Arriving at airport 2 hours prior to check in opening

[phoenix1973]

My oh insists on this....in case we get a puncture and miss our flight.
I hate it. Theres no seats so we're paying costa to rent seats.
Aibu?

I’m with your DH I’m sorry to tell you.

I’d rather be 4 hours early for a flight than 5 seconds too late, if you miss that gate, you’ve missed your flight and I’d not like to risk losing my holiday for the sake of a couple of hours.

I also quite like mooching around the airport once I’ve dropped my bags off, but I don’t have little children si I realise that does make a difference.

I do this. I've been known to arrive at airports before they even open

I read somewhere recently that one of the best tests of compatibility for a couple is an agreement on the optimal time to be at the airport prior to departure.

I’d rather be 4 hours early for a flight than 5 seconds too late

I'd rather be neither.

Theres no seats

Where do you fly from, Outer Mongolia?

Actually that's probably rude and wrong. They probably have well-appointed airports in Outer Mongolia. But you take my point.

I read somewhere recently that one of the best tests of compatibility for a couple is an agreement on the optimal time to be at the airport prior to departure.

Well, that's me and DH sunk... I'll tell him that he can have the house but I want the cats.

Well I think it was meant to be lighthearted, Margaret. But I remember reading it and nodding

Best of luck to you and your cats though!

Tom, Ryanair departure lounges can be seatless hells.

Bimbaloo, there are usually seats around though, no? In corridors and things?

No seats/very limited number of seats prior to check-in is fairly standard. Seating is normally after security.

Bimbaloo, there are usually seats around though, no? In corridors and things?

I've never been in a departures lounge with no seats, but isn't OP's complaint that they're so early that they can't even go through security yet? If so, I have been to lots of airports with essentially nothing before security, and certainly not the big banks of seats you get in departures. Because people aren't supposed to be hanging around for two hours before check-in!

“We Don't Need to Leave Yet, Do We? Or, Yes We Do

One kind of person when catching a train always wants to allow an hour to cover the ten-block trip to the terminus,
And the other kind looks at them as if they were verminous,
And the second kind says that five minutes is plenty and will even leave one minute over for buying the tickets,
And the first kind looks at them as if they had cerebral rickets.
One kind when theater-bound sups lightly at six and hastens off to the play,
And indeed I know one such person who is so such that it frequently arrives in time for the last act of the matinee,
And the other kind sits down at eight to a meal that is positively sumptuous,
Observing cynically that an eight-thirty curtain never rises till eight-forty, an observation which is less cynical than bumptious.
And what the first kind, sitting uncomfortably in the waiting room while the train is made up in the yards, can never understand,
Is the injustice of the second kind's reaching their seat just as the train moves out, just as they had planned,
And what the second kind cannot understand as they stumble over the first kind's heel just as the footlights flash on at last
Is that the first kind doesn't feel the least bit foolish at having entered the theater before the cast.
Oh, the first kind always wants to start now and the second kind always wants to tarry,
Which wouldn't make any difference, except that each other is what they always marry.”

― Ogden Nash

Usually 3 hr early I like arriving early,check in cases and meander round airport
I tend to arrive early for appts anyway, and airport Is earliest I’d arrive

Some of you clearly don’t fly from Manchester. It takes ages to get through security. We always arrive at least two hours before departure time, and have to allow to get there even earlier because the trans Pennine routes really suffer from traffic congestion or road closures due to accidents/bad weather.

I have never come across an airport with no seats either. Where are you flying from that has no seats?

I cut it as fine as possible. The fact that you anxious little worrywarts arrive insanely early makes it easier for the rest of us to arrive an hour before and sail through. Cheers!

Thanks for posting that, una - enjoyed it greatly and will be sharing with DH (once we've finished planning our divorce, obvs ). We absolutely are that couple - I blame both our parents, his are (in my view) ridiculously fussy about this kind of thing, mine are (in his view) chronically disorganised people who live in a world of perpetual chaos.

I'm also really cautious about airports. Make sure you check in online too, if you can. I was flying with Easyjet recently, and got turned away at the baggage drop-off and told I'd been 'bumped' onto a flight next day. That was despite being two hours early. They'd actually transferred me to next day's flight when I spotted people still dropping their baggage off, and they realised they couldn't bump me because I'd already checked in. Strange they realised it only at that point. They'd seen my printed boarding pass.

Me and DH fly once a month and get at the airport 1 hour in advance.

Going on holiday with my mother is a pain in the arse, she insists on getting there 4 hours before the fecking plane.

I think it's leftover from flying 20 years ago.

I've been driving for 38 years and have never had a puncture. Is there some reason that your dh thinks his tyres are at risk on the one day you're driving to an airport?

Although, to be honest, if you were to get one on the way to the airport, you'd be fucked anyway, two hours ahead of bag-drop/check-in opening or not.

Not really. You just change the wheel. Or park it up and call a taxi. Or use a local garage if you are near.

I'm in the early camp. I travelled with some seriously laid back friends a while back and it totally stressed me out!

People who talk of departure lounges are indeed missing the point that until check-in opens for your flight you can't get through security (could be different if checked in online and no bags to drop). Getting there about when check-in opens should be ample time for anyone; though I do appreciate the issues if you have a long or complex journey to the airport.

In fact the airports, especially major ones, actively discourage people getting to the airport any earlier - that is why there are so few places to sit and wait, not many shops etc on the "outside" even at longhaul terminals at Heathrow. If you want to prolong your goodbyes with departing relatives it's tough. It's also a lot harder for people with early departures from Heathrow to stay in the terminal overnight, as has always been common (for decades).

With this kind of partner, you probably will have most mileage pointing out that the airports don't want people hanging around any more than absolutely necessary before they check-in, on security grounds. Look up your local airport's website, you may even be able to "prove it" to them ...

Fortunately we live very near Gatwick and most flights I've taken recently I've checked in on line and done the bag drop the day before for the morning flights- Thomson airways do this, I presume other airlines do too?

You have to be there before check in/luggage drop closes, if you need them. Otherwise before the boarding closes
While this is true, the amount if time you'll need to queue for luggage drop and security, is somewhere between 0 and about 50 mins imo, and you don't know which til you get there, so I would always allow loads of time.
The thing with flights, is that the problems if you miss them are quite big - compared to being 10 mins late for a train (almost always another on along soon), or for work (often no consequence). To me, its just not worth the risk of getting bumped to another day because I didn't want to have to hang around for too long.
(My DCs used to get annoyed about how early we set out, then on one trip we found the motorway closed due to an accident, all the diverted traffic jammed up on minor roads, and we got there with about one minute to spare! They have been fine about going early since :-)!)

I have never come across an airport with no seats either. Where are you flying from that has no seats?
I haven't seen it in UK, but JFK is awful like this (and also has huge queues for luggage drop and security, so risky to show up at the last minute).

Why not book a hotel at the airport for the night before? Takes any worry about not getting there on time.

We are early types because a trip to any airport from here means a long motorway journey, and I am paranoid about possible hold ups. Also I hate rushing, and I find that parking the car and getting to the terminal can take longer than you think. We usually go hungry so we can have something to eat at the airport too - it all helps pass the time. I must be an anxious type because otherwise why do I have to keep checking I've got my passport, even though I know it's in my bag? (It was in there when I last checked 20 minutes ago, why would I think it had suddenly disappeared?)