AIBU to ask if people are arriving at airports four hours early?✈️

[Netcurtainnelly]

Can you post here whether you are turning up to the airport 4 hours early this Summer for check in please? I ve just read it might be necessary.🤔😭😱 Before making a decision?

Holiday and Check in Post.♥️
Want to hear what it's really like.

As others have commented arriving early may be of no use if you have a bag to check in. Last week I had endless reminders from easyJet to allow extra time because of possible delays - but bag drop still only opened 2 hours before. I think the airport finances will be suffering though - I got through security very quickly but went straight to the gates to deal with immigration- which means no time in the shops or cafes, as once through immigration you’re at the gates with nothing other than a few vending machines. As a minimum I’d have got a coffee and snack.

out flight was then nearly 2 hours late due to issues with the plane leaving Gatwick and getting to us lat, so we would have had lots of time.

we always arrive at the airport

3 hours for long haul

2 hours for Europe

Am sure you could easily knock a half hour off both of them but I prefer to do everything slowly and calmly rather than rush about

I always turn up to the airport four hours early, but I like being at the airport.

I always, always arrive four hours early. Well actually, I go the night before, and stay in a hotel, but I actually go into the airport four hours early. I cannot understand why anyone would risk going later, what if there’s bad traffic or something?

Theres loads to do at airports anyway, the time flies by.

Given the chance DH would arrive 4 hours early. More if he could. I would rather scrape through and run to be last on the plane. 2 hours is ideal.

Go by what tour operator says. Ours was 3 and a half hours before .

No, generally you can't even drop your bags then so pointless.

We did last week for our flight to Italy from stanstead. It was stressful trying to navigate those bloody self service check in desks with Ryanair and the queues were big. By the time we got through security we had two hours till boarding which gave us time to relax, have some food, look at the duty free and walk to our gate. Was a very relaxed experience with no rushing around

No, we flew to Alicante earlier this month, arrived 2 hours prior to departure in the UK (absolutely fine) and got through security in Spain within 10 minutes.

How much traffic do you expect between an airport hotel and the terminal?

I agree about accounting for traffic, delays getting parked, flat tyres etc but there's a limit.

Four hours sounds mental to me, but it's your time you're wasting.

Im going to start arriving 3 hours ahead of my flights when leaving hotel to return home. we’ve nearly missed 3 flights as the coach transfer dont allow enough time for all the post brexit airport checks and we often get put in the family queues which are sooo long and slow! Its stressful

I live on the south coast & generally use Gatwick. In average traffic it can take 1 hour 45 to drive there but often there are accidents, roadworks, road closures etc which mean I leave between 5-6 hours before my flight to make sure i get there on time. Id much rather spend 3 hours wandering around the shops than be late & miss the flight!

I don't understand what's so hard about ' those bloody self service check in desks with Ryanair'.

I watch people struggle with them for several minutes and then I walk up and sort it in about 20 seconds. And that's me with a cheap Android phone and luddite tendencies. I don't use apps unless forced to, or pay using my phone when I can avoid it.

Likewise cash machines. Person in front of me faffs around for ages and then I'm just done in seconds.

We got moved 3 times to different machines because they didn’t seem to be scanning our QR codes. They closed the machines after we walked away as the check in attendants could not get them to work either. So he’s, it was those bloody machines and nothing to do with what sort of phone we had

It’s got nothing to do with Brexit or punishing the Brits. Just a complicated and expensive way of trying to get data to control borders instead of humans.
Another example of life getting harder for those who play by the rules. Makes it even more galling that the boat people don’t even possess a document.

I've flown EU to UK 13 times this year for work. I would never get there more than 2h before.

Crete this week stansted departure to heraklion was fine. Fast. No issues

I do but we had a near miss once where we almost missed a plane.

I have done in the past when travelling outside Europe.

When we went to New York USA about a decade ago, we were told to be at the airport two to two and a half HOURS before the flight was due to take off.

The flight was 11am, so we had to be there for 8.30am. Then we were going from North Mids to Birmingham, and had to allow for delays on the M6, and it takes roughly an hour and a half to get to the airport, so we had to leave at 7am.

To allow for delays/rush hour/motorway traffic etc, we left at 6am. Got to the airport for 7.15am! And the flight was at 11am. Better that that miss the flight. And we had plenty of things to occupy us at the airport.

This is me.

I realised that I could spend £150 taxi fare on the day, then get stressed about hold-ups on M25 to Heathrow - and end up leaving home ridiculously early to mitigate for this. Or I could spend £120 on hotel and £15 on a coach and go up the day before and arrive at the airport in the morning stress free.

It does help that I usually travel specifically to see family, so can go hand luggage only as I can use their washing machine a couple of times.

I travelled to US a couple of weeks ago, stayed overnight in a hotel then got the shuttle bus about 4 hours before my flight, straight through security etc, then had very nice leisurely breakfast, kept an eye on my app, and had a slow stroll to the gate, bought a couple of books on the way. It suits me.

But I appreciate that it's pointless deliberately aiming to arrive that early if you can't check you big baggage.

Travelling in rush hour is tricky. Without delays, I can get to Manchester Airport in just under an hour. Even a normal rush hour could be close to double that.

Add a crash, bad weather or road works and you're well over 2 hours. Fortunately we don't go from Manchester Airport at that time in the week very often and usually either need to be there by 4/5 am or in the middle of the day.

I mean, you can? But your check in desk probably won’t even be open 🤣🤣

I look at the flight schedule for the day and work out how busy it’s likely to be.

No definitely not UK side as the additional queues are either when you land or leave the EU. There are a few "challenging" airports in Europe but that's mainly due to their size, staffing etx plus the new EES system and you'd probably know if you were going home from one that was a problem as they are in the news. In rovaniemi in Finland we always head there early as queues are insane and it's so so tiny during their peak season. We have also had some issues at faro airport in the algarve as their security to leave seems to take forever - so we do 3 hours there. For eu flights from UK airports we arrive 2 to 2.5 hours early and have time for a coffee and a shop. Long haul we would do 3 hours, just because they seem to board a little earlier. We've never had bad issues at UK airports leaving, sometimes Heathrow immigration coming home can be long queues (in contrast Bham is always so fast and friendly so I try to fly home there!) They won't let you drop check in luggage or do airport check in at 4 hours early so you'd just be hanging around waiting for no reason with maybe just a Costa to keep you going.

Just had to queue 2 hours to arrive at Prague from UK.

Did the machines quickly, but then you have to queue to be desired at by policemen in a booth. Only 2 booths open .

Same thing in Germany, do the machine scans of face, fingers, passport etc. Then go queue tor a grumpy man to look at your passport.

What is the point of both?
Why check what the machine has already checked?