I got this email as well and basically :rolleyes: and deleted it. Interestingly, it said to arrive X hrs early (can't remember if it said 2 or 3) for my international flight. I do have an upcoming Intl flight, but at the time of the email I had two domestic PNRs happening before that. I guess they figure I know what I'm doing for domestic?

I think it should not apply to sky priority / pre-check. Even in SEA where security lines got out of control in the last few months, it was never more than 30 minutes in priority or TSA pre-check lines.

I consider myself lucky, but I rarely arrive more than 1 hour before international and 45-50 minutes before domestic flight. I never missed a flight. I know that statistically I will miss a flight sometime in the future, but because it will be one out of 10s or 100s of flights, the extra delay and expense of one missed flight still well worth hours saved on other flights.

If I have time for the lounge, I take a note that I arrived too early.

To me it's a CYA thing. If someone arrives 1:15 before their flight and is checking bags and it happens to be a crazy day, and they get flagged for secondary, and they have an infant in arms, and they need to go to the bathroom they might miss their flight. Delta can always say "we told you to arrive 2 hours before."

I received one of these emails 3 weeks ahead of an international flight. (And despite the fact that the first leg of my flight is domestic, I'm still supposed to arrive 3 hours early? Really?)

I was interested b/c it doesn't say if this applies to both PreCheck and regular TSA security lines. I also wondered about the graphic which makes it look like powders now go into the 3-1-1 bag.

Time is better to have and not need, than to need and not have.


And there are more factors at play than at the airport. I nearly missed a flight once because of a 200 car train in Phoenix that blocked the road to the airport for 25 minutes as it rolled by at 5mph. Traffic, construction, trains, accidents that shut down lanes on the freeway, detours, late buses...never assume the journey to the airport will be smooth. Bank extra time, you may need to use it.

Same email - both 3 hours for international and 2 hours for domestic - and same reaction as I too start with a domestic positioning flight.

Maybe. There's some utility for people who aren't familiar with the airport they're using, and who may be shocked by summer line lengths.

FlyerTalk has seen all sorts of problems with people getting to the airport in time to complete formalities, who then have the joy of going standby on the next (probably very full) flight:

- the taxi dropped me off at the wrong door

- the check in line was l o n g

- they wouldn't let me check a bag 28 minutes before scheduled departure

- they wouldn't let me board when I got to the gate 'about' 15 minutes before my flight

I know a guy - who would go on to become a senior Washington official - who bragged about always being last to board. 'If you're not last you have wasted time at the airport.' That's not the way I want to play it.

I got this e-mail too.

CLEAR is your friend.

I generally fly in the 6am push at DCA; pretty hard to get to the airport more than 45 minutes in advance when the first Metro train leaves only at 0500 from Huntington station. CLEAR makes it possible to comfortably make these early morning flights.

I got a notification for a trip this Monday regarding BNA. Said it was BNA's busiest travel day of the year as CMA Fest and Bonaroo were ending and to get there 2 hours before. Wouldn't even suggest that to the wife so got there 1 hour and absolutely ZERO people. I mean no one in the line at 2pm. Maybe I missed the rush :)

I've gotten sent to secondary over ten plastic jars of cat treats in my backpack before (The Squeaker loves, loves, loves the ones you get at Trader Joe's more than just about anything else on earth, and I stock up when I'm close to a TJ's). There's the fable about Mohammed and the sleeping cat on the sleeve of his robe, so maybe that's it?

I have literally never waited at the TSA checkpoint at VPS for more than five minutes- holiday season, departing the same time as a couple of Allegiant flights are headed out, whatever. It's a well-run small outstation where more than half the folks seem to have Pre. If there's a log jam, it's at the individual airline counter because there isn't typically a designated bag drop station and you always seem to get stuck behind someone who just had a trip to Brussels or Lima go IRROPS in a big way. I generally try for 1:15 before departure only if I'm checking a bag and an hour is just fine if I'm not.

I always plan to arrive 2.5-3 hours before a Domestic flight and 4 hours before an international flight just in case something goes awry.

I have Pre Check and that helps and also I plan early morning flights whenever possible.

With extra time I just veg out!