What time would you arrive at Manchester airport if you’ve no bags and have purchased security fast track?

[MrsAlbertaWhisker]

I live 3 hours from the airport. Flight around 7.30am. I have car parking booked at the multi-storey T3 area with entrance from 4am. Flight provider has emailed requesting me to arrive three hours before departure time due to delays at security. So that would mean me leaving home at 1.30am to get there at 4.30am.

If I only have a backpack (no luggage to check in), I’ve checked in online and I have got the security fast track, do I really need to be there by 4.30am? Would love an extra hour in bed before the drive there!

What time would you leave home if you were me?

There's another thread almost identical to yours, and everyone has said yes, 3 hours! If you don't and you miss it, I'm not sure you'd be entitled to compensation as you've not done as advised.

How much will it cost you if you miss it? Is that worth an extra hour in bed? I do love an hour in bed, but we had to pay over 1k when we missed ours, and it so wasn't worth it!

When we fly with t3 we have been through security in 20 mins (and that’s around dinner time) we do leave 3 hours now just to be safe but touch wood we have never had a issue.

If they say three hours before then it's three hours before.

Ah thanks all. I’d have thought getting the security fast pass thing would mean I could get there two hours ahead of departure rather than three. And as well because I don’t have luggage to check in. Seems strange me getting there the same time as someone with bags to check in and who is going through the standard security line. I’ll sleep on a chair outside the gate. I bet I’ll have a few hours to spare but better safe than sorry I guess.

I’ve flown a lot lately and it’s never taken as long as they said. However I still go 2.5 hours with no bags

We recently flew from Manchester and arrived 3 hours before our flight and it took two hours to get checked in and through security. We didn’t have a fast track but it wasn’t actually the security that was so bad, it was queuing to be checked on. And we were kept outside the airport in a queue for about 30 mins! It didn’t matter if people had bags or not, the queue was all one so very, very slow.

I flew from there 3 weeks ago and my flights was at 7:10 so similar timings to you! I hadn’t bought fast track under the guidance of my best friend who had flown 2 weeks before and said so many people had bought fast track that the normal security queue was actually moving far faster. This wasn’t my experience when I went - there were only about three people in the queue for fast track and I wish I had bought it!

We arrived three hours early, hand luggage only. Security was a looooong queue which seemed to be at a complete standstill at many points but we were still through in 50 minutes. So really we could’ve got there two hours early and still had over an hour before our flight.

Have a lovely holiday OP!!! Where are you off to?

Flew 2 weeks ago at that time, an hour and a half would have been plenty of time in that scenario.

Dont assume that fast track = no queues. When we flew from Manchester a few weeks ago, we were told to go in the same queue As everybody else despite having fast track. The fast track queue was purely for buggies and very young children

I flew a similar time at the start of the May half term week. Hand luggage only and checked in online. Arrived about 4:45, was through security by 5:30. You couldn't buy fast track at that point as they'd suspended it.

They were constantly going up and down the security queue shouting for flights departing in the next hour, so were organised on that front. I was being dropped off by a friend and I couldn't ask her to pick me up at 3am, 4am was pushing it.

The trouble with the fast track security is that they only have one carousel dealing with it. We waited well over an hour a few weeks ago while people with non fast tracked were through before us as they had every other lane opened. Absolutely shambolic.

If you are my mother, at least three weeks in advance, although ideally you'd already have taken out a short-term let on somewhere no more than two minutes away from the check-in desk about six months ago.

Well I got from entrance to gates in 15 mins 😂 almost three hours to kill

That's what happened to me too. I got through everything in 20 mins (and I had a bag to check in!) and then sat around for 4 hours as my flight was also delayed

Nightmare @Woolandwonder . Luckily mine is on time and the gate has just been announced. I’ve read three quarters of my airplane book already! Don’t think I’d come this early again if I have no bags and I have fast track. Very busy in the waiting area so I’ve been standing lots and slouching against shop walls when my feet get sore. Must be full of people arriving three hours early!

Ah I'm sorry I'm late to this thread. Was going to say I was through fast track security in 10 minutes in similar circumstances last week at Manchester. Still, better than too late! Safe travels

Any news on current queues at Manchester airport please? We fly Saturday morning at 08:30 and we’re allowing 3 hours. We have checked in but have bags to drop off. Thanks xxx

It depends entirely on how many other flights are going from that terminal at around the same time. If yours is one of 3 or so in that period of time you should sail through. If there are another 15, you'll be waiting a couple of hours.
(This is why you get wildly differing reports)

www.manchesterairport.co.uk/flight-information/departures/

Thanks, looks a busy time, is it worth booking Fast Track do you think?