FlyNhighAgain

I can't remember the last time I departed PHL on a weekend.

Suggestions on expected wait times tomorrow, Saturday, out of PHL (B or C) for an 8A departure?

If anyone has any experience with MCO on Saturdays, this time of year, that would be appreciated, too. Departing there at noon, next Saturday? I know MCO in the peak seasons is horrible (woo-hoo for CLEAR). But, with the family, I can't use that

dcpatti

MCO on a Saturday is really hit-or-miss, with 11am to about 2pm being "peak" time as many folks book their flights to be convenient with hotel check-out time. I'd say 20 minutes to clear security, plus another 5 for the tram to show up, would be a reasonable estimate but I've occasionally seen it worse (40+ on the really bad days, when the line snakes around to the food court). I've rarely seen it less than 10 minutes. If you're flying out of Gate 50, there's not really enough seating in that gate for a mostly full flight's worth of PAX, now that Sun Country has moved in opposite that gate, so if you're wanting to sit while you wait, it's worth going a bit early. There is a good coffee place where the tram lets you off, opposite the food court.

At MCO it's not really the length of the line but rather the type of traveller in the line that most contribute to delays, and the way they've got the lines laid out, it's really hard to see who's in front of you. Lots of little kids, lots of very infrequent travelers, lots of people getting scanned 2-3 times because they don't think their coins count as "metal," lots of language barriers, lots of confusion. I tend to go early as I've had one too many close calls. Like the time I got stuck behind the guy with the Renaissance Fest memorabilia: a mace. Replica or not, it's still an 8-lb ball of spiky metal on a swinging chain; they're not gonna let you take that through so shuttit and move along!

aztimm

For PHL, I'd suggest you look through this thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/us-ai...a-airport.html

(hint, it is linked from the sticky at the top of this forum:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/us-ai...w-threads.html)


For MCO, dcpatti is spot on, as usual. I left there twice in the past 2 weeks, once on a Thursday and once on a Saturday, both times for flights at 8/8:20am. The Thursday one was a complete disaster...there aren't any preferred lines, and it took a good 10 min just for the ID checker. Then at least another 20 min for waiting to go through security proper. I was sweating it out, but in the end was fine. Then for my Saturday departure things were far better and I was at the gate very early.

Positives are--the train seemed to run quite frequently. I don't remember waiting more than 2 minutes either time (nor on arrival), and probably not even that long.
Another positive is that the US staff didn't even miss a beat with late arriving pax. I saw one guy running up to the gate as his DCA flight was being pushed back, and the gate agent just put him on another flight. While passengers may not be used to the chaos that is MCO security, the gate staff certainly are.

apeortdz

I assume you are asking about wait times through TSA. I flew last Saturday out of PHL for a 7:50A flight. I got to security at 6:10A and was through in under ten minutes, so I hung out at the Club. That was through B and the regular line was no longer than the preferred line. YMMV as I have seen the lines fairly long on a Saturday as well.

FlyNhighAgain

Thanks folks... I appreciate your replies.

If it was just me, it would be less of a concern, I'd just park in A, go through TSA there, always less than 10 mins in the AM, and be done with it. But, the family is checking bags (on my free allowance ) and so, I have to do the B/C thing. At least there is not a parking issue, since we are taking a limo, that will drop us at the door.

Weather is kind of iffy tomorrow AM, too. That always makes a fun day at PHL!

I'll scope the lines when we deplane at MCO, to get a flavor what's in store next Saturday, around that time. This will be my first non-clear venture through there... ugh!

dcpatti

When you take the moving walkway over to the security checkpoint, there's an escalator up to the Chili's and the security line usually forms in that general vicinity; there's a second entrance, on the "back" side of the box formed by the security ropes. So if you're standing smack in front of security, look at about a 2:00 position, you'll see if that other line is open and, if so, how long it is. Sometimes they do snake you all the way around to the right if you enter in that line, but it seems to move a bit faster as #1 no one ever looks to see if it's there and #2 there's a higher % of metal-detector-only lanes back that way (no backscatter machine). It's not reliable enough for me to consider it a "super secret timesaving security line" because there's so many ways they can have that line configured. But certainly worth having a look to see what's going on there. About 50% of the time, the ID checker on the "back" entrance is staring off into space wiht 0 passengers waiting whilst the ID checker on the "front" has a queue of 30 people.

FlyNhighAgain

Ahhh... yes. Isn't that one on the side where the Clear entrance is?

dcpatti

They have 2 clear entrances, one on each side. For a while, the only Clear entrance was indeed the "back" one but it seems to move around every so often. I think when they first re-opened Clear it was at the back, then it was at the front, and now it's in both. Not sure why, other than they really do reconfigure those lines a LOT at mco, it can be a completely different pattern 4 times in the course of a day.

MCO was my "second home" airport for almost a year, and is still the most frequent destination for me. I find it a bit disturbing how well I've gotten to know it. Orlando, of all places. Wow.

aztimm

There's an, "experienced traveler," or something on the side further from the US counter, but it doesn't seem like it is really enforced. From my observation, not any faster than other lines. But that side is a little less busy.

When you get up further, closer to actually going through security, the TSA person will say, "if you can here this, you're about 10-15 min from your plane," and they are very close.

I also found this thread over in the TSS forum on PHL that may be handy (I also moderate there). Don't see one on MCO.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/pract...g-atl-phl.html

FlyNhighAgain

Having not been to MCO in almost 6 months, do they still have premier lanes? Or, have they gone to the "Family" "Experienced" only lines? We're in F both ways and I'm Gold, so I can herd the family through there, if it exists.

dcpatti

I have never once seen a Premier line at MCO. Maybe on the A side they have them but not on B.

FlyNhighAgain

There were 3 people in line here at phl when we went through at 0615. Maybe it's the weather.