7 ms·

Coast-to-coast is definitely the best case scenario. I recently flew SEA->ATL, and it took 4.5 hours at mach ~0.7. So with airport time, let's say ~6 hours tota

Coast-to-coast is definitely the best case scenario. I recently flew SEA->ATL, and it took 4.5 hours at mach ~0.7. So with airport time, let's say ~6 hours total. Even ignoring differences in sub/supersonic flight (i.e., being unrealistically conservative), doubling my cruise speed to mach 1.5 would've increased fuel consumption by 4x while bringing my total travel time down to around 4 hours. So it'd be (probably significantly more than) 4x the cost just to reduce my travel time by 30%. Again, that's for the "best case" of coast-to-coast travel.

throwanem 10y ago
> So with airport time, let's say ~6 hours total. How'd you manage to spend (average) only 45 minutes in the airport on each end? Even pre-TSA, I never managed to go from front door to jetway that fast.
- fisherjeff 10y ago
  TSA Pre-Check plus no checked bags feels like some sort of travel revolution
  - dragonwriter 10y ago
    Probably not to people who remember travelling before 9/11 (and probably even less to people who remember travelling before the security measures implemented during the 1990 gulf crisis that continued until superceded by post-9/11 security.)
    - schoen 10y ago
      You used to be able to go through without showing any documents, and so friends and family members could come through security to meet arriving passengers at the gate (or say goodbye to departing passengers at the gate!). One time as a non-passenger I went through security at BDL two or three times either because of confusion about where to meet someone or just in order to buy food on the other side. The security guards didn't seem to think this was improper.
      - Kadin 10y ago
        I remember early-90s BDL also. The security guards were pretty relaxed. We enlisted their help in faking out a younger sibling who didn't know we were going to Disney World; they played along that we were just going to meet someone at the gate, and let someone else take all the bags through ahead of us. Wouldn't be remotely possible now. Then again, I also remember when kids were routinely let into the cockpit, either before takeoff or while cruising. Air travel used to be almost fun.
        eric_h 10y ago
        When I was a kid air travel was great fun! I got to visit the cockpit in every plane we flew in, including the Concorde. As a curious child, this was absolutely wonderful. Ah well, it seems that those days will never return.
        mikeash 10y ago
        Cockpit visits are still allowed on the ground, it's only in flight that it's no longer possible.
        eric_h 10y ago
        Well that's good, at least. I still remember when I was fortunate enough to failover to a concorde when our 747 was grounded ~20 years ago and got to visit the cockpit in flight. There was a seam between two portions of the cockpit (a little less than an inch wide) that only existed when the plane was supersonic, and it closed tight when not. Wouldn't have been able to scare a kid into thinking they could get their hand stuck in there if the plane was still on the ground ;) Of course whether or not in-flight cockpit visits were still allowed, that particular experience wouldn't happen anymore.
        DrScump 10y ago
        <I also remember when kids were routinely let into the cockpit> I wasn't a kid, but I got to hang out in the cockpit for a good-half hour on a cross-province Air Canada flight long after it was illegal in USA airspace (1990s). The amazing thing, apart from the scenery, was that you could see dozens of other jets in various headings and altitudes.
    - WildUtah 10y ago
      I used to walk through security barely slowing down and get on my flight without ever showing ID to anyone or checking in anywhere. And all the seats had actual knee room. I miss that feeling of freedom I used to get from air travel.
  - dmoy 10y ago
    It's the same as pre 2003 travel. Just, now you have to pay for it...
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- Roboprog 10y ago
  You could get into Sacramento's airport in 45 minutes in the 90s, although that would be cutting it close. And even today, you can walk out with carry-on only in about 10 minutes, with the expensive parking close to the bridgeway into the terminal. However, an hour and a half to get in with TSA "at your service" feels like cutting it really close, and I'm talking about "Smurf" (SMF), not San Francisco or San Jose.
- granos 10y ago
  I've been able to get from the airport entrance to my gate in under 30 minutes. It was around 2am going from LAX to PHL and there was a long-ish (maybe 20 min wait??) line behind us at security. We still waited another 45 minutes at the gate. So 1 hour on the departure end is reasonable. At arrival I don't see 1 hour being unreasonable either.
- bewaretheirs 10y ago
  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.
  - schoen 10y ago
    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).
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
  - brbsix 10y ago
    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.
  - dalke 10y ago
    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.
  - jeffasinger 10y ago
- the_watcher 10y ago
  Really? TSA pre-check, carry-on only or already have your baggage tags printed out, go through security like you've done it before (don't wait until you are about to go through the backscatter machine to take off shoes, belts, etc). Outside of the busiest airports or high-travel dates, shouldn't ever take more than 45 minutes.
- Buttons840 10y ago
  In Salt Lake City I recently saw on the local news that our airport recommended arriving 3 hours early for your flight. At the end of the report the news-caster said that SLC airport had below average wait times, as if that was suppose to make me feel better. It didn't. "Things are bad here, but the good news is it's worse everywhere else." \s
  - Swizec 10y ago
    At SFO you can go from entrance to on-plane in 40 minutes for a transatlantic flight. I like SFO.
    - DrScump 10y ago
      At SFO, the trick is getting from your origin elsewhere in the Bay Area to the entrance in the first place.
      - tlrobinson 10y ago
        15 minutes without traffic or 30 minutes with traffic from SF to SFO isn't bad at all. Here's a map with travel times: http://www.trulia.com/local/94128/driving:1%7Ctransit:0%7Cposition:37.617392;-122.384492%7Ctime:30_commute http://www.trulia.com/local/94128/driving:1%7Ctransit:0%7Cpo...
        DrScump 10y ago
        Move the pointer to central SF (and Trulia will assume you have instant access to the freeway). 30 minutes with no traffic. Not 15. But anyway, I was talking about the entrance. 30 minutes would barely get you from central SF to the airport ramp with a mostly empty 101. But that's not the problem. Getting parked and a shuttle in will be at least 45 minutes, if you get a shuttle faster than normal. Taking BART to SFO entrance: check the schedules. You'll be surprised how much of the day it doesn't run at all.
        10y ago
- colejohnson66 10y ago
  Red eye flights at Long Beach. Went through TSA in like 5 minutes. Seriously.
  - rtkwe 10y ago
    Yeah flying out at odd times and/or odd days can save you a lot of frustration dealing with the TSA lines. The worst of the lines are due to commuter or holiday traffic 99% of the time and the rest of the time you can breeze right up to the scanners and be through in a few minutes. They kind of have to advertise the worst wait times though because if they say 1 hour non peak and 3 hours peak the times the airport or the traveler gets it wrong the airport will catch the blame.
- ocdtrekkie 10y ago
  I use O'Hare airport, one of the ten worst airports in the US. I never take a whole 45 minutes to get to my gate. Nor do I have any precheck or anything. I just pack light and check in online. Baggage dropoff and claim is what kills you.
  - vehementi 10y ago
    I travel about once a month to the US and back to Canada... the security lineup can take up to an hour sometimes leaving SFO. So if I don't want to have a chance to miss my flight, I have to arrive 2 hours early really.
    - ocdtrekkie 10y ago
      Oh, I always arrive early. No reason to take the risk, I can always sit and read a book. But I spend a lot more time waiting than I ever have getting to the gate. It's really just an overabundance of caution.
      - sokoloff 10y ago
        Many people (including me) consider the imposed waiting at the gate time part of the travel time. Whether from an abundance of caution or rational reaction to the wide variability of security procedures (and ground transport), it's still part of the total trip time.
        ocdtrekkie 10y ago
        That's fair. Though I've yet to actually need that time, so I feel arriving at the airport with less than an hour to go is a realistically acceptable thing I could do.
    - xycodex 10y ago
      did you sign up for tsa precheck and/or clear? If you travel that much the amortized cost would make sense. You basically get inserted into the line right after the "check id" part and don't have to take off shoes/ laptops
- odonnellryan 10y ago
  Post TSA, I've shown up to a Florida airport ~15 minutes before takeoff and have made it. Extremely lucky (mistake on person who bought my ticket's end) but it happened.
deleted 10y ago
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throwanem 10y ago

> So with airport time, let's say ~6 hours total. How'd you manage to spend (average) only 45 minutes in the airport on each end? Even pre-TSA, I never managed to go from front door to jetway that fast.

fisherjeff 10y ago
TSA Pre-Check plus no checked bags feels like some sort of travel revolution
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  Probably not to people who remember travelling before 9/11 (and probably even less to people who remember travelling before the security measures implemented during the 1990 gulf crisis that continued until superceded by post-9/11 security.)
  - schoen 10y ago
    You used to be able to go through without showing any documents, and so friends and family members could come through security to meet arriving passengers at the gate (or say goodbye to departing passengers at the gate!). One time as a non-passenger I went through security at BDL two or three times either because of confusion about where to meet someone or just in order to buy food on the other side. The security guards didn't seem to think this was improper.
    - Kadin 10y ago
      I remember early-90s BDL also. The security guards were pretty relaxed. We enlisted their help in faking out a younger sibling who didn't know we were going to Disney World; they played along that we were just going to meet someone at the gate, and let someone else take all the bags through ahead of us. Wouldn't be remotely possible now. Then again, I also remember when kids were routinely let into the cockpit, either before takeoff or while cruising. Air travel used to be almost fun.
      - eric_h 10y ago
        When I was a kid air travel was great fun! I got to visit the cockpit in every plane we flew in, including the Concorde. As a curious child, this was absolutely wonderful. Ah well, it seems that those days will never return.
        mikeash 10y ago
        Cockpit visits are still allowed on the ground, it's only in flight that it's no longer possible.
        eric_h 10y ago
        Well that's good, at least. I still remember when I was fortunate enough to failover to a concorde when our 747 was grounded ~20 years ago and got to visit the cockpit in flight. There was a seam between two portions of the cockpit (a little less than an inch wide) that only existed when the plane was supersonic, and it closed tight when not. Wouldn't have been able to scare a kid into thinking they could get their hand stuck in there if the plane was still on the ground ;) Of course whether or not in-flight cockpit visits were still allowed, that particular experience wouldn't happen anymore.
      - DrScump 10y ago
        <I also remember when kids were routinely let into the cockpit> I wasn't a kid, but I got to hang out in the cockpit for a good-half hour on a cross-province Air Canada flight long after it was illegal in USA airspace (1990s). The amazing thing, apart from the scenery, was that you could see dozens of other jets in various headings and altitudes.
  - WildUtah 10y ago
    I used to walk through security barely slowing down and get on my flight without ever showing ID to anyone or checking in anywhere. And all the seats had actual knee room. I miss that feeling of freedom I used to get from air travel.
- dmoy 10y ago
  It's the same as pre 2003 travel. Just, now you have to pay for it...
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
Roboprog 10y ago
You could get into Sacramento's airport in 45 minutes in the 90s, although that would be cutting it close. And even today, you can walk out with carry-on only in about 10 minutes, with the expensive parking close to the bridgeway into the terminal. However, an hour and a half to get in with TSA "at your service" feels like cutting it really close, and I'm talking about "Smurf" (SMF), not San Francisco or San Jose.
granos 10y ago
I've been able to get from the airport entrance to my gate in under 30 minutes. It was around 2am going from LAX to PHL and there was a long-ish (maybe 20 min wait??) line behind us at security. We still waited another 45 minutes at the gate. So 1 hour on the departure end is reasonable. At arrival I don't see 1 hour being unreasonable either.
bewaretheirs 10y ago
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.
- schoen 10y ago
  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).
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- brbsix 10y ago
  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.
- dalke 10y ago
  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.
- jeffasinger 10y ago
the_watcher 10y ago
Really? TSA pre-check, carry-on only or already have your baggage tags printed out, go through security like you've done it before (don't wait until you are about to go through the backscatter machine to take off shoes, belts, etc). Outside of the busiest airports or high-travel dates, shouldn't ever take more than 45 minutes.
Buttons840 10y ago
In Salt Lake City I recently saw on the local news that our airport recommended arriving 3 hours early for your flight. At the end of the report the news-caster said that SLC airport had below average wait times, as if that was suppose to make me feel better. It didn't. "Things are bad here, but the good news is it's worse everywhere else." \s
- Swizec 10y ago
  At SFO you can go from entrance to on-plane in 40 minutes for a transatlantic flight. I like SFO.
  - DrScump 10y ago
    At SFO, the trick is getting from your origin elsewhere in the Bay Area to the entrance in the first place.
    - tlrobinson 10y ago
      15 minutes without traffic or 30 minutes with traffic from SF to SFO isn't bad at all. Here's a map with travel times: http://www.trulia.com/local/94128/driving:1%7Ctransit:0%7Cposition:37.617392;-122.384492%7Ctime:30_commute http://www.trulia.com/local/94128/driving:1%7Ctransit:0%7Cpo...
      - DrScump 10y ago
        Move the pointer to central SF (and Trulia will assume you have instant access to the freeway). 30 minutes with no traffic. Not 15. But anyway, I was talking about the entrance. 30 minutes would barely get you from central SF to the airport ramp with a mostly empty 101. But that's not the problem. Getting parked and a shuttle in will be at least 45 minutes, if you get a shuttle faster than normal. Taking BART to SFO entrance: check the schedules. You'll be surprised how much of the day it doesn't run at all.
        10y ago
colejohnson66 10y ago
Red eye flights at Long Beach. Went through TSA in like 5 minutes. Seriously.
- rtkwe 10y ago
  Yeah flying out at odd times and/or odd days can save you a lot of frustration dealing with the TSA lines. The worst of the lines are due to commuter or holiday traffic 99% of the time and the rest of the time you can breeze right up to the scanners and be through in a few minutes. They kind of have to advertise the worst wait times though because if they say 1 hour non peak and 3 hours peak the times the airport or the traveler gets it wrong the airport will catch the blame.
ocdtrekkie 10y ago
I use O'Hare airport, one of the ten worst airports in the US. I never take a whole 45 minutes to get to my gate. Nor do I have any precheck or anything. I just pack light and check in online. Baggage dropoff and claim is what kills you.
- vehementi 10y ago
  I travel about once a month to the US and back to Canada... the security lineup can take up to an hour sometimes leaving SFO. So if I don't want to have a chance to miss my flight, I have to arrive 2 hours early really.
  - ocdtrekkie 10y ago
    Oh, I always arrive early. No reason to take the risk, I can always sit and read a book. But I spend a lot more time waiting than I ever have getting to the gate. It's really just an overabundance of caution.
    - sokoloff 10y ago
      Many people (including me) consider the imposed waiting at the gate time part of the travel time. Whether from an abundance of caution or rational reaction to the wide variability of security procedures (and ground transport), it's still part of the total trip time.
      - ocdtrekkie 10y ago
        That's fair. Though I've yet to actually need that time, so I feel arriving at the airport with less than an hour to go is a realistically acceptable thing I could do.
  - xycodex 10y ago
    did you sign up for tsa precheck and/or clear? If you travel that much the amortized cost would make sense. You basically get inserted into the line right after the "check id" part and don't have to take off shoes/ laptops
odonnellryan 10y ago
Post TSA, I've shown up to a Florida airport ~15 minutes before takeoff and have made it. Extremely lucky (mistake on person who bought my ticket's end) but it happened.

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