I just recieved the following email from the airline which will be schlepping me to Atlanta tomorrow night, emphasis mine:
Dear Valued Customer,
We see that you purchased a ticket for an upcoming flight with us. As you may know, federal authorities have issued new security procedures that may impact any upcoming travel.
As a result, you could experience delays at the airport. Please remember to pack lightly, travel with little or no carry on baggage (due to the potential screening delays at the security checkpoints) and arrive approximately three hours prior to your scheduled take-off time.
Oh, goody fuckin’ gumdrops.
3 HOURS?!?! are they serious? you’re gonna be standing in line (more or less) for about the same amount of time (give/take an hour) it’d take for your flight. that’s fucked.
Oh, they’re dead serious. At LAX it’s usually at least 20 minutes to get through when it’s “quiet”, an hour when it’s busy. Three hours with all this ridiculousness going on is probably going to be about right. I know others flying today who spent at least 2 hours in line for security this morning.