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Comment by bewaretheirs | Hacker News Reader

Depended heavily on the airport layout and how close you want to cut it on the departure side. Avoiding checked bags is a significant timesaver.

I missed a few flights doing this but pre-9/11 it was definitely possible (but not advisable) to get to a smaller airport 30-45 minutes before departure and make the flight.

On the arrival side, back in the good old days (mid to late 90's?) with no checked luggage I could get from the arrival gate to Hertz #1 club gold rental car pickup (when it was in the terminal A garage) at SJC without breaking stride - probably 5 minutes max from the aircraft door to car door.

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Post-9/11 it was often possible to make weekday morning flights at OAK arriving only 20 minutes before. (I did it a number of times!) Self-print Southwest boarding pass, almost no security line, everything is 3-4 minutes' walk from everything else.

Nowadays OAK has been expanded and the security lines are longer (and they have body scanners, which I opt out of, which also then takes longer).

I've gotten out of SFO in 30 mins (post-9/11), no checked bags obviously, boarding pass in hand, with most of that time spent in screening. This is also a good way to be the last person on the plane or miss it entirely.

Mid-1990s, traveling with my graduate advisor. His wife drop us off at the small airport, no more than about 15 minutes (!) before departure. We walked with our carry-on luggage through a quick metal detector/baggage X-ray, and checked in at the gate. About five minutes later the airplane door closed, for takeoff.

I still remember worrying about how close we cut it, but he'd done it many times and knew how long it would take.

I often fly out of a smaller airport in Upstate NY. For a morning flight, my routine is to set my alarm for 1:15 before the flight takes off. I get up, pack, and am out the door about with about an hour to go. I get to the airport with about 45 minutes to go, and arrive at the gate in time to wait 20 minutes to actually start the boarding process.

With precheck, most airports aren't much worse, other than the uncertainty of transport in. I've never had precheck take me longer than about 10 minutes in security. So as long as I'm not checking a bag, it's still pretty reasonable to arrive 45min before departure.

Many small airports outside of the U.S. work like this. I can turn up 20 minutes before a flight with luggage to check and board an intercity flight without any security. It depends on the size of the plane, small planes are deemed safe enough to fly without metal detecting the passengers.

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