AIBU to think that arriving at the airport 7 hours before a flight is too early?

[thingersandfumbs]

DP likes to ensure we're early. I think 7 hours before it's due to take off is slightly too early.

I absolutely agree that it's best not to leave it to the last minute and I am happy to build in some buggeration factor time. But 7 hours?

I'm sort of hoping that loads of you come along and tell me that you or your other halves like to be just as early as I'm happy to eat humble pie... but I have a sneaky suspicion it might be another of his unique lovely traits

Ps there's a bag of star mix riding on this...

Has he had a bad experience of missing something by being unexpectedly late before? Seven hours suggests some issues that need more than a bag of Starmix.

7 hours is crazy! I have anxiety over missing flights and have nightmares about it before we go on holiday and I insist on 3 hours. 3 hours is more than enough!

Enjoy your star mix 😂

4 hours max! 7 hours is crazy.
Enjoy your sweets

I had a 7hr layover once and it was horrendous - so yes your DH is BU

Unless we can fly from local regional airport where you can whistle through in no time, we stay overnight at an airport hotel.
Last year we went from Stansted. Never, ever, ever again.
We arrived two hours before and the flight was boarding by the time we got through the crowds. Yelled at by staff going through security and the place was filthy.

1-2 hours depending on how early the flight is, obv longer for long haul. Its people like your DH that make the security queues awful by being there unnecessarily.
Claim the star mix and get to the airport with time to check in and grab a beer at wetherspoons.

I would travel separately and tell him I'd meet him at the airport. About 5 hours after he'll have arrived. I've never heard of allowing 7 hours at the airport. 3 at the absolute most.

The only time I arrive 7 hours early is if I've booked an on-concourse hotel for the night!

Which, BTW, especially with kids I cannot recommend enough. Arrive at some point the evening before the flight, no pressure if there's traffic etc. The kids find it a bit of an adventure, and then we just stroll down and get breakfast and check in the next morning (or, if really lucky, and they allow it, we check in and drop baggage off the evening before..). plus it normally works out no more expensive, because the cost of the room is covered by what we save by being on the early morning flights, and needing a day less on the hire car.

But....why?!

@jcyclops, I too have done that in Athens - but at the old airport, which .... had character, shall we say. 🤣

Afternoon all!

We've been and gone - I posted yesterday whilst waiting to board our return flight.

FWIW, we don't make the security queues any worse than they already would be as we don't go through security until it's suitably close to the flight time.

Anyway, DP has heard the collective wisdom of MN and is willing to change his impossibly early ways

And I'm going to stop enabling him

Far too early ... Unless you have lounge access

Often not even if you have lounge access. Most checkins and bagdrops don't open until three hours before takeoff. That's either enforced by the terminal, for example LHR T5, or enforced by the airline simply not staffing the checkin if it's a "two flights a day" spoke service. The lounges are airside, so you can only access them without using the checkin desk if you have a boarding pass and don't need bag drop, so only work if you're travelling on hand luggage.

Even then, although it's sometimes not enforced, most lounges other than in big transit places like Dubai have a three hour limit on lounges (ie, won't let you enter unless your boarding pass shows a flight within the next four hours). And in airports where the airline doesn't operate all day, ie a long-hail destination that is not the airline's hub, it's an open question as to whether the lounge is even open, although you might be able to use an alliance lounge or a pay lounge.

Turning up more than three hours early is mad.

Oh, and YY to staying in hotels the night before a flight. With children it's lovely, and once you factor in the parking it's barely noticeable as a cost.

10 hours early at Southampton airport? I think I would have just not gone on holiday if that's the case. Had a delay there for 2 hours (after getting there 2 hours early) and I was so grateful to get on that rickety Flybe plane.

That's bonkers!! And I say that as someone who drags my partner to airports with 2 or 3 hours to go until take off. He just puts up with me doing that, bless him, I hate being late for anything, specially flights. The one and only time we spent that long in an airport was when we had a really early morning flight, 6am so 4am check in opened and we slept on the floor. Camping trip abroad so we had mats to lie on. We'd just been at an event with a hire car so it was easier to leave the car at the airport office of the hire company the night before, bunk down and get up to bewildered tourists drifting in the next morning. My apologies to the dolled up teenage girls setting off on holiday on who looked at us sitting on the floor like we were Stigs of the Dump.

That's ridiculous. Three hours is plenty.