We always go to the airport early to avoid the hassle of being left by the airplane. The advice by the airline is 2 hours before the flight but we make it 3 hours before just to be sure. And in anticipation of the traffic, we add another 30 minutes for the travel from our home to the airport. So when we travel by plane, there's a lot of waiting time since we want to be prompt.
I like to arrive early, too, because you never know what you're going to find once you get through those doors! Sometimes the security line flies and other times not so much. We usually give ourselves a 2 hour window for mid-day flights. If we're on a very early morning flight we shorten the window a little. I don't mind waiting at the gate once I get everything checked in and through security. To me, it sure beats rushing and getting somewhere at the last minute.
I always make a point to be early to the airport. I do an early check-in and after that go have something to eat, look around the stores and do things in peace. The worse thing is being on a hurry to get a flight, I would get really anxious and desperate if I ever was late.
I also like to arrive early. With my kindle and my laptop, it's easy enough to fill the extra time until the flight. The thing I don't like is that being early often forces me to eat airport food when I wouldn't have had to if I had cut the time a bit closer. Especially if I have a connecting flight to catch, I could easily spend all day in airports and end up eating multiple times. Airport food is often unreasonably expensive.
Generally yes I do, but if it's an early morning flight then I won't be too early as I know there will be no traffic and I always check in online. It depends on the airport as I know Heathrow will have long security lines, but a smaller airport won't so I take that into consideration too.
We like to get to the airport early as well. I find that traveling with children can be stressful so we often earlier than the recommended time. Then once you have your luggage checked in and your boarding passes you can sit and read a book or magazine, have a coffee and relax before the flight. I noticed on our recent trip in June that airports have added plugs for technology right in the waiting area. This is great addition as we often bring a portable dvd player for our youngest and our oldest will use his ipod while we wait for departure. Since you can't bring liquids into the waiting area I happen to have juice boxes in my purse. The kids guzzled them down just before you get searched and they were fine for the rest of the trip. It saves money by not having to buy the expensive drinks in the departure zone.
I think that's a bit excessive. While I agree that it's good to be early and to allow time for hiccups, the general rule is one hour for domestic flights and two hours for international flights. Showing up 3-3.5 hours early for a domestic flight is a huge waste of time that could be better spent doing other things, in my opinion.
I usually wait in the airport around 2 hours before I takeoff with the plane. When my luggage is checked-in, I know the plane can't go without me and from that point on I don't hurry too much. But yeah, I agree... you must anticipate a lot of things and if you are very late to the airport you can say bye bye to your money!
Showing up more than an hour-and-a-half for a flight on non-holidays is a terrible idea. That's a big waste of time if you ask me, and then numbers will back that up. Wait times to get through security aren't that high on most days, and traffic only really picks up and causes delays on the busiest holidays of the year. If you show up an hour ahead of time for a domestic flight, then you're perfectly okay nine times out of 10. No need to be excessive about getting there early.
We do the same thing in anticipation of traffic as well as public transport breaking down. Granted, we always book a taxi just to be sure. We decided to always use a taxi after we missed our plane once, because the train was running late. It was annoying because by the time we got to check in the gates were just shutting and we couldn't twist the agent's arm to let us through. In the end we had to buy the tickets at a higher price. From then on we decided we'd always be at least 3-4 hours ahead of time. We're usually checked in and waiting long before boarding time.
This could be a good savings tip because a missed flight could be a lot of money down the drain. I mean, a replacement could be a lot and it might be a situation where the deal you originally got, say from Trivago.com or something, doesn't come up again in a reasonable amount of time - considering your situation. Also, on top of that situation, is one where the person issuing the ticket made a mistake. In that case, if you're not there early enough, you cannot fix the problem in the same day.
I like to get early, not just for the planes, but even for trains and buses and everything else. I don't like getting in a crowd and everything gets so tight. And I don't like when I have to watch on the time, and then I get late. I just got used to this, getting earlier wherever when I was a kid, and I am still doing it. It's better that I wait for them than for them to wait me, because the other one won't happen.
I guess it depends on the area you're in. Three hours is way too early is you ask me. In our local airport, I've never taken that long to do a check in and everything else. However, it's never a bad idea to be early, you never know what might happen. If it's a busier airport I see how you'd need to be there much earlier.
I also like to make it early to the airport at least 2 hours earlier just in case. I like to take it easy when planning out and wouldn't want anything to go wrong just because I decide not to go early. I worked at the airport and I saw many tourist struggle for getting to the airport only an hour earlier mostly because they exceeded their luggage weight and needed to fix that.
I will never forget the harrowing experience I had at the Denver airport when we reached at the clearing counter after parking the car where parking was quite a distance away. I was the last one there which meant my luggage was loaded later. I got into the aircraft which only flew after I got in - every passenger staring at me. While I got off at Newark my luggage had not arrived. It came by another plane. Moral of the story - never go late to the airport.
