What time should we leave to go to airport in Vancouver on a Saturday?

[larrybritt]

Our cruise in July will return to Vancouver on Friday July 14th and we are going to stay the night at the Pan Pacific. Our flight is on Saturday at 10am. What time should we plan on leaving to head over? We are thinking of doing the Skytrain and i Imagine might not be to busy on Saturday morning but still want to have plenty of leeway as we are not but travelers. We also plan to take the Skytrain when we arrive on July 1st and are Staying at Pan Pacific, so hopefully we will be a little comfortable with the process.

[CruiserBruce]

Knowing where you are flying to would be required to give you a solid answer. If you are flying to the US, you need to clear US Immigration and Customs, which can take extra time. I would want to be in the airport well before 8am if flying to the US. 

[martincath]

2 hours ago, larrybritt said:

...Our flight is on Saturday at 10am. What time should we plan on leaving to head over? We are thinking of doing the Skytrain and i Imagine might not be to busy on Saturday morning but still want to have plenty of leeway as we are not but travelers.

SkyTrain travel time rarely varies more than a minute end to end as traisn are fully automated, so work backwards from how early you plan to be at the airport pre-flight:

• actual travel time should take ~26mins;
• worst case if you just miss an airport-bound train 10-12mins until the next one (weekend morning frequency not as high as peak commuter rush 7min, but much better than late night 20min);
• assume ~10mins for a leisurely walk from hotel to station and the same mins for airport station to check-in desks in case you're at the furthest away one.

 

All-in-all, leaving the hotel 1 hour before your comfortable airport arrival time is going to be more padding for travel than you will need over 99% of the time.

 

Hard cap for checked bags on any route is no more than 1 hour pre-flight at YVR, so even if you have Global Entry or NEXUS and are very comfortable showing up close to the wire I would strongly recommend being out of the PP by 8am at the absolute latest; for US-bound or Int'l flights 7am should be fine for any but the most nervous travelers on a Saturday morning, giving you something in the 2hr-2hr20min ballpark time pre-flight. Domestic Canadian flights (or first legs to elsewhere that go to another Canadian airport for a layover) you could push it to 7:30am very safely.

Edited June 5, 2023 by martincath

[larrybritt]

4 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

Knowing where you are flying to would be required to give you a solid answer. If you are flying to the US, you need to clear US Immigration and Customs, which can take extra time. I would want to be in the airport well before 8am if flying to the US. 

We are flying back to Myrtle Beach South Carolina. Just not being frequent travelers and no Problem getting up early we just want to get an idea of traffic. I figure Saturday morning won’t be too busy heading to airport. If we have to leave at 5am no problem. Just getting ideas from people that know. Thank you

[em-sk]

4 hours ago, larrybritt said:

We are flying back to Myrtle Beach South Carolina. Just not being frequent travelers and no Problem getting up early we just want to get an idea of traffic. I figure Saturday morning won’t be too busy heading to airport. If we have to leave at 5am no problem. Just getting ideas from people that know. Thank you

 

Skytrain is not going to be overly crowded heading out of downtown to the airport.  Most traffic is heading into the core.  Also being a Saturday it is going to lighter than a weekday.

 

At the airport it is going to be busy.  Many of the flights from Asia and Australia arrive early in the morning and a good number of those passengers are connecting onto the US.  Add in the local and cruise traffic.   It is busy but the lines tend to move quickly.  

 

You don't need to leave at 5AM.  I would head out around 7 AM and then grab breakfast at the airport once your past security and US customs.  If your in the US departures area there is a Starbucks and a sit down restaurant (named after the local hockey team) around gate E81 if you want a proper breakfast.