Hi, I just booked a private round trip transfer from Cancun airport to Playa Paraiso. They told me that I need to check in for my return flight 3 hours before the flight, and that the gate closes 1 hour before departure. Based on my prior experiences at the Cancun airport, I was aiming to arrive 1.5 hours before departure. I find it hard to believe that they actually close the gate 1 hour before departure... Unless this is new? Can anyone tell me their recent experiences, and let me know if I'm cutting it close by arriving 1.5-2 hrs before the flight?

Thanks in advance!

Cancun has a nasty reputation for long lines, multiple flights leaving/arriving at once, and low staff levels. When we flew out after Christmas last year we arrived more than 3 hours in advance and needed every second - our flight was boarding when we got to our gate. At one point I saw a list of airports requiring more than 2 hours and Cancun was one of them. Good luck!

CUN is clueless lots of flights arrive leave

at the same time many long lines especially in

upcoming high season. 2-3 hours for me for sure

Listen to your transfer company, they pick up and deliver many people at the airports. I have used USA Transfers and they monitor the status of all the flights for which they have passengers, they know more than you. American had very long lines this past May, I was on United and got there 2.5 hours early and was able to get checked in reasonably quickly, but the lines were starting to build after I got my boarding pass at the United counter.

Have a good trip.

American always has very long lines regardless of the time of the year. Frontier usually has shorter lines but they have added more flights for the high season so the lines may be longer. They will not let you check in if you arrive at the gate an hour or less before departure. My last close call was in Sept and I arrived at the check in at Frontier 1 hour and 2 minutes before departure. They were very upset with me but I got on. The people who got off the van after me and were in line behind me did not.

For international flights to the U.S., you have to be checked in at the one-hour mark, period. That means you need to have your boarding passes in hand and any checked luggage deposited by that moment. That's a TSA rule. That's the point at which the airline has to send off the passenger manifest. 59 minutes isn't good enough. Standing in line at the one-hour mark isn't good enough.

Like everyone else, I find CUN to be chaotic with long, slow-moving lines. You're taking a big risk arriving 1.5 hours before departure. Give yourself the whole three hours.

thanks everyone!

If one has access to the Priority line at AA or UA counters, does this rec still apply? Are the back-ups at the airline counters or at Immigration or both?

If you have elite status with your airline and they have a special check-in line, that'll help. You still have to have boarding pass in hand and bags dropped off for check-in at the one-hour mark. You're never exempt from that. Then you have to brave the security lines and those can be long if there are several flights leaving at once. I'd never chance 1.5 hours at CUN.

Thx Jeff - that explains a lot. I've flown out of CUN just twice but we got through relatively fast. I must have used AA's priority line which I imagine wasn't busy since CUN isn't a business destination. I do recall a long-ish line which must have been for immigration or security.

BTW -- I know with American Air (Delta, CO, and United must do this too?), they offer online check-in for international travel and the option to print your boarding passes 24 hrs prior to your flight (but printing hard to do at a hotel or rental so I always go to the counter anyway). This is useful/relevant only if you're not checking luggage, as Jeff points out. Anyway, not recommending this as a plan or anything as CUN clearly sounds like a mess -- but it's always nice to be checked into the system prior to arriving at any airport.

I just came home from Cancun last night. On a Wednesday during very low season we didn't have much of a wait anywhere. We flew Delta and we did fly first class so we had the quicker line at the ticket counter but there is no priority line for security. Even though we printed our boarding passes at a kiosk we still had to go to the ticket counter for documentation processing and baggage drop-off. It didn't really save us any time to print out the boarding passes beforehand. We arrived about 2 hours and 20 minutes before our flight time and we had lots of time. But if you are traveling during a busy time of year or a weekend I would give myself plenty of time to get through the whole process. The Cancun airport does seem to be a big mess. I think 1.5 hours is pushing it even under the best of circumstances.

If by chance you are entering the U.S. in Atlanta definitely give yourself LOTS of time to make your connection. We had ourselves a nice run through the airport to make our next flight. They had very few windows open at immigration and then ran us all over the place looking for our luggage. First it's on one carousel, then it's on another, and then, oh wait, we moved it again. Aarrgghh.

Not that you need another reply, but I agree with everyone. In February when leaving Playa del Carmen, our driver was driving fast and furious to get us to the airport with a minimum of 3 hours to spare. I had left some shopping to do in the airport, because I just KNEW that we would be sitting around with nothing to do. No shopping for me! It took every single second to get through. The lines were outrageously long and confusing, had to constantly ask people which line they were in. We had time to grab a bottled water and prepackaged sandwich and sprint to our gate. So yes you absolutely need 3 hours.

Cancun AP, like most airports wait times are dependent on time of day. If your flight is in the middle of the day or even late morning, yes, it can be a zoo and you might just need every second of 3 hours. I've flown out at 7 AM and spent most of 2 hours sitting at the gate waiting for someplace, ANYplace to open up so I could buy a bottle of water!
Leaving PDC at 3AM to catch a 7AM flight was a drag for sure but the airport at that time was breeze to get through.