Anyone flown recently from KC or knows in general what to expect? So I need to plan to get there super early?

I have a trip on Monday and have to take a 6.5 AR (not taking any ammo). Its in a hard sided case with non-approved locks. Do I need to change the locks?

It's been a long time since I've flown with a firearm and I know that messing it up can be costly.

I would go to SWA's website and print out their policy for flying with firearms then go to the baggage check in SWA desk with your rifle in locked case.  If your flight is not at rush hour times I'd still give yourself 2 hours to account for any BS that may happen.

No big deal at STL with swa.  In any city Swa is usually the easiest one.  Not usually a big deal in larger cities, but slow airports sometimes dont know what to do.  Frontier is not very well trained on it.

They just give you a card to sign saying its unloaded and that's about it.  The card will go on the inside of your rifle case.  But if it's a pistol in a little case going in a suitcase, then put the card on the outside of the case, but on the inside of the suitcase.  They'll try to make you put it inside the locked case, but dont let them.  TSA needs to see the card if they open the suitcase.

In places like denver, they'll walk you and your suitcase to the tsa station, then back to the counter to put it on the conveyor.  Other places they just tell you to hang out for 10-15 minutes while it clears.

Thanks for the advice. Went as smooth both flights as checking a normal bag.