How early to arrive at airport?

[earlydoors42]

I am flying to America soon. Haven't been abroad for years. The airline says to arrive 3 hours early for an international flight. The first train will get me there for just over 2 hours before. Is that enough time or do I really need 3 hours? It's from Manchester. I will check in online but have a suitcase to check in. Thank you!

I always arrive early to the airport - 3 hours generally, time to look in shops, go through security & then chill out in the lounge - have a look at airport-lounges.co.uk or the executivelounges.com as it's not as expensive as you'd think & in our experience works out to be cheaper than we would spend on food & drinks at the airport whilst being an all round nicer experience

I wouldn’t risk it. You have no contingency built in - late/cancelled train, queues at security - both are perennial problems at Manchester. I quite often stay the night before. It’s not cheap (don’t know how much a taxi will cost you) but you get to start your holiday one day early!

Checking in online and automated bag drops I don’t think save time. Money yes definitely for the airline but time no

If you are clearing US customs in the departure airport, make sure that you've eaten any 'forbidden' food items before you go through, as they count it as technically US soil once you've gone through even though you're really still in the departure country. I had some fresh fruit and cereal bars that I'd brought to eat while I was waiting for departure as it was an early flight, and the fruit was taken away, as you are not allowed to bring fruit products in to the US (at least, to where I was going, Hawaii, which might not be the case in all US states). I'd have been allowed to eat it in the normal international departure lounge.