As I peruse the internets, I sometimes see the same questions over and over. That’s how we started writing some of our more popular posts for people who don’t necessarily travel all the time:
- What can be done if you have TSA PreCheck and your partner doesn’t?
- How to use a debit card for car rentals and hotel stays
- Understanding hotel taxes, resort fees & deposits for incidentals
I’ve noticed another trend in recent months – people who are getting flights very early in the morning. Of course, airports in the U.S. generally aren’t open to commercial flights 24/7 (here’s why). But there are certainly flights that start pretty darn early, like 5:00 or 6:00 am or so.
That leads several people to wonder if your flight is that early, and you need to get to the airport X amount of time early (here’s how to figure out when you get to the airport), are the ticketing counters even OPEN yet?
It turns out there’s no set answer to that question. Instead, it varies by airline and airport. Here’s what each airline says on their respective website:
*Note: the following only reflects airports in the United States. Airlines and airports in other countries have their own way of doing things (up to and including having flights that depart in the middle of the night).
Alaska Airlines
Alaska maintains a page on its website with information about each airport where it has a presence. That info includes what time their ticket counter opens at these airports.
Allegiant Air
Allegiant doesn’t have a set time of when their ticket counters open. Their website says that, “Checked baggage must be dropped off at the airline ticket counter at least 1 hour, and no more than 2 hours, before departure.” That would suggest their ticket counter opens 2 hours before their first departing flight of the day at each flight’s respective airport.
American Airlines
American maintains a page on its website with information about each airport where it has a presence. That info includes what time their ticket counter opens at these airports.
Delta Air Lines
Delta apparently wants to keep the hours of their ticket counters a secret.
They have a page on their website that tells you when to check in at different airports across the country (and some of those are WAAAY out of line. For Orlando Int’l Airport, for example, they recommend checking in no less than 45 minutes if you’re flying domestic with a checked bag. Assuming you check in upon arrival, MCO recommends arriving 3 HOURS before your flight. If you used that 45-minute minimum as a guide, chances are excellent you’d miss your flight). But I found nothing that has any sort of list of when their ticket counters open or close.
I even chatted with a Delta rep, in case I was just missing something…but apparently not:
So then, for fun, I followed the rep’s recommendation and tried to find out what time the Delta ticket counters opened at my home airport, here in Orlando. So I Googled MCO DELTA TICKET COUNTER HOURS. Know what I found out from Delta and MCO-based websites? The Delta Sky Club hours. Ride sharing hours. Hours of the Global Entry Enrollment Center. But want to know what time the Delta ticket counters open at MCO? Too bad.
Frontier Airlines
Frontier’s website says ticket counters are generally open 2 hours before departure.
Hawaiian Airlines
Man oh man, Hawaiian’s website strongly pushes the use of check-in kiosks upon arrival at the airport!
They mention the maximum kiosk check-in time for guests with checked bags (4 hours before scheduled departure) and those without (24 hours prior to scheduled departure. Read: Don’t stop at the kiosks).
They also tell passengers the minimum kiosk check-in time for neighbor island destinations (30 min. prior to scheduled departure), North American destinations (45 min. prior), and international destinations (60 min.)
Trying to find actual ticket counter hours was fun, though. I knew they were in their system because I would see hits for individual airports, such as LAX or SEA. But I could only find a list of airports and anything close to the ticket counter times by searching keywords on their website, which gave me this page. It’s not very user-friendly that way, since the cities aren’t in alphabetical order, but at least it’s something. I’m sure there’s a dedicated page with this info; damned if I could find it, though.
JetBlue
JetBlue maintains a page on its website with information about each airport where it has a presence. That info includes what time their ticket counter opens at these airports.
Southwest Airlines
Southwest maintains a page on its website with information about each airport where it has a presence. That info includes what time their ticket counter opens at these airports.
Spirit Airlines
Spirit maintains a page on its website with information about each airport where it has a presence. That info includes what time their ticket counter opens at these airports.
United Airlines
United maintains a page on its website with information about each airport where it has a presence. That info includes what time their ticket counter opens at these airports.
Feature Photo: Pixabay
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3 comments
But sometimes the ticket counter opens earlier than TSA. Case in point: Had a 5:20 AM flight out of Providence, RI. Called Southwest and found out the ticket counter opened at 3:00. Got to the airport at 3:10. Parked, walked to the airport and checked my bag at 3:25. Waited around until security opened at 4:00.
Very true; I had a similar situation happen once with a very early flight. One of these days we’ll do a “What times does the TSA security line open?” post 😉
Allegiant does open almost always 2 hours before the flight. The counter may be open, but not for all flights. They generally won’t allow check-in, or accept checked bags, until exactly 2 hours before a specific flight’s departure. Some of this has to do with their reservation system (at least it did in the past where it was not easy to toggle between flights – at airports like Sanford they had ten different check-in lines all with signs saying which 1 or 2 cities could use that line) and how they pay for their ground staffing from outsourced providers.
Regarding the Southwest at PVD example, for the counter to open, it is just required for TSA checked baggage screening to be open (or somewhere that bags can be safely secured/monitored outside of the sterile area until screening opens). Most counters open at most 15 minutes or so before TSA gets going in the morning. Some airports this may be really really early and much earlier than passenger screening because a.) doesn’t take as much staffing, and b.) the nature of the market, i.e. golf bags or cruise markets…. lots of bags or oversize that take longer to screen.