Continental out of Newark

[canucknyc]

We have a 7am flight out of Newark. Continental told me to be there 1.5 hours ahead of time, but on their website it says to be there at least 2.5 hours ahead (4:30am?!). Anyone have any experience with this? When should we aim to be there? We will be doing online check-in the night before. Help

[SusanNJ]

Is it considered domestic or international? Okay I am not going to start that thread again. We usually take the early flights 7am, 7:20, etc. and tend to get there by 5am and have no problems (flying Continental out of EWR).

So if your flight is at 7am, if you get there by 5am that's more then enough time!

[jmq]

Depends on day of week you are flying.
Mon - Thurs EWR = quite busy with business flights so allowing 2 hrs is better.
Fri - Sunday 1.5 hrs would likely be OK, esp with on-line check in.

[canucknyc]

Thanks, guys. It's a Friday flight, so maybe 1.5 hours would work.... but I'd be stressing that I was going to miss the flight, so I'm guessing we'll give ourselves 2 hours.

Somehow 5am sounds much, much better than 4:30am

[BabaAus]

I hate subjecting myself to "airport freakout" so showed up for my Continental flight (out of Manchester, NH), on a Sunday evening, about 1 3/4 hours early and had plenty of time. In fact, I even got to sit, in the cramped commuter jet bound for NJ, on the tarmac for two grueling hours while we waited for takeoff clearance from the Newark tower (Goodbye connecting flight to STT!). Coming back it was a similar scene involving Newark except that we waited at the gate for a couple of hours for the jet that was taking us home to get clearance to depart some airport in Virginia (I think).

Moral of the story? Avoid Newark. It's one helluva busy airport!

[njhdrider]

If you are at Newark by six am you will be fine.