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.

My in-laws will book a taxi to drop them at Heathrow at 2am for a 7am flight to Greece in September. They would rather sit, nodding off, in the check-in area than be biting their nails in a queue of traffic.

Yes, usually, because I can’t rely on getting a smooth journey to the airport from back of beyondsville. Also, I am a very weird person that quite enjoys airports, people watching, having a coffee watching the planes, window shopping the ridiculously expensive shops. Time goes by quite quickly.

I don't expect any traffic between the airport and the hotel, that's the entire reason I stay over.

As for wasting my time, I absolutely love having a little wander round the shops, then get something to eat and a glass or two of wine, watching the planes, or people watching, before strolling down to the gate (which can be a twenty minute walk away in our airport). We usually bag drop the night before so we can go straight through security, if we cant do twilight bag drop then we will check the opening times, but I've never known it be less than three hours before the flight. We are fussy about which airlines we use though.

We tend to arrive around 3ish hours prior to our flight, usually because we’ve booked a lounge to spend some time in. I hate feeling rushed and stressed and when we fly from Manchester, we’ve even got there 4 hours early as the journey to the airport from our house is pretty shit and I’d rather be there earlier than we need to be than be stressed on the M62.

The issue is when leaving Europe. In the school holidays in may (although on a Wednesday) we had a nightmare return from verona. Queues were huge to go through passport control. But the check in was also an issue. 4 jet 2 flights leaving in the space of 2 to 3 hours and 3 check in desks. Fairly late collection from our accommodation too. A full on shit show. All 4 flights were held in the end as passengers were just not through to board.

I believe if you are with a travel company some aren't allowing check in early. So unless you are hand luggage only and online check in, generally its hugely out of your control.

Id just say, don't dwaddle through duty free when leaving your holiday. You dont know how long the queue is until you are there. We didn't have time to get food. Grabbed a bottle of water and that was it. Order food on the plane if you are worried.

Manchester airport T2 security queue was over 90 mins last thurs (16th July) and we were there 2.5 hrs early so after queue to drop luggage off then security.

It then said go straight to gate so no time for any food or shopping - seems ridiculous that in peak summer they have 3 or 4 security belts open, they must lose a fortune in revenue from food and drink

I don't get out of bed 4 hours before a flight!! 90min with hand luggage or twilight bag drop, 2hrs with hold bags at our local airport.

No. We did Birmingham to Ibiza earlier this summer, did the twilight bag drop the night before and got to the airport 2 hours before the flight. Straight through security and had plenty of time to shop/eat.

Return flight was even quicker, check in and security took twenty minutes max.

I’m allowing three hours to return to UK now because of passport control queues, though when I recently flew back from Copenhagen, passport control was gate dependent, and it only went up an hour before the flight. Cue a lot of panic when the system stopped working! I did fly back from LAX a couple of years ago and gave myself 3 hours, we only just made the plane. I’ll allow 4 hours from there in the future.

it’s annoying it takes so long to leave a country to come back to the uk, it seems pretty easy to leave the uk regardless of where you are going!

edited to add: I stick to 2hrs max when leaving the uk

I’m American and as far as I’m concerned, traveling within Europe is basically the equivalent of a domestic flight. The usual recommendation here is around two hours early, and even for an international flight it’s generally three so unless that specific airport or airline has issued a warning about major delays, I’m not sure why anyone would need to arrive four plus hours early???

We flew on Sunday from Manchester, it was fine arriving 2 hours before as normal. It was busy but no busier than I’ve seen it. Still had chance to sit and have a breakfast and coffee before boarding.
though admittedly DH just reminded me we fast tracked security, but even then the non fast track line looked plenty fast!

Forgive me if you're aware of the background but the problem ATM is the introduction of a system to track non EU citizens/residents entering/leaving the Schengen zone...

So travelling, say France to Spain or Italy is indeed the same as a US domestic because you are going Schengen <> Schengen.

Problem is travelling anywhere Schengen (e.g. France/Spain) to/from anywhere that is not (e.g. UK)....there's now another layer of processing...and some places that's causing problems, and that's why some airlines have issued warnings...

Yes, same here.

I'm also loathe to book an evening flight as I don’t want to miss a day of the holiday that I have paid for.

i used to fly every week for work, you soon run out of things to do!!

This reminds me of the thread where the op was angry with her friend for getting anxious about arriving at the airport early! I wonder how they got on in Cape Verde (if they even went) as I don't think she ever reported back!

Ah well, that’s for work. I wouldn’t care about missing the flight if it was for work.

No, but I live 10 minutes from our local international (small) airport. I usually allow 2 hours from leaving the house to take off, occasionally we've gone back for a forgotten item/taxi been late and we've still had plenty of time.

Larger airports, maybe🤷🏻‍♀️

It's nothing to do with the UK.

The EU have brought in the EES system for all non-Schengen/EU passengers (not just British ones). The idea is that once registered on the system - on your entry to a Schengen country for the first time - everyone, on leaving and entering, goes through the same automatic gates: passport on reader, look at camera, gate opens. For some reason some European airports don't seem to have that system working properly.

It doesn't seem to be a Europe-wide problem as many people, me included, have literally passed through passport control in both directions in seconds, in several EU airports. EU and UK passports all used the same Egates.

In the UK I've sailed in and out through the automatic gates (the same ones for UK and EU passports, and some others) just as swiftly at Gatwick and Heathrow.

Same here. They're making air travel so stressful it isn't worth doing.

When I used to fly regularly for work, I prided myself on getting to the airport with less than 90 minutes to spare. It almost became a competition between my teammates to see who could arrive the latest and still make their flight.

Travelling with family is a completely different story.

We normally stay at Travelodge Gatwick the night before because I prefer an early flight and we are a 2 hour drive away.
I get to the terminal 2 hours before the flight.

Personally probably not. I used to arrive an hour before a flight in Bristol or 2 if Thomas cook had a flight about the same time as mine. A large flight of infrequent fliers really slowed things down.

Only if I’ve got free lounge entry😉

"It's nothing to do with the UK."

@MPforTitipu
Okay. So tell that to all the people that have ended up missing their UK flights home, causing them huge problems.

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