What time to arrive at airport?

[CrockyBetter]

Gatwick airport. Flight is 11.15am. Bag drop closes 10.40. Parking car in "Purple". What time should we book parking for??

Also, what time to pick up car when arriving back home at airport at 15.50?

I am paranoid about missing flights so I make the family get to the airport hours earlier than necessary.
Gatwick is particularly bad for us as It involves the M1 and the M25. The traffic on both is unpredictable.
So with your timings I would aim to arrive no later than 9am, leaving time for holdups.
Not sure about the implication of “Purple’”. We use someone whom we can ring if we are early or delayed.

I would allow at least an hour for disembarkation, passports, baggage reclaim etc.

Anyone else with advice?

I always give it 3 hours before the flight minimum to park the car. I don't always arrive bang on the time I give and it's never an issue. Sometimes I've arrived half an hour later or earlier and it's fine. 3 hours sounds a lot but by the time you've parked, got the transit to the airport, queued got bag drop, gone last security, time does go quickly. Also 3 hours accounts for if something doesn't go to plan - ie unexpected traffic, queues, getting lost!

I'm currently abroad myself after flying yesterday and there were a few delays on the bag drop queues due to social distancing measures.

We had a bite to eat in the airport, and had a little shop in WHS Smith and before we knew it it was time to board. I was at Heathrow and it went quite smoothly but you do have to take into account things may take longer now due to the measures they have had to take due to covid 19. For eg the boarded our plane row by row.

As for coming back, I also say to collect car within an hour / hour an a half after landing to give time to get through border control, and collect bags as again, this takes slightly longer now. Again I found if I was a bit earlier or later then the time I gave it's no issue at all. I think with purple you have to give your arrival flight information anyway so they can see if there are delays or anything.

I don't think they are massively strict on timings as long as it's roughly around that time.

Yes, in my experience it doesn't matter if you're a little early on parking and I'd be looking at getting to the carpark at about 8.30/9 am unless it is really close to the terminal.

It can take longer than you think to find a space and get to the terminal, it took us almost an hour once at Manchester. You also need a contingency in case of breakdown/flat tyre or more traffic than expected.

With airports, I've heard it said that 'I'd rather be 3 hours early than 3 minutes late' but I don't know what airports are like at the moment. I would have thought that they were quiet, but then if they're doing temperature checks that will slow things down.

On the way back, I'd book it until at least 16.30, but in reality, you'll be paying by the day at that point, so it will cost the same up until at least midnight or maybe until just before you go over the next 24 hour block, so add at least 3 hours on to your landing time, in case of delays, because at some point, if you are delayed, the carpark will want to charge you extra, at a higher rate.

Thank you