Question for all you frequent flyers. Wife(no pics) and I are headed to Maui in the morning early. We fly once a year for vacation and I figured I would do the electronic check in and pay for bags to save a little time if there’s a line since our flight is way early. 2 questions, how early do I need to be there to be safe and try to sleep in a little? What do i do with my checked bags when I get to the airport since everything was done online and I have no tags on them? Thanks for any info
Non frequent flyer
- Thread starter In the blood
- Start date
Go stand in the line and wait until the very last second to remove your belt and shoes.
You stand in line at the check in counter /baggage drop of your airline just like you didn’t electronically check them
Small airport probably 90 mins into parking lot to be safe but early am will be better for you.
Large 2 hours.
Their will be a bag drop line at large airports. Small ones you’ll still go into the normal check line in most places.
If flying out of Cedar Rapids or Des Moines you will have to check your bags at counter. CR TSA is pretty fast and easy to move through. Parking is much easier in CR so that does not take long. You can drop off your wife and bags at entrance and then move to parking area pretty easily.
Yeah paying online doesn't save a ton of time. You'll still need to go to the counter, present your id, they'll print out the tags and take the bag. Larger airports might have a kiosk where you enter your ticket number for it to look you up, will print out the tag, then you stand in line, and give your bag to an agent. There are cut off's for checking your bag, 45 mins before departure I think, so definitely be there before that.
We had a flight to Hawaii out of EIA in January. It was the first flight of the day to Denver. An hour would have sufficed. We did a lot of standing around because they told us to be there as soon as the airport opened. It probably took 30ish minutes in line waiting to get checked in and then roughly 2 minutes in the security line.
Also probably good to know what airline. I bet someone here knows that airport and airline well enough to point you directly to where you need to go to get your bags dropped off most efficiently and how far ahead to arrive.
I've never flown into/out of there but that being a small airport you shouldn't have any issues.
I've never flown into/out of there but that being a small airport you shouldn't have any issues.
And then anxiously fumble around with your phone trying to pull up your boarding pass and remember which pocket your id is in.
We have the same flight to Denver and I believe it’s the first flight of the day.(united)
Check that site and have a look at the flight departures near yours. Cedar rapids is small but low cost carriers can bog down the security lines. If your end destination is Hawaii you're likely connecting on a regional jet to a hub somewhere. Those flights of 40ish people zoom right through. If you're near a pocket of Allegiant flights that are flying sold out A320s with similar departure times that line might suddenly have 3-400 people in it. If you're an early morning flight that leaves before those bigger jets start rolling in on their inbound legs from their bases in Florida and Arizona there's basically no line.
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