Best way to Malpensa airport

Google "Malpensa Express".
There are trains from both Milano Cadorna and Milano Centrale. From Cadorna it's 15 min faster, but if you are near Centrale it's probably about that same.

Thanks for the quick responses!
Are these tickets that we should buy in advance or day-of?

No pre-purchase necessary or recommended. You can buy on the spot or day before, or whenever.
As with all Regional trains, you need to validate (date stamp) the ticket at the validating machines before boarding.

If you buy the ticket ahead of time, make sure you choose the date that you will use it.

As the others have said, the Malpensa Express is the quickest and easiest method (about 52 minutes from Centrale), and no worries about traffic delays.

One suggestion I wanted to add...... I normally buy tickets for the airport trip the day prior to departure, using the Kiosks at the station. That way I don't have to bother with that while hauling luggage and trying to get to the train. As mentioned, it's crucial that you specify the correct day of travel when you buy the tickets, and also crucial that you validate these prior to boarding the train on the day of travel. If you forget either of those steps, you'll be subject to hefty fines which will be collected on the spot!

If you are from the U.S., it's likely your CC won't work for tickets, however, the machines take cash.

Here is an alternative, which I used...

http://ticketonline.malpensashuttle.it/%5Fen/

Thanks all! We will get the tickets the day before, I like that suggestion. And since its to fly home, sadly, we will be sure about the date to purchase for! We are flying back to the U.S. via Toronto. Will make sure the have the Euros for the purchase.

No worries. You can purchase tickets when you need them. Either way, from
Milano Centrale or the airport.

Addendum: if your cc is chip and pin, you can use at ticket kiosk. We did and had no problem.

As your hotel is close to the station, it will be very easy to buy tickets the day prior to travel. The ticket office is on the ground floor so you won't even have to climb any stairs or use an escalator - http://www.milanocentrale.it/en/service/detail/biglietteria . There are a number of Kiosks adjacent to the ticket office, so you can use those rather than waiting in the queue. If you haven't used the Kiosks before, they're very easy to use and have an English language option. I normally use the Kiosks.

Trenord also has a phone app, which makes buying super easy. You can buy the tickets on your phone, and have them there to show to the conductor when he or she passes through the train looking at tickets. You won't have to validate or anything, since it's digital. My experience is that they hardly check tickets, but you don't want to take that chance.

So, if our flight is set to depart at 12:10PM, if we planned on the 8:55AM train that would give us a little over 2 hours at the Malpensa airport. Having never gone through that airport, will that be a sufficient amount of time?

We recently took the 8:55 trenord malpensa express from Milano Centrale to malpensa for an 11:55 flight. Our airline itinerary said terminal 2, which is only for the small airline Easy Jet. It took us about 30 minutes to get back to terminal 2 and check in. Be sure to get off at terminal 1!

Security was pretty unorganized and took a longer time than at other airports we have encountered.

In the end we were actually at the station when the 8:25 rain left and probably would have been better off taking the earlier train.

Second point. Buy tix online now if you know the time and date. We did that and just showed our tickets on the phone. And you don't have to validate your tickets at the station or worry about having to stop at a kiosk at all. Good luck!

A friend just returned from Milan. She had a 12 pm flight from Terminal 2 and arrived at Malpensa 2.5 hours before - there was a long security line and they had absolutely extra time.

We have an 11 am flight on 9/28 from Terminal 1 and are planning on leaving Milan around 6:30 am. Still deciding between the bus or the train from Central Station.

I would get to the airport 3 hours ahead.

I came back to the US on a flight from MXP to ATL on July 12. I also was in a hotel about a 10 minute walk from Milano Centrale. The flight left at 11 and the guidelines were to be there 3 hours early. This was my experience.

I bought my train ticket the day before from a live person in a ticket office at the train station. It was good for anytime the next day. Much to my surprise, I got checked out of the hotel and to the track in time to take the 06:55 train. There was almost no one on it. It got to Terminal 1 before 08:00.

Do not underestimate the distances you have to walk at MXP. I was flying Delta. It is the farthest check-in area there is from the entrance. There were already lots of people in line. I finished the process at about 09:00, so it took over an hour to walk to the check-in area and get through the line.

Then it was time to walk back the other direction to the gates. You are given lots of opportunities to buy stuff on the way. There are signs telling you how many walking minutes to whatever as you walk along. That includes passport control, which went faster than expected, and security which didn't. I'd bet the lines at both get longer the later it gets.

There are some moving sidewalks, but it took at least 45 minutes to get to the Delta gate for my flight. There is one little cafe in the area. It's a godsend if you have to leave your hotel before breakfast starts.

There's very little seating for passengers. In fact there was no seating at all near my gate and the one next door to it. People just milled around and chatted, making it very difficult to hear any announcements. At least there were plenty of toilets.

The point here is that there is a reason why they want you to be there 3 hours before takeoff on an international flight. I barely had time for a cappuccino and a croissant before my flight started boarding.

Trenord, which runs the Malpensa Express, has an iPhone app (and probably one for Android). It's super easy to use. You can buy your ticket right from the app and show it on the train if the conductor comes around.

Allowing just 2 hours might work, but if any little thing goes wrong, you may still be in the airport when your plane leaves.

Seeing these additional comments, think we will aim for the 7:55 train. As one said 'you may still be in the airport when you plan leaves', no thanks! Thanks all!

It is like the old cliche, "Which is worse?? Being an hour early or five minutes late?" Your choice.