AIBU: flight departure arrangements

[TiverMeShimbers]

More of a WWYD.

Flight leaves at 06:00 on Monday morning.

You have to leave your home before 20:00 on Sunday night (can leave earlier)

Airport is 4 hours from your home.

You have arranged meet & greet airport car parking at the airport drop off zone.

Would you:

a) Leave home at 17:00. Drive to airport hotel. Go to sleep at 21:00 Leave at 03:20 to take car to meet & greet airport car parking at 03:30. (Cost = £85)

b) Leave home at 17:00. Drive to friend's house 1 hr from airport. Go to sleep at 21:00. Leave at 02:30 to take car to meet & greet airport car parking at 03:30.

c) Leave home at 20:00. Go straight to meet & greet airport car parking at 00:00. Stay up in airport all night until your flight leaves.

Opinions welcome about what would be the least hideous option.

thank you!

[storminabuttercup]

I would do a but leave earlier, park at hotel, nice long walk looking out for planes etc, early dinner with a few glasses of wine then hopefully an early night.

However I never sleep the night before a holiday! So the only option I wouldn't do is B as I wouldn't want to put friends out!

[SideOfFoot]

C. There is no way I'd fall asleep as early as 21.00, especially not on demand, I'd just lie in bed , worried about getting up in time. Might be able to dose on a seat in the airport before the flight.

[LordoftheTits]

C sounds like hell on earth. A if you have the cash, B if not.

Last time I had a super early flight we stayed at my parents' house the night before and then my lovely dad drove us to the airport at 3am on his day off

[LyndaNotLinda]

I would do A but drop the car the evening before and try and sleep as much as you can.

Why do you have to get up at 3.30am if your flight isn't until 6am? Surely you could sleep until 4am at least!

[AugustaFinkNottle]

How keen is your friend on you getting up and disturbing the household at 2.30 a.m.? On the whole I'd go for A but, if possible, cancel the meet and greet.

[pitterpatterrain]

I don't know what a meet and greet is but why so early?

For a 6am I usually would not aim to get to the airport before 5am, and frankly at that time there is usually not much going on (caveat: not sure what airport you are going from) so even if you have luggage 4.30am should be perfectly fine.

[branofthemist]

I would go to the hotel, but leave earlier.

I have arrived at the airport at midnight and waiting around was awful.

[TattyCat]

For a 6am I usually would not aim to get to the airport before 5am, and frankly at that time there is usually not much going on (caveat: not sure what airport you are going from) so even if you have luggage 4.30am should be perfectly fine.

Leaving it an hour before departure is madness, especially if you're checking luggage in and therefore need to queue. You'll have to queue again at security and early morning flights are quite busy these days!! I'd be panicking leaving it that late for a holiday flight. For a scheduled business flight, not so much and the hour would be fine but again, not if checking luggage in.

[TattyCat]

Well, that's at Birmingham Airport anyway... not sure about other, smaller, airports.

[MLGs]

I would do A. If not possible then B. Definitely not C.

[specialsubject]

I used to sleep on airport floors for crack of sparrow flights - I was younger then. You don't get much sleep as there are often through the night announcements.

it will not be fun. However if you wanted to stay at my house and creep out in the middle of the night I'd have no problem. Regrettably I'm nowhere near an airport though!

[jollygoose]

It would absolutely be option C for me as I would be too scared of missing early morning flight. How could you sleep knowing you have to be leaving hotel or friends in the middle of the night you might just as well be at the airport having the peace of mind of knowing you had got there. Slep on the plane.

[BlueberrySky]

A for me. Though I would cancel the meet and greet and arrange to leave the car at the hotel, usually its free if you are staying at the hotel and often cheaper in total.

I would rather do C than B. Would hate getting up in the night to leave at someone else's house.

We often go on holiday somewhere remote where we have to get 3 flights. To do it the quickest way, within 10 hours, we have to fly overnight. Lots of sitting around in the middle of the night at various airports. It is part of the fun.

[KayTee87]

A but go to sleep as early as possible at the hotel, if you're one of these lucky people that can change their bedtime and sleep. I'm not so everytime I have an early flight I just except that I won't get enough sleep

[NeckguardUnbespoke]

D. Cancel the parking, stay at hotel with "park and fly" deal, get taxi from there to airport at 3.30.

[JinRamen]

I would do c. Take a good book , take advantage of free wifi and catch up on sleep once on the flight.

[NeckguardUnbespoke]

Sorry, just seen that the flight is at six and it isn't London:

D'. Cancel the parking, stay at hotel with "park and fly" deal, get taxi from there to airport at 5.00. You can go through any regional airport in an hour.

[dementedpixie]

We tend to do A each time as we fly from Manchester and live in Scotland. We use hotel parking too. We check in the night before and get rid of the luggage the night before too

[dementedpixie]

The hotel has shuttle buses running to the terminal so don't need to get a taxi either

[TiverMeShimbers]

D'. Cancel the parking, stay at hotel with "park and fly" deal, get taxi from there to airport at 5.00. You can go through any regional airport in an hour.

See this is what I would do.

But it is my parents who are going. They were going to do b) & stay with me, but then when I said I thought they were crazy to be leaving my house at 02:30 for a flight at 06:00, they decided to change to option c).

I am trying to persuade them to change their plans to a) for their own wellbeing, but it's all falling on deaf ears as they insist that they need to drop the car half an hour before check-in opens so they won't miss the flight and that they don't want to change the meet & greet parking time again.

Interested to see that some other people actually would do c) though so I'm just going to butt out & leave them to it. I just can't imagine that at the age of 70 I would be keen to be sit on a plastic chair all night after being up all day! Each to their own I guess.

[GirlOverboard]

I would definitely go for Option C. It's only about 5 hours of actual waiting time. I would bring a picnic, watch some TV on my tablet, read a book/newspaper, listen to some music, browse the shops. The time would fly by. If I was tired I'd have a nap at the airport or on the plane.

[NeckguardUnbespoke]

Isn't the whole point of meet and greet and online checkin that you don't need to get to the airport until closer to the flight than otherwise? Or are these the last two people left on earth who don't checkin online?

[tibbawyrots]

I would go for A every time. It extends the holiday by a night. :)

Nice hotel, meal and couple of glasses of wine before bed. Lovely.

[TinySalmon]

Option A

[MrEBear]

I certainly wouldn't try to get through any airport including checkin, bag drop, security etc in less than 2.5 hours. Some big planes start boarding 45 mins before takeoff.

If it was a domestic flight an hour is ok but not for international when regardless of airport you are advised to be there 3 hrs before.