Early birds get the flights: Give yourself plenty of time at the airport, director says -- Great Falls International (KGTF), Montana

Better late than never doesn’t apply to boarding airlines.

Too many folks are cutting their arrival time at Great Falls International Airport too short, resulting in several people a day missing their flights, Airport Director John Faulkner said.

“We’ve heard some really hard-luck stories,” he said, such as parents taking kids to another town for medical appointments missing flights or a business person missing a flight to a city where he was scheduled to speak at a conference.

“We hear these stories all the time,” Faulkner said.

He urged passengers to arrive 90 minutes early, especially during the peak summer season when more people are flying, lengthening the time it takes for passengers to clear ticket counters and security checks. And with planes nearly filled, airlines might try to page a late passenger’s name before selling his or her ticket before takeoff.

Construction of the expanded terminal building with an improved check through system won’t be done for another month, he said, adding that the construction can add to the confusion that late-arriving passengers face.

“I know that folks have important reasons to fly, whether business or personal, so we like to remind them it’s critical to take time to arrive early enough to catch those flights,” Faulkner said.

Nearly every day as many as six to 10 people miss flights on Frontier, which is flying one of the bigger jets into Great Falls, a 138-passenger airliner, he said.

Under Frontier’s policy, passengers must have their boarding pass in hand 45 minutes prior to the flight in order to get through security, he said.

As a practical matter, that means arriving by 6 or 6:15 a.m., for the flight that departs at 7:40 a.m., he said.

And it’s not just Frontier, Faulkner said. Other airlines have similar policies, and most shut their ticket counters 30 to 45 minutes before flight time.

“Some people don’t realize that the time on their ticket is really the time when the plane is supposed to take off,” Faulkner said.

Some passengers are just a few minutes late and wonder why the flight can’t be held five minutes so they could board, he said.

“But Great Falls’ flights taking off at the beginning of the day simply can’t be held,” Faulkner said. “That’s because two-thirds of the passengers on most flights leaving here are trying to catch connecting flights once they reach such hub cities as Denver or Salt Lake City. And those folks might miss later flights if the flight out of Great Falls is delayed.”

Other people mistakenly assume they don’t have to arrive early at a smaller airport like Great Falls, but that’s not the case, Faulkner said.

“Bigger airports have more ticket counter workers and Transportation Security Administration agents doing security checks,” he said. “The number is proportional to the airport size, so Great Falls has fewer such workers then large airports and it takes just as long to get through ticket counters and security here. There’s no leeway.”

Airlines have differing policies for ticket holders who miss flights, Faulkner said.

In some cases, passengers are out of luck and can’t get refunds.

Even if they can get refunds, most airlines charge change fees of $100 before providing new tickets the next day. In addition, if passengers purchased early discount tickets for, say, $300, some airlines will charge them the spot price, which might be twice as much, for replacement tickets.

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