AIBU to ask if people are arriving at airports four hours early?✈️

We flew on Sunday from Manchester, it was fine arriving 2 hours before as normal. It was busy but no busier than I’ve seen it. Still had chance to sit and have a breakfast and coffee before boarding.
though admittedly DH just reminded me we fast tracked security, but even then the non fast track line looked plenty fast!

I’m American and as far as I’m concerned, traveling within Europe is basically the equivalent of a domestic flight. The usual recommendation here is around two hours early, and even for an international flight it’s generally three so unless that specific airport or airline has issued a warning about major delays, I’m not sure why anyone would need to arrive four plus hours early???

I’m allowing three hours to return to UK now because of passport control queues, though when I recently flew back from Copenhagen, passport control was gate dependent, and it only went up an hour before the flight. Cue a lot of panic when the system stopped working! I did fly back from LAX a couple of years ago and gave myself 3 hours, we only just made the plane. I’ll allow 4 hours from there in the future.

it’s annoying it takes so long to leave a country to come back to the uk, it seems pretty easy to leave the uk regardless of where you are going!

edited to add: I stick to 2hrs max when leaving the uk

No. We did Birmingham to Ibiza earlier this summer, did the twilight bag drop the night before and got to the airport 2 hours before the flight. Straight through security and had plenty of time to shop/eat.

Return flight was even quicker, check in and security took twenty minutes max.

I don't get out of bed 4 hours before a flight!! 90min with hand luggage or twilight bag drop, 2hrs with hold bags at our local airport.

Manchester airport T2 security queue was over 90 mins last thurs (16th July) and we were there 2.5 hrs early so after queue to drop luggage off then security.

It then said go straight to gate so no time for any food or shopping - seems ridiculous that in peak summer they have 3 or 4 security belts open, they must lose a fortune in revenue from food and drink

The issue is when leaving Europe. In the school holidays in may (although on a Wednesday) we had a nightmare return from verona. Queues were huge to go through passport control. But the check in was also an issue. 4 jet 2 flights leaving in the space of 2 to 3 hours and 3 check in desks. Fairly late collection from our accommodation too. A full on shit show. All 4 flights were held in the end as passengers were just not through to board.

I believe if you are with a travel company some aren't allowing check in early. So unless you are hand luggage only and online check in, generally its hugely out of your control.

Id just say, don't dwaddle through duty free when leaving your holiday. You dont know how long the queue is until you are there. We didn't have time to get food. Grabbed a bottle of water and that was it. Order food on the plane if you are worried.

We tend to arrive around 3ish hours prior to our flight, usually because we’ve booked a lounge to spend some time in. I hate feeling rushed and stressed and when we fly from Manchester, we’ve even got there 4 hours early as the journey to the airport from our house is pretty shit and I’d rather be there earlier than we need to be than be stressed on the M62.

I don't expect any traffic between the airport and the hotel, that's the entire reason I stay over.

As for wasting my time, I absolutely love having a little wander round the shops, then get something to eat and a glass or two of wine, watching the planes, or people watching, before strolling down to the gate (which can be a twenty minute walk away in our airport). We usually bag drop the night before so we can go straight through security, if we cant do twilight bag drop then we will check the opening times, but I've never known it be less than three hours before the flight. We are fussy about which airlines we use though.

Yes, usually, because I can’t rely on getting a smooth journey to the airport from back of beyondsville. Also, I am a very weird person that quite enjoys airports, people watching, having a coffee watching the planes, window shopping the ridiculously expensive shops. Time goes by quite quickly.

My in-laws will book a taxi to drop them at Heathrow at 2am for a 7am flight to Greece in September. They would rather sit, nodding off, in the check-in area than be biting their nails in a queue of traffic.

Just had to queue 2 hours to arrive at Prague from UK.

Did the machines quickly, but then you have to queue to be desired at by policemen in a booth. Only 2 booths open .

Same thing in Germany, do the machine scans of face, fingers, passport etc. Then go queue tor a grumpy man to look at your passport.

What is the point of both?
Why check what the machine has already checked?

No definitely not UK side as the additional queues are either when you land or leave the EU. There are a few "challenging" airports in Europe but that's mainly due to their size, staffing etx plus the new EES system and you'd probably know if you were going home from one that was a problem as they are in the news. In rovaniemi in Finland we always head there early as queues are insane and it's so so tiny during their peak season. We have also had some issues at faro airport in the algarve as their security to leave seems to take forever - so we do 3 hours there. For eu flights from UK airports we arrive 2 to 2.5 hours early and have time for a coffee and a shop. Long haul we would do 3 hours, just because they seem to board a little earlier. We've never had bad issues at UK airports leaving, sometimes Heathrow immigration coming home can be long queues (in contrast Bham is always so fast and friendly so I try to fly home there!) They won't let you drop check in luggage or do airport check in at 4 hours early so you'd just be hanging around waiting for no reason with maybe just a Costa to keep you going.

I look at the flight schedule for the day and work out how busy it’s likely to be.

I mean, you can? But your check in desk probably won’t even be open 🤣🤣

Travelling in rush hour is tricky. Without delays, I can get to Manchester Airport in just under an hour. Even a normal rush hour could be close to double that.

Add a crash, bad weather or road works and you're well over 2 hours. Fortunately we don't go from Manchester Airport at that time in the week very often and usually either need to be there by 4/5 am or in the middle of the day.

This is me.

I realised that I could spend £150 taxi fare on the day, then get stressed about hold-ups on M25 to Heathrow - and end up leaving home ridiculously early to mitigate for this. Or I could spend £120 on hotel and £15 on a coach and go up the day before and arrive at the airport in the morning stress free.

It does help that I usually travel specifically to see family, so can go hand luggage only as I can use their washing machine a couple of times.

I travelled to US a couple of weeks ago, stayed overnight in a hotel then got the shuttle bus about 4 hours before my flight, straight through security etc, then had very nice leisurely breakfast, kept an eye on my app, and had a slow stroll to the gate, bought a couple of books on the way. It suits me.

But I appreciate that it's pointless deliberately aiming to arrive that early if you can't check you big baggage.

I have done in the past when travelling outside Europe.

When we went to New York USA about a decade ago, we were told to be at the airport two to two and a half HOURS before the flight was due to take off.

The flight was 11am, so we had to be there for 8.30am. Then we were going from North Mids to Birmingham, and had to allow for delays on the M6, and it takes roughly an hour and a half to get to the airport, so we had to leave at 7am.

To allow for delays/rush hour/motorway traffic etc, we left at 6am. Got to the airport for 7.15am! And the flight was at 11am. Better that that miss the flight. And we had plenty of things to occupy us at the airport.

I do but we had a near miss once where we almost missed a plane.

Crete this week stansted departure to heraklion was fine. Fast. No issues

I've flown EU to UK 13 times this year for work. I would never get there more than 2h before.

It’s got nothing to do with Brexit or punishing the Brits. Just a complicated and expensive way of trying to get data to control borders instead of humans.
Another example of life getting harder for those who play by the rules. Makes it even more galling that the boat people don’t even possess a document.

We got moved 3 times to different machines because they didn’t seem to be scanning our QR codes. They closed the machines after we walked away as the check in attendants could not get them to work either. So he’s, it was those bloody machines and nothing to do with what sort of phone we had

I don't understand what's so hard about ' those bloody self service check in desks with Ryanair'.

I watch people struggle with them for several minutes and then I walk up and sort it in about 20 seconds. And that's me with a cheap Android phone and luddite tendencies. I don't use apps unless forced to, or pay using my phone when I can avoid it.

Likewise cash machines. Person in front of me faffs around for ages and then I'm just done in seconds.

I live on the south coast & generally use Gatwick. In average traffic it can take 1 hour 45 to drive there but often there are accidents, roadworks, road closures etc which mean I leave between 5-6 hours before my flight to make sure i get there on time. Id much rather spend 3 hours wandering around the shops than be late & miss the flight!