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Early flights when traveling with firearms

SheitlQueen
Explorer C

I have flown several times with firearms with SW and always taken later flights. I am interested in taking early flights-like anywhere from 5:00am to 7:00am and am wondering if this will cause any issues. Do SW counters open early enough to allow for additional time needed? In PDX TSA always looks through the suitcase, if I fly out of there early is there enough time? Or should I stick with later but less convenient flights?

2 REPLIES 2

Re: Early flights when traveling with firearms

magnum0041
Explorer C

I have made several early flights traveling with firearms and have not had an issue. The ticket counters typically open at 4 am (my experiences). Southwest is great at getting you processed quickly and on your way to security. I flew out of Las Vegas 09/16/18 at 6am. When the ticket agent was finished with me, I did have to wait for 15 minutes off to the side in case a TSA agent wanted to check it before allowing it to proceed. No issues and after the 15 minutes were up I was off to security and on to my gate. I always arrive early in case there are any problems. 

Re: Early flights when traveling with firearms

dfwskier
Aviator A

@magnum0041 wrote:

I have made several early flights traveling with firearms and have not had an issue. The ticket counters typically open at 4 am (my experiences). Southwest is great at getting you processed quickly and on your way to security. I flew out of Las Vegas 09/16/18 at 6am. When the ticket agent was finished with me, I did have to wait for 15 minutes off to the side in case a TSA agent wanted to check it before allowing it to proceed. No issues and after the 15 minutes were up I was off to security and on to my gate. I always arrive early in case there are any problems. 


Actually, airport opening times do vary a bit by airport. You can find out what yours is here:

 

https://www.southwest.com/html/air/airport-information.html

 

Times may vary in the future as Southwest  endeavors to open ticket counters about 90 minutes prior to flight time, so if Southwest changes the flight time of your airport's first flight , then the ticket counter opening could also change.

 

In any event, as magnum mentioned you should not experience any problems.