Realistic time for flights out of Houston

[S.A.M.J.R.]

Cruising on RCI Harmony in July.  Disembark on a Saturday.  NOT early risers, anticipate/hope to get off the ship between 9-10.  What's a realistic flight to target out of HOU or IAH?  Guessing 12:30-1p from HOU (or later) and 2p or later for IAH?  

 

Planning on private car service, but don't know who yet (won't book until air is done). 

 

TIA

[SPacificbound]

I would pick 2PM IAH or Noon HOU.

[S.A.M.J.R.]

Thank you!

 

[Russ Lomas]

Question to all those out there who read this and have an answer for us based on personal experience.

 

We booked a 3:24 pm direct flight out of IAH to fly home.  Spirit just changed it and added a layover and booked us on our first flight at 11:33 am from IAH.  Is this doable at all, or will I need to call and get them to move us to a later flight?  Problem is the only later flight due to layover added will not get us into Detroit til after 11 pm and we still have a 3 hour drive home after that, making work and school the next day tough.

[SPacificbound]

Since Spirit changed the flight would you qualify for a refund to give you more choices of other airline flight times?

 

Galveston to IAH is 70 miles. 

 

If everything clicks in to place with no problems, you could make it, but there are just so many pieces that have to go just right, personally, I wouldn't chance it.

 

I'm local, there are just too many things that can go wrong. Fog in Galveston, Houston's infamous freeway traffic congestion, IAH having flight backups, etc. There have been thousands of flights cancelled this week due to the freeze. We just aren't set up for inclement weather.

[George C]

Anything after 1 pm for IAH , after noon for Hobby , we had a 12:20 and had plenty of extra time to hobby. 

[JHawk63]

On 1/16/2024 at 7:30 PM, Russ Lomas said:

Question to all those out there who read this and have an answer for us based on personal experience.

 

We booked a 3:24 pm direct flight out of IAH to fly home.  Spirit just changed it and added a layover and booked us on our first flight at 11:33 am from IAH.  Is this doable at all, or will I need to call and get them to move us to a later flight?  Problem is the only later flight due to layover added will not get us into Detroit til after 11 pm and we still have a 3 hour drive home after that, making work and school the next day tough.

IF everything went well & you did self departure, you could *probably* make it. Personally, I would be a nervous wreck. We've sailed several times out of Galveston, & twice have been delayed getting into port because of fog. One trip on Carnival, we didn't get off the ship until after 3 pm! You just never know what the weather will do. I'd go for a later flight.

 

[joepeka]

7 hours ago, JHawk63 said:

IF everything went well & you did self departure, you could *probably* make it. Personally, I would be a nervous wreck. We've sailed several times out of Galveston, & twice have been delayed getting into port because of fog. One trip on Carnival, we didn't get off the ship until after 3 pm! You just never know what the weather will do. I'd go for a later flight.

 

Just curious, we've only sailed from Galveston once (early July) and the only weather problem we had was thunderstorms on departure. On reading these board and viewing the Galveston web cam, it seems most of fog delay related problems are in the cooler months (i.e. November-March). Was that your experience?

[JHawk63]

2 hours ago, joepeka said:

Just curious, we've only sailed from Galveston once (early July) and the only weather problem we had was thunderstorms on departure. On reading these board and viewing the Galveston web cam, it seems most of fog delay related problems are in the cooler months (i.e. November-March). Was that your experience?

Yes...one time was January & another was April.

[sunsetme]

made a 11am flight out of Hobby today with no problem, self disembark and Uber

[S.A.M.J.R.]

53 minutes ago, sunsetme said:

made a 11am flight out of Hobby today with no problem, self disembark and Uber

What time were you off the ship?

[luvseaside]

On 1/21/2024 at 7:56 PM, sunsetme said:

made a 11am flight out of Hobby today with no problem, self disembark and Uber

Glad to hear that this is doable.  We originally had booked an 11:00 am flight but got nervous about weather and cancelled, rebooking for  late afternoon. We plan on doing self-disembark & Uber to HOU too - so hoping that maybe we can get to HOU early enough & change to the earlier flight. (We have a fare category that will allow this & so far that flight isn't booked up).  Crossing fingers!

[Russ Lomas]

On 1/17/2024 at 9:35 PM, SPacificbound said:

Since Spirit changed the flight would you qualify for a refund to give you more choices of other airline flight times?

 

Galveston to IAH is 70 miles. 

 

If everything clicks in to place with no problems, you could make it, but there are just so many pieces that have to go just right, personally, I wouldn't chance it.

 

I'm local, there are just too many things that can go wrong. Fog in Galveston, Houston's infamous freeway traffic congestion, IAH having flight backups, etc. There have been thousands of flights cancelled this week due to the freeze. We just aren't set up for inclement weather.

Well, making the 11:33 am flight will not be an issue any longer.  Spirit just cancelled our 11:33 am flight and moved us to a flight at 8:20 am.  Thanks, Spirit.  We are price watching other airlines to see what flights they offer that are doable and reasonably priced.  There are 4 or 5 flights we are watching but the price is about 3 to 4 times what we paid for the Spirit flights.  For now, we are holding onto our Spirit flights because they will likely change things 5 or 6 more times before we fly with them in 6 weeks.

 

They may even come up with a decent flight.  If we see a fair price on a different airline (Delta, AA, or United) that is more reliable in terms of not switching things every few days, we will book that and get a refund from Spirit.

[queen_kathy1]

Hi I have a similar question to this one.  I'm looking at booking a 12:15pm direct flight home to Toronto from IAH as I'm travelling with my 75yr old mom and would prefer a direct flight over connecting.  The next direct flight doesn't leave IAH until 6:30pm.   Since we clear customs in Canada, all we need to do is go through check-in/baggage drop and security.  I'm thinking if we get off the boat by 8am and even budget 2hr to get to IAH, is 2hr enough to be at the gate on time?  I'm getting very nervous when I read about fog delays, other weather issues that may impede our plans.  RCCL Harmony is to dock at Galveston at 7am on Sun Apr 28.  Advice here would be appreciated!

[normandes]

Late April is not a fog, hurricane or topical storm month.  I work out of IAH and commute from the Galveston Bay Area. You should be just fine.

[queen_kathy1]

17 hours ago, normandes said:

Late April is not a fog, hurricane or topical storm month.  I work out of IAH and commute from the Galveston Bay Area. You should be just fine.

Super - thank you, greatly appreciate it !!

[BallFour4]

Self-debark, have your flight times visible on your phone so you can go with first group and get rolling. You will be at HOU by 10:30 or 11.

 

.

[Colorado Buffalo]

OK.  What about a 1:25 p.m. Southwest flight out of IAH?

 

Suppose we would need to be on a shuttle or UBER by 9:45 a.m.

Is that cutting things close ?

[Texas Tillie]

5 hours ago, Colorado Buffalo said:

OK.  What about a 1:25 p.m. Southwest flight out of IAH?

 

Suppose we would need to be on a shuttle or UBER by 9:45 a.m.

Is that cutting things close ?

 

The odds are with you. The one fly in the ointment, Southwest has very few flights out of IAH, it's HOU where they predominate, and they do not put you on another carriers flight if there is an issue with their flight.

[paml]

On 2/4/2024 at 12:23 PM, queen_kathy1 said:

Hi I have a similar question to this one.  I'm looking at booking a 12:15pm direct flight home to Toronto from IAH as I'm travelling with my 75yr old mom and would prefer a direct flight over connecting.  The next direct flight doesn't leave IAH until 6:30pm.   Since we clear customs in Canada, all we need to do is go through check-in/baggage drop and security.  I'm thinking if we get off the boat by 8am and even budget 2hr to get to IAH, is 2hr enough to be at the gate on time?  I'm getting very nervous when I read about fog delays, other weather issues that may impede our plans.  RCCL Harmony is to dock at Galveston at 7am on Sun Apr 28.  Advice here would be appreciated!

I have a similar question also. Who are you getting to shuttle you to Iah that fast? Are they aware that your flight is early?

[mcleslie]

Sailing on Harmony, returning on Sun 4/14, if we are one of the first people off the ship, is there any possibility of making a 8:50 flight out of Hobby?  We’d have a driver waiting for us.

[Colorado Buffalo]

28 minutes ago, mcleslie said:

Sailing on Harmony, returning on Sun 4/14, if we are one of the first people off the ship, is there any possibility of making a 8:50 flight out of Hobby?  We’d have a driver waiting for us.

aren't you supposed to be at the airport 2 hours in advance ?

I'm not sure you can make it 1 hour in advance.

What if April 14th has fog that causes a late arrival?

don't do it

[Texas Tillie]

49 minutes ago, mcleslie said:

Sailing on Harmony, returning on Sun 4/14, if we are one of the first people off the ship, is there any possibility of making a 8:50 flight out of Hobby?  We’d have a driver waiting for us.

 

No, an 8:50 flight would start boarding at 8:20, 8:25 at the latest. Even on Sunday morning it would take about 45 minutes to get from the port to Hobby. There's just no way.

Edited March 14 by Texas Tillie

[tytanbri]

On 2/4/2024 at 4:40 PM, normandes said:

Late April is not a fog, hurricane or topical storm month.  I work out of IAH and commute from the Galveston Bay Area. You should be just fine.

When are the worst times of year for fog?

[Texas Tillie]

20 minutes ago, tytanbri said:

When are the worst times of year for fog?

 

Fog forms when the air temperature is higher than the water temperature, so over the winter into early spring. March is full on spring in Texas, by April the water has warmed up enough to get close enough to the air temperature. By summer the air is 90 something and the water is upper 80s.