Flight Plan B
A step-by-step backup plan on your phone for when a flight runs late, gets cancelled, or a connection breaks. $15 a trip, no subscription. This Vegas guide is free.
Try it free with a sample tripthe $15 checkout opens soonFlying out of Vegas this season? Here's how to move.
Convention season, F1, NFR, New Year's, CES. Millions coming through one airport. This is the departure playbook: which checkpoint, when the lines actually spike, where to park, and the eleven things regulars do that tourists don't.
Normal day: two hours. Crush day: 4-3-2-1.
The airport's own guidance is 2 hours domestic, 3 international. For the days below, the airport pushed a stricter plan during F1 2025 and it still holds: ride arranged 4 hours out, bags checked 3 hours out, in the TSA line 2 hours out, at the gate 1 hour out.
Worst banks on any week: 5–9 am and 3–7 pm, with Sunday afternoon and Monday morning after a convention the ugliest. Standard lanes run 40–50 minutes then; call it "up to an hour" on the big ones. PreCheck usually stays under 15.
The airport is worst the morning after.
| Event | Dates | Crowd | Airport crush |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raiders home games | Oct 18 · Oct 25 · Nov 15 · Dec 13 · Dec 20 · Dec 27 | ~65K | Monday morning after each |
| Money20/20 | Oct 18 – 21 | ~15K | Thu Oct 22 |
| SEMA (LVCC) | Nov 3 – 6 | ~160K | Sat Nov 7 · Sun Nov 8 |
| F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix | Nov 19 – 21 (race Sat night) | 300K+ | Sun Nov 22 · Mon Nov 23 — worst of the season |
| Thanksgiving | Nov 26 | — | Sun Nov 29 |
| AWS re:Invent + MJBizCon | Nov 30 – Dec 4 | ~90K combined | Fri Dec 4 · Sat Dec 5 |
| NFR (Thomas & Mack) | Dec 3 – 12 | 170K+ over 10 days | Sun Dec 13 (Raiders same day) |
| New Year's Eve | Dec 31 | 300K+ on the Strip | Jan 1 – 2 |
| CES 2027 | Jan 6 – 9 | ~140K | Sat Jan 9 · Sun Jan 10 |
This calendar runs through Jan 10, 2027; each event drops off the day after its crush day. Attendance figures are organizer or prior-year estimates. Sphere residencies add ~17K a night but rarely move the airport alone.
All three Terminal 1 checkpoints reach every A, B and C gate.
That is the whole trick. Nobody checks which checkpoint you used. Read the live feed, walk to the short one, and go. D gates are a tram ride from the C/D rotunda either way.
| Checkpoint | Terminal | Hours | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A/B Gates | 1 | 3:30 am – 1 am | PreCheck, CLEAR (4a–8p) |
| C Annex (Southwest side) | 1 | 3:05 am – 9:30 pm | PreCheck, CLEAR (4a–8p) |
| C/D Gates | 1 | 24 hours | PreCheck, CLEAR (4a–10p). The red-eye checkpoint. |
| Terminal 3, Level 2 | 3 | 3:30 am – 1:30 am | PreCheck, CLEAR (4a–8p) |
| Innovation Checkpoint, Level 0 | 3 | 6 am – 1:30 pm | PreCheck-eligible self-screening. No CLEAR. Usually empty. |
The airport's own pages give slightly different hours; these are the safe ones. Live and hourly-forecast waits: harryreidairport.com/security-wait-times (camera-based, launched April 2026). Terminal 1 = Southwest, Delta, American, Allegiant. Terminal 3 = United, Alaska, JetBlue, Hawaiian, international. Frontier and Sun Country moved in 2026 and sources disagree, so trust the boarding pass.
Insider moves, airport only.
- Check the live checkpoint feed before you get out of the car. Then walk to the short line, not the one under your airline's sign.
- Red-eye or pre-dawn from Terminal 1: C/D is the only 24-hour checkpoint. C Annex closes at 9:30 pm, A/B at 1 am.
- PreCheck, Terminal 3, flight before about 1:30 pm: Innovation Checkpoint, Level 0. Downstairs from the main checkpoint. Self-screening lanes, no CLEAR, usually the emptiest room in the building.
- Sunday afternoon or Monday morning after a convention: taxi, not rideshare. The taxi line at the curb moves. The rideshare drop curb is the one that jams.
- Event-week parking: reserve Terminal 3 even if you fly from Terminal 1. $16 Sat–Wed, $20 Thu–Fri, versus $30 for T1 reserved, and T1 fills first. Free T1↔T3 shuttle every 20–30 min, 10-minute ride, Level 0 of each garage. Rates since July 1, 2026: short-term $38/day, long-term $20, economy $14 (a short walk), the remote lot $14 with a free shuttle, valet $34.
- Southwest ended skycap at LAS in 2025. No curbside bag drop. Check in on the app, then the kiosk bag-tag line at the C Annex end of the Terminal 1 curb.
- Returning a rental on a crush day: be at the Rent-A-Car Center 2.5–3 hours before departure. 7135 Gilespie St, shuttle 10–15 minutes to Terminal 1 (returns pick up outside doors 10–11). Economy overflow parking is out there too, add 30 minutes if you get pushed to it.
- Terminal 1 gate a zoo? The D concourse is a 4-minute Blue Line ride with Shake Shack, Wolfgang Puck Express and a lounge, and the tram runs back. Front car both directions.
- Fountains are off, bottle-fill stations are on, post-security in both terminals (T3 has hot and cold). Bring an empty bottle. Airport water is $5+.
- Pick the seat with the outlet, not the pillar. Gate seating with built-in power and Recharge Zone workstations exist in both terminals.
- Runway-tunnel repaving through December 2026 on the Paradise / Tropicana approach. The airport's own banner says add drive time. Believe it.
Questions people ask
Is this Las Vegas airport guide free?
Yes. No signup. The paid app is for when your trip has a connection and the connection breaks.
How early should I get to the Las Vegas airport?
The airport's own guidance is 2 hours domestic, 3 international. On crush days the airport's stricter plan still holds: ride arranged 4 hours out, bags checked 3 hours out, in the TSA line 2 hours out, at the gate 1 hour out.
Which Las Vegas airport checkpoint is open 24 hours?
The C/D Gates checkpoint in Terminal 1. C Annex closes at 9:30 pm and A/B at 1 am.
Can I use any checkpoint in Terminal 1?
Yes. All three Terminal 1 checkpoints reach every A, B and C gate. D gates are a tram ride from the C/D rotunda either way.
Vegas is the easy part. The connection is where trips die.
Flight Plan B walks you through LAS in your ear, then does the same at the hub: DFW, DEN, PHX, ATL, ORD, CLT, SLC, IAH, MSP, SEA. When the connection breaks, it puts the order to try things in and the airline's rebooking link on your screen, saved on your phone ahead of time.
Try it free with a sample tripthe $15 checkout opens soonThe 30 days start when you pay, so buy it less than 30 days before your last flight. Round trip with no connection? Keep this page bookmarked and save your fifteen bucks. What the app does · Privacy