Make Sure Your Safety Line Is Not Obstructed Before Flying
What’s worse than a long, winding airport security line with no visible end? A closed line – no access to your flight – as recently discovered by one traveler.
In a recent Reddit thread, u / I-ThotYouSaidWeast described what is likely to be a nightmare for your next trip.
“Not knowing that the TSA at Dallas Airport closes at 11:30, I come back from dinner after another stop and find that everything is closed,” he wrote. “They refused to open (understandably) security lines, so now I have to reschedule my flight.”
And it’s true – not all airport security lines operate around the clock. Major hubs like Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airport (which hires a third-party contractor for security rather than your regular TSA agents) have strict opening hours. According to an exchange I did with one TSA representative, at airports like JFK in New York, airport and airline hours are set based on flight schedules. The security lines of individual terminals also differ depending on the flight schedule.
When can you survive the horror of a closed security line? Well, any early flight or late night stopover, when you might find that the security line is closed prematurely, or during a significant delay. Here’s what the Points Guy said about the dangers of a delayed overnight flight:
Airlines expect you to check in and through security based on your originally scheduled departure, even if your flight is delayed. You can take your chances and show up for the updated departure times, but keep in mind that these are approximate times .
In other words, when your flight is delayed, you may find that the security line is closed if you decide to arrive later than planned.
And before you blame the TSA, remember that the government shutdown affected security agents everywhere – many were left unpaid for weeks of work. And sometimes 24-hour flights don’t make sense when you consider any small regional airport without 24-hour flights.
So, before booking an early flight, what should you do to avoid staring at your gate through a glass partition?
Well, I’ll be honest – standardized security hours are not easy to research. (If you do an online search for specific opening hours for your airport, you might get results, but many of them are for TSA-PreCheck watches, which are still useful but not relevant to general security line hours.) Instead, you you can contact TSA directly to solve your problem, which is actually quite simple. You can even send them a Facebook message , but remember to do so well before your flight.
If your flight is very early, you can bet that your safety line will be open two hours before your scheduled departure. If your flight is delayed much later than the scheduled time, unfortunately, you may have to travel to the airport early to be safe. (Plus, you don’t want to risk your latency suddenly shortening while you’re still at home.) As for overnight stops, don’t risk it unless you have explicit opening hours for your airport and terminal.
And if you miss your fight, you should contact your airline immediately to rebook you for your next flight. And yes, you may have to pay for a new ticket, with some exceptions, such as if you had a medical emergency or an accident, so be prepared to bear the brunt of the extra costs.