Airport Checking In Times

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how long before the flight are you supposed to get there. on the flight from heathrow to jfk, the thing says to get there THREE hours before take off. this cant be right, im sure its not normally that long, even last year im sure it was less than that but i cant remember.

how much before take off do you usually get there?

― gareth (gareth), Friday, 21 February 2003 15:40 (twenty-three years ago)

hour and a half domestic, 2 hours international.

― hstencil, Friday, 21 February 2003 15:45 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah the 3 hrs thing is bollocks. allow 2 and you'll be fine.

― toby (tsg20), Friday, 21 February 2003 15:47 (twenty-three years ago)

They're telling you to go earlier now, as security checks are supposedly taking longer.

Whatever time they tell me to get there for I always end up ages early, cos I'm so paranoid about getting there too late. Apart from on sat, when I've got a 6.25 flight, only have to be there 30 mins before hand, and can't face leaving the house any earlier than 4.30 so will probably be in a complete panic as i won't have my 30mins - 1 hour safety cushion. Hell, something'll go wrong and I'll miss it!

Get there early enough to window shop and do lots of people watching. Airports have fascinating people, especially couples, who always seem to be arguing.

― Vicky (Vicky), Friday, 21 February 2003 15:52 (twenty-three years ago)

Go as early as is reasonable and bring a Walkman or iPod. Always the easy answer.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 February 2003 15:58 (twenty-three years ago)

i've always been ok with 2 hours apart from the time when the flight an hour after mine was a flight to japan and all the japanese people had heeded the three hour warning and were, therefore, queueing at the same time as us. which made the queue move twice as slow. only made it onto the flight because the airline staff ushered us to the front when time got short.

yeah, walkman's good. i always used to listen to Music For Airports because, well, it was an airport.

got to LAX 9 hours early once. got bumped up to business class on an earlier flight. which was nice. pity the flight was only as far as chicago and not all the way back to LHR.

andy

― koogs (koogs), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:07 (twenty-three years ago)

LaGuardia on the weekend during heavy travel over the holidays took me a FULL hour to get thru security. They were letting people in whose flights were about to leave though.

Anyway, yeah, an hour and half to two hours should be more than plenty.

― Aaron W (Aaron W), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:09 (twenty-three years ago)

thing is im going after work, so i can only get off so early.

also they do that express thingy, like, when i went to berlin, there were people being processed for other flights that were due to take off in like 20 minutes!

― gareth (gareth), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:09 (twenty-three years ago)

Vicky, is that a dig? ;)

You're otm, though - I often arrive before the check-in desk has even opened. One big plus is that you can get legroom etc. if you're lucky, and if you're starting off on a 20-hour journey, then an extra hour isn't really going to make much of a difference.

― Mark C (Mark C), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:27 (twenty-three years ago)

When I was off to Foreign Shores I once arrived at the check-in at Heathrow four hours early - they were convinced I had made a mistake and belonged on the flight leaving in an hour.

"No, I'm just... really paranoid" I said.

I had a cigarette in Burger King! And ate some crisps in the departure lounge!

― Sarah (starry), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:30 (twenty-three years ago)

Three hours before takeoff on international flights is unfortunately a good idea lately, especially if it's a US airline. Security is tight. Also my wife appears to be on some sort of watch list (presumably for being married to me) so there are always extra inspections for us.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:34 (twenty-three years ago)

mark, it wasn't a dig, just that I became aware of the number of couples arguing at airports in a lull between arguing, it was nice to realise we weren't the only ones!

― Vicky (Vicky), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:36 (twenty-three years ago)

2 hours should be fine, also you're flying on a wed. night which is prob. not a big travel time...

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 21 February 2003 17:28 (twenty-three years ago)

When we were going on holiday last year (to India) we were told to be there two hours before the flight. When we arrived at check-in about two and a half hours before the flight time, we were told that we couldn't have seat together as most people had already checked in. This made the flight *far* less enjoyable than it could have been.

Be warned.

― Lara (Lara), Friday, 21 February 2003 17:32 (twenty-three years ago)

If you weren't going from work I'd say check in at paddington, 2 to 2.5 hours before the flight.

― suzy (suzy), Friday, 21 February 2003 17:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Ed not suzy.

― Ed (dali), Friday, 21 February 2003 17:41 (twenty-three years ago)

Depends on the airport -- my average time from car dropoff -> security -> gate is probably 15-20 minutes. That's mostly at mid-size airports -- only airport I've had a serious delay recently is
Midway (Chicago). Note to Midway travelers: when going through security for C/F terminals, the queue on the far right-hand side has two stations at the end of it. You're welcome.

No reason to get there early unless you're flying the first come-first seated carriers like Southworst.

― Jeff Wright, Friday, 21 February 2003 17:44 (twenty-three years ago)

It took me about 45 minutes to get through security at the (NYC-area) Newark airport last Friday. The line extended far beyond the designated area. But that was at the start of a holiday weekend, so I don't think it should be as bad for you, even though your flight is international (and mine was domestic).

― Jen (nstop), Friday, 21 February 2003 18:18 (twenty-three years ago)

Who are you flying with?

― Ed (dali), Friday, 21 February 2003 18:21 (twenty-three years ago)

jesus you're all very focused
i usually plan on being early but arrive at most an hour before take off...

― robin (robin), Friday, 21 February 2003 19:06 (twenty-three years ago)

When I flew from Orange County to San Francisco a month or so ago, I walked through the line and check-through in less than 5 minutes. Really.

― Sean (Sean), Friday, 21 February 2003 19:22 (twenty-three years ago)

flying virgin-atlantic. air india was cheaper but didnt fly at the time i wanted

― gareth (gareth), Friday, 21 February 2003 19:24 (twenty-three years ago)

oh no! you could have had pretty murals of lotuses on your plane!

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 21 February 2003 19:25 (twenty-three years ago)

The last time I was on a plane, I got to Heathrow 3 and a half hours before flight time, and it took most of that time to check in. It was December 2001, mind you.

― rosemary (rosemary), Friday, 21 February 2003 19:44 (twenty-three years ago)

No reason to get there early unless you're flying the first come-first seated carriers like Southworst

Yeah, I mean that is the insane thing about it. The last six or seven times I've flown it has never taken more than 30-40 minutes to get from car to gate. Yet even the times I've tried to be all responsible and stuff, and arrived at the gate a full hour before a flight, I still got the "C" boarding group! I mean, what is with all these knuckleheads that get there so early? Nobody has anything better to do w/ their lives than hang around an airport?

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Friday, 21 February 2003 19:52 (twenty-three years ago)

flying from Reno to Oakland a month ago...

someone in our room had set the clock an hour later so when we got in the cab we noticed that it was 9:00am, not 8:00am. our Southwest flight left Reno at 9:30am. we ask the driver to haul ass and we jump out, went through security and made our flight with 5 minutes to spare.

this was very important as my travel companion was going to the raiders playoff game and he needed to make this flight.

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 21 February 2003 20:00 (twenty-three years ago)

At Heathrow Virgin check all of their flights from 1 queue, it'll not be so bad in the afternoon but in the mornings it can be hell. I don't think virgin check at Paddington which is a shame because that would avoid that. Basically it depends how badly you want a decent seat, (beware the middle seat on the outside banks on virgin 747s as every other row has a controller for the TVs which stops you from spreading out).

At JFK the virgin terminal is pretty quiet so less than 2 hours you'll be fine although if its overnight I like to get an exit row seat about 2.5 hours secures one.

― Ed (dali), Friday, 21 February 2003 22:34 (twenty-three years ago)

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