How early is too early to arrive at the airport?

[ikeepdancingonmy]

I’m self confessed anxious traveller.

I’m travelling to France at the end of the month, the Friday before the bank holiday. I live about an hour and a half to two hour’s drive from Bristol airport. My flight is at 18:30, and easyJet says to arrive at 15:30.

I’m thinking of leaving the house between 11:30 and 12:00, because of the fact it’s the Friday before the bank holiday. Is that totally insane? AIBU to do this? Will I just be stuck at the airport, or grateful I’ve had the extra time?

FWIW most places the cutoff limit is usually down to the bags, not the check-in process
There may be exceptions but it's often easiest from an admin POV to just cut both off at the same time (e.g. an hour, or 45 minutes, or whatever is advertised).

Reason the bags are limiting is firstly you need time to physically move them from the check-in desk through the airport infrastructure and out to the aircraft.

Secondly at some point you need to say "stop, no more for the holds" in order for the ground team to get started on the weight/balance calculations and get that data into the hands of the crew pilots so they can in turn do their processes.

I live near Bristol Airport but grew up about 1.5-2 hrs away in East Devon, sounds quite similar to your journey.

Bristol Airport isn't massive and doesn't have tonnes of space as they're doing expansion works. It's not a fun place to kill a few hours. If you really want to be there potentially at 1:30 (5 hours before departure), then I'd at least book lounge access so there's somewhere a little more comfortable, quieter, with food and drink. Of course, you will not be able to get there until bag drop opens, and they often limit how long you can be in them, but it would be a bit more comfortable.

I'm not sure which M5 exit you'd be taking, presumably exit 21 at Weston? Or junction 22 (that's the one I'd get off at). If you'd just like some comfort that you're not too far away, you could come off and pop to Clarks Village or Wells where at least there's a bit more to see and do, and then you're quite close to the airport without having to get back on the motorway? Roads are always pretty quiet there. Or there's a nice big garden centre at Congresbury with a cafe and non-plant stuff, and you'd only be 15 mins from the airport.

Even if you came off at Taunton and went cross country, it would only be 1.5 hours, so your M5 exposure could be very low. I'd be very surprised if driving off motorway took you 4 hours (PS I wouldn't recommend it unless the M5 is closed).

I have to say for a European flight, I'd never consider coming more than 2 hours before flight time though.

As a compromise you could always set off early as you planned and stop and eat closer to the airport, so that you are not there for too long. If everybody arrives crazily early, the airport gets really busy and overcrowded.

Stay overnight. Get up. Have a leisurely brunch. Catch flight.

Christmas?

Always better to get there extra early, especially for us anxious timekeepers! It's much less stressful to be a couple of hours before than rushing last minute due to unpredictable delays. Xx