Be at SEA two hours before a domestic departure and three before an international one. That still doesn’t tell you what time to leave the house, so put in your departure time and adjust the drive, parking and bags.
Every row is editable. Tap the departure or any duration and the plan recomputes backward. The first travel row is your leave-by time.
Until you know your gate, budget for the longer walk. A far gate at SEA adds a ride before the walk.
Alaska uses the N satellite on top of its C and D gates, and the S satellite handles most long-haul and international departures.
The 25-minute drive is a typical run from Seattle without traffic. In the app, set Seattle-Tacoma International as the destination and Apple Maps fills in the time from where you’re leaving.
Still check traffic for the hour you’ll go (real drive to SEA). Change the row and every step before it moves.
A maps app covers the drive to SEA. Bag drop, security, and the walk to your gate usually take longer, and they are the steps people misjudge.
Here is the same plan drawn to scale. The first block is travel; the next two are the airport. A checked bag grows one, a far gate grows the other.
Front door to boarding: 2hr 36min
Two hours domestic, three international
Ahead of your departure time
That is a solid default here. Trim it only on routes and hours you already know well.
SEA's checkpoint lines have been among the country's longest in recent summers; the airport's own guidance leans earlier than most, and it's worth taking seriously. The gates spread across four concourses and two satellites, and the satellites are only reachable by underground train, so the leg after the checkpoint varies more here than at most airports.
SEA offers a free line-reservation program (SEA Spot Saver) for general screening on many airlines. Booking a slot the day before turns the worst variable in the building into a known one. The N and S satellite gates are reached by underground train. There are six checkpoints but only two of them run PreCheck, which is the detail that catches people who assume any lane will do.
The plan allows 30 minutes for a standard lane on a busy but normal morning. With TSA PreCheck, that drops to 15 minutes. A checked bag lengthens the one before it.
Link light rail runs from downtown to the airport in about 40 minutes and doesn't care what I-5 is doing. The parking garage connects directly to the terminal by skybridge, which makes driving unusually predictable once you're there. Concourse C and the North Satellite are both Alaska's, so a single airline can mean either a short walk or the underground train.
For live waits, parking, and terminal maps, check the official SEA site.
Terminals, checkpoints and transit change; the official SEA site is the live source.
Save this SEA plan in Ready Time and it tells you when to start packing and when to leave for the airport.
Ready Time
You know what you need to do. Ready Time helps you know when to start.
Be at SEA two hours before a domestic departure and three before an international one. That is a solid default here. Trim it only on routes and hours you already know well. The plan above works back from there through security, bag drop, parking and the drive to a leave-by time.
The plan allows 30 minutes for a busy-but-normal standard lane. With TSA PreCheck it drops to 15 minutes, and you can edit either one to what you actually see. A checked bag lengthens the step before it. Checkpoint detail for SEA is in the section above.
Earlier than for a domestic one. International boarding starts 45 minutes before departure instead of 30, which pulls every step earlier. Use the airline desk for bags: documents get checked and counters often close an hour out. That also covers lap infants, unaccompanied minors, and oversized bags. If your boarding pass names a boarding time, match that.
Work backward from departure: boarding, time at the gate, the walk, the ride out to your concourse, security, bag drop, parking, then the drive (25 minutes in the default plan). Replace the drive with your own route. The leave-by moment is the first travel row, "Drive to SEA" by default.
Taking the train instead? The Amtrak station pages use the same kind of plan without security. The leave time calculator works for any appointment, and the wake-up time calculator runs it back to the alarm.
Two hours early still leaves the morning open: when to pack, when to leave. The plan keeps subtracting past the drive until it lands on a start time. Ready Time saves that chain and alerts you at each step, and can pick the flight up from your calendar.
Get a nudge at the right moment, while there's still time to act.
Each step gets its own alert, so you know what's next and how long you have.
“I get so tired of counting backward to when I should start my task. This app is the solution.”App Store review
Ready Time
You know what you need to do. Ready Time helps you know when to start.
Plans for the rest of the trip