Time to arrive at airport. PDX and ATH

The last 3 times I traveled from PDX (most recent being Feb of this year) the lines through security were insanely long (I had a 6ish a.m. flight on the last trip and there were at least 500 people in line during the entire 45 minutes. TSA kept folks moving, but if you have a similar experience to mine, there goes the first of your three hours.

Yikes! We have a 7:00 a.m. flight to France out of PDX next month. We have Global Entry/TSA pre-check so hopefully those lines are open and faster.

Our flights in January, February and April out of PDX, through security in less than 15 minutes, including shoes on and all packed up and ready to fill our water bottles. Haven't seen lines over 500 ever, we do not have precheck. Really curious what time of day you went through? Ours were all 6-8 am flights, so we have been there at 4 -6 am. But I can see from the airport website there are double the number of planes going each day during the morning now.

My husband had a 10:00 am flight two weeks ago from PDX to SFO for work and the TSA line was ~20 minutes. He did not use pre-check.

I flew PDX to AMS in early June and arrived 3 hours early for a 1:30 p.m. flight and had way too much time, no line at TSA (I have PreCheck but my travel companion did not - we both used the regular line and it took 4 minutes).

I've flown the 6 a.m. ATL flight multiple times and you should be ok arriving right when the counters open at 4. I've stayed at Country Inn and Suites near airport for early flights and it was comfortable and they have a shuttle. If you're able, check in online ahead of time, but if you're needing to show proof of vaccination for an international flight, it's possible you'll still have to engage with desk staff. None of my FlyReady info seemed to be noticed when we checked in at PDX (but it was on my return from Europe, weird). The ATL Delta flight leaves from D gates. Since the airport is under construction they have two dedicated TSA checks (one for A/B and one for D/E - no longer able to get between the terminals) so make sure you go to the right one. And after security there is a pretty long round about hallway passage to get to the gates - but even then it only adds 5 minutes to your walking time. If you're early check out the new E terminal and the hidden room at the Tender Loving Empire store, where they have a side room with the old PDX carpet. Hopefully you have plenty of connection time in Atlanta as that's where my travel woes have occurred in the past.

Sorry can't answer the question about Athens, but you might want to check the ongoing thread related to Amsterdam airport - I personally had no insanity but that was unusual. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/netherlands/schiphol-is-still-a-mess

FWIW if you are returning to PDX from Amsterdam, I did have about a 25 minute wait at PDX immigration which was very slow compared to prior returns. If you need to, use the bathroom before you get in line to chat with passport control (nice greeters were suggesting this while we waited in line). After going through passport control, you have to take a shuttle bus from the arrival gate way out around the the end of D terminal and then on to baggage claim (carousel 10). There was a bit of a wait for the shuttle. Total arrival process took about 40 minutes (in 2019 it was about 10). More info here.

We were just at Athens airport. We were the almost 3 hours ahead of time because we had to return a car and wanted a cushion. We checked our bag which took less than 15 minutes. Security also was very fast. We were at the gate at least 2 hours ahead of time.

Then we waited. And waited.

I don’t think 3 hours is necessary. I had done 2 hours in 2018 and lines didn’t seem any different to me.

We were flying directly to USA and changing planes there.

Thanks for all the info. I knew about D and E gates being different security and just did a check on fly pdx and it appears that there are triple the number of planes going out of D and E half of the airport in the first couple hours, our flight is there also. We haven’t flown out of that side in quite a while. We have almost four hours in Atlanta scheduled. We did put our info they asked for into delta's flyready and it said we were good but who knows if I will be able to check in online or not. And we are checking bags. The plan now is to arrive at 4 am at the counter and we may change our minds. Patience… and lots of it will be needed.

We arrive at SFO 4 hours before. I have TSA Pre Check so it speeds up the process and require Special Assistnace due to my medical condition. I get through pretty quickly.

In Europe its generally 3 hours give or take before the flight but if the ticket counters open up 4 hours before I will arrive early.

One option is to book a Hotel at PDX and be one of the first in line when the counters open.

We have boarding passes on our phones through to Athens, I was surprised that I was able to get that for an international flight, but I did scan our passports. We will print the bag check labels at kiosk and move to security. We will arrive at 4 am. I am not staying at hotel at PDX, one more pack and unpack of the stuff takes time, it is not worth it as I can 100% state I will sleep more at home than hotel room. My backup plan flight has been cancelled already. Patience