If you check in online, does that mean you don't have to turn up at the airport 2 hours before your flight? Sophisticated international laydees, please advise

[LittleBella]

It's years since I've been on a plane. What's the process now? I like the sound of this online booking, but is there any point? Will it mean I just have to turn up in time to fly, rather than hanging around the airport for 2 hours?

Depends a) on whether you have to check in luggage, and b) the airport.

If you have to check in luggage then you have swapped the chekc in queue for a queue to the bag-drop. May still be worth doing as ime at least half of passenegers check in online so you have fewer seats left to choose from if you wait.

If you have hand luggage then you will have a lateste time to get to the gate. The main factors then are the airport layout and how long the security queue is. So I would allow 1.5 hours for Gatwick bit 30 mins for London City. More if travelling with kids.

It takes ages to go through security, so 'in time to fly' can mean 2-3 hours.

When we flew last year (Heathrow to Boston), we did everything we could ahead of time. We had a 3 hour check-in, and arrived just before this. You print off a boarding pass at home (basically a big barcode), and when you get to the airport you do a bag drop. This is essentially going to a check-in desk where they tap-tap-tap at their computers and take your bags - not much different from the old days. If you don't do this, you have to go to a self-service kiosk to print out the bar code thingies. You'd only really do this if you didn't have a printer at home.

Once checked-in, we went through security - this was very intensive and included removing our shoes. We were then free to do as we pleased (eating and shopping) until reporting of our flight. For transatlantic flights this happened around an hour from departure time. We basically had 1.5-2 hours for our 'leisure'.

Alas, with the security queues these days, you need to be there 1.5 hours before the flight time if its one of the larger airports. I have personally stood in the queue for an hour at Heathrow.

Its always worth checking in on line as you can find a better seat, and check any special meals are going to be there.

Last time we used BA.com it was horrendous. Queue for 'fast' bag drop was massive. We had left it till the last minute thinking that this was the whole point of checking in online, and there was no way that we could get our flight if we queued, so had to do the terribly un-British think of pushing to the front of the queue.

Then the security queue was a million miles long, and when we got to the desk with our boarding passes, printed at home, the scanner couldn't read the bar code, because it didn't like the (high quality) paper I had used. So we had to go back to the check in desk (and push in again) to get them to re-issue boarding cards.

Back to the queue for security, having to push in yet again, and then had to queue to get through metal detectors, etc. By the time we reached the gate we had only 10 minutes to go and I was so stressed out it just wasn't true.

We finally boarded the plane - late evening flight to Marseilles and were given just a sandwich for dinner. (Not that that was anything to do with checking in online, but it just added to our woes!)

Oh damn.

OK, thanks, all.

I like it as you can generally pick your seats. When I flew in October it was much quicker than queuing to check in, but when I went somewhere in August other people who did it were held up at the fast bag drop.

To be honest I'm always over cautious & end up spending loads of time in the airport (normally drinking coffee) so I'd still leave plenty of time.

Are you going from Stansted?

I'm going from Gatwick (North Terminal)

give yourself time to chill at North Terminal is full of lovely shops- especially the bag shop- much nicer than the South Terminla