Early flight from NOLA - MSY: Rental or taxi? Precheck? etc....
 

Hey folks,

Heading to NOLA for the weekend and trying to decide if it's worth renting a car or not. Rental is cheap and hotel has free parking, so that's not the main consideration.

Primary question is that my departing flight is 5:50am on Tuesday.

a) I'm DL elite with no checked bags - any suggestions on how early I should get there? I see they have Precheck? Does anyone know if they'll be open at 4:30 am? Will it even matter? Does the airport get crowded at the crack of dawn on Tuesday? (lol)

b) Is it close / easy to get from car rental return (Alamo) to gates?

I know that I won't really need the car in town for the weekend, but we are changing hotels and may want to see some surrounding areas, so I'm on the fence about the car or not.

The early morning return may push me one way or the other.

Thanks very much.

MSY has a consolidated rental car facility, but unlike many airports, no shuttle is required. It's a 5 minute walk (outdoor covered walkway) from there to the terminal, and the D concourse that Delta uses is the closest.

I don't have much experience with the D checkpoint, but I can't imagine with both PreCheck and elite status that you would have much of a wait that early on a non-Monday. 5 am arrival at the car return would likely have you at the gate by 5:20.

This seems like a rare case that I would recommend a rental car. If you do opt for a taxi (or Uber) instead, try to arrange for the ride the night before, especially if your hotel isn't right downtown or French Quarter (as free parking suggests may be the case).

I agree, I'm generally resistant to getting a car for a city, but this is a case that I think I might want it.

Hotel is in the Marigny, btw. 20 mins from MSY according to the googles.

Can't imagine much traffic at that hour, right?

Thanks very much

While I agree with almost everything, I would give myself a little more cushion, time wise, in getting to the airport. One time, I missed a flight because there was an accident that shut the I-10 airport exit and by the time I could go up to the next exit and get to the airport, I missed my flight. My fault, cut my time too short to drive to the airport, not expecting an accident.

I agree that at that time of the morning, traffic should be light and airport won't be crowded. With that said, I live much closer than the Marigny and it takes me almost 20 minutes to get there.

Hope you have a great time while you're here and thanks for coming to visit our city.