ibrandsguest

I'm an American Airlines loyalist, but I have a 10am meeting in uptown Charlotte coming up in a few weeks. AA's earliest flight leaves at 6:55 and arrives at 8:50, which is tight.

The meeting is critical.

Is the Delta 6:30am LGA-CLT flight reliable enough that I can count on getting to CLT by maybe 9:15am? I see that it has a 91% on-time rate.

I'd really not rather fly down the night before, but I will if I have to.

Thanks.

cre95

sydneyracquelle

MCI777

+1. I ALWAYS fly in the night before client meetings. My company actually prefers it as it "almost" guarantees that we'll make the meeting. The call is yours but if it's highly important, fly in the night before.

ATOBTTR

Not trying to be a smart aleck but what do you expect from this thread that you don't already know yourself? It ultimately comes down to your own risk-tolerance and what you're comfortable with. No one here can predict the weather in LGA or CLT a few weeks from now. No one here can predict maintenance delays. The only insight I can offer is that usually, at least when weather is fine, ATC delays are usually less of an issue/impact earlier in the morning and this is likely the first flight of the day for that aircraft out of LGA (though if the crew operating that flight arrived late the night before, you could still be impacted by crew rest requirements), but even that's not a guarantee.

If the meeting is that critical that you're evaluating the differences in 25 min between DL and AA, I would probably just fly in the night before.

Duke787

Agree -- DL operations are pretty strong my LGA is too variable to take the risk for a critical morning.

Would fly in the night before

flyerCO

DL tends to pad their schedules to prevent late stats. You'll likely arrive before scheduled arrival time. However since it's a really important meeting, I'd fly in night before.

tennessetom

The Situation

Like everyone else has said if the meeting is that critical, fly in the night before. That being said, I am very familiar with having obligations that require flights during a very narrow window. When that happens, DL is going to be the safest bet for arriving on time, although nobody can predict wx/mx/etc weeks in advance. If I am in such a tight timeline, which is never ideal, but sometimes required to get the job done, I always have a plan B, C, D, etc in place in order to ensure everything goes smoothly in the end. Those options might include knowing the schedules of other airlines or knowing if there are flights into nearby cities that you could fly into and then rent a car to your destination.

hi55us

If it is a very critical meeting fly on the 5am AA flight out of EWR. Or the night before.

Often1

Really need to know why OP wants to avoid the overnight at CLT so badly that he is willing to take a 02:00 train rather than a 19:12 (the last flight out of LGA the night before) or 19:14 (last out of EWR). Also, on the off-chance that you are located south of EWR, note that there is a PHL-CLT service at 19:19.

If we could know that, maybe there might be some kind of a solution.

ibrandsguest

Thanks, everyone. I'd better play it safe, so I'm flying out the night before.

I take the Amtrak train through Charlotte one a year or so. In a sleeping car, it's quite nice and it is usually late so I figured that a 2am arrival could end up being 6am.

However, I'm taking your general advice and am going the day before, so thanks.

injera

If your meeting is critical, fly in the night before.

Even if your flight is on time, you're waking up well before 5am to catch this flight. I'd rather get in the night before, stay in a hotel, not have to worry, and then sleep until 7am with a leisurely morning.

ajggiant

If your meeting is critical, then I'd fly in TWO nights before. I'd also make another reservation EWR-CLT the day before, so if a disruptive event(s) strikes LGA, you'll have an alternate airport and airline to travel on. And, in the event that the disruption which cancelled your LGA-CLT flight impacts air travel at large, I'd reserve the sleeper on Amtrak. But we all know how unreliable Amtrak is, especially south of DC when they switch to diesel, so I'd also book a rental car in D.C. so that you can complete that trip. Scratch that, you'll be exhausted by travel and calamities by that time, so I would book a car service to drive you from D.C. to CLT. And maybe you should also consider the Delta Private Jets card, that way you can fly everyone you were scheduled to meet in CLT to TEB and you can sleep in and enjoy a flat white and an avocado toast before your guests arrive (late, due to Lincoln Tunnel traffic) for your 10 am meeting.

hi55us

Solid option with Delta Private Jets, especially flying out of Teterboro, wouldn't want the aircraft landing in the Hudson.