A chap I know had a flight leaving Manchester at 3pm on a Sunday, he drove over the day before and stayed in a hotel
To be fair that's probably leaving only just enough time to get through security at Manchester these days ...
Always give myself an extra hour if it's Manchester - they tend to do a bag search for anything including empty nalgene drink bottles (which I informed should have been placed in a separate tray with the lid removed to prove it was empty) as you can incur 45 min delay if your bag is searched.
Doncaster/Robin Hood however is a total breeze. Park 100m from departures, swan through security and away you go ...
Security is the issue these days where ever you fly.
East Mids was the worst Ive had.
Actually, this can be one of those times when checking in luggage can be an advantage. It'll get loaded onto the plane whilst you get stuck going through security etc
Once it looks like you're running g late they have to find and offload your bag.
45 mins is plenty imo
I've just got back from a couple of weeks in the US. Coming home I was through bag check-in and security in about ten minutes. Going out there though, despite using every advanced online check-in and automatic boarding machine under the sun it still took me an hour to check in one bag and another half an hour to clear security. If you're going to the US from Manchester at least then you've got Buckley's of doing it reliably in 45 minutes.
As for staying overnight the previous night, I've had good experiences this last couple of weeks with my first taste of AirBnB, might be worth a look.
I hate airport security. I don't know if I just look like a wrong un, but several of my airport attendances in the last five years have included a swab of my hands and/or bag for firearms residue. And on two occasions they've been positive, causing moderate delays. Once because the nugget doing the tests hadn't washed his hands after the previous one, and once from, I assume, handling firearms. Oh how they chuckle when they fill the form in and ask my job. Not funny for me, I might miss a meal.
I've travelled from Leeds Bradford before now with the bikes, checked in and got rid of the bikes, then driven back to my parents to drop off the car and walked back to the airport to go through security. Works well, unless your friend leaves his passport in his car - muppet 🙂
Rachel
Live next door to Hongers airport so can leave my apartment and be airside in 25 minutes with hand luggage, digital boarding pass and using my HKID to get through immigration. For UK flights with hand luggage and pre-checkin I would leave at least 60 minutes for airports like Southampton and Bristol, at least 90 for Manchester or Birmingham, for the biggies like Gatwick or Heathrow all bets are off due to security, especially if using LHR T3.
Arrive when you want to. Whether you get on depends on what time you choose....
On my flights, if we were short of one passenger who hadn't had any checked hold baggage in, we'd depart on time-notwithstanding all the other factors that cause delays!! If you had hold baggage and were late, I'd ask for it to be offloaded.
I fly the bloody things and don't cut it under an hour from arriving at the airport.
Once it looks like you're running g late they have to find and offload your bag.
Don't rely on this. It'll likely stop them leaving 15 mins early but if in general if the hold is opened to look for your bag, you won't fly even if you turn up at the gate before they've found it.
Yup agree^^^, there's a penalty for offloading the bag, but if you hang around waiting for the wayward SLF to turn up, and then have to offload, you've cost more time anyhoo so its best to crack on with finding the bag.
I read this as "how late would you dare arrive for a fight". Answer: very late, certainly after all opponents have given up and gone home.
Can't recall ever having missed a flight though I have had a few sprints between connections. (Worst being a work trip back from Madrid, delayed departure, then change at Schipol, the gate I wanted being about 4m vertically from the one I came in on, but more like 1km horizontally involving bombing through security to go down a level.
Figures. They're a cautious lot.He lives in Harrogate.
My mother likewise. Family trip to Toronto rellos. Nice and early to the airport for the return flight, which had actually left the day before as per tickets...
I cunningly avoided a delay by not going in the security line behind the middle-eastern looking family, but then time slipped away as the chap in front of me had to explain to the personnel why he was wearing three pairs of trousers. There's probably a moral there.
1 hour for a short haul, 2 hours for a long haul, never in a million years for Ryanair.
About 3 years back I did manage 11minutes for an EasyJet flight from Gatwick to Geneva...admittedly it was paperless tickets online check in , hand luggage only and a flat sprint across the airport from security (with the now de rigeur shoes off and a quick wham-bam-thank-you-man shake down) to the far side of the south terminal gate . I wasn't last on board the plane either...
No check-in luggage, online printed boarding pass, and straight to the gate, I've been under 30 minutes after polite explanation.
At LHR, I've still been in bed having not packed 90 minutes before the flight (I live 10 min away mind).
Travelling with the family - 2 hrs minimum!
It's a bit longer now than it used to be, but the desks can spot a seasoned prepared traveller who knows the drill a mile off.
Not intentionally but 25mins for a transatlantic back from Detroit Metro to LHR. Got to the check in desk extremely late (they were just packing up for the evening) and they held the gate and plane doors for me. Got escorted through security and taken on buggy to gate. One of very few advantages of being a Delta Million Miler - they pulled out all the stops - but does mean living you are living your life on aeroplanes 🙁
Latest I'd leave it is about 3 hours before takeoff.
For UK flights with hand luggage and pre-checkin I would leave at least 60 minutes for airports like Southampton
Work trip to Portsmouth. Organisers flew a group of us into and out of Southampton. They hadn't factored in the time to take a taxi from Portsmouth to Southampton Airport.
Arrived at check in with 15 mins to spare after offering significant cash incentives to the uber driver to get us there.
Come to think of it, another group of us did the same years ago flying back from London City to Manchester. We were half cut on this occasion and the DLR hadn't been built out to the airport....
Lots of flights before and after, busy airport and travelling with bikes? Be there 3 hrs+ before departure.
Must be a troll. Or my mum.
The 'official' answer is to have checked in before the arriving flight lands as they have to make up the passenger manifest.
The unofficial answer from me when I worked for a company that ran an airline is simply the time to park my car walk up the steps - they held the plane for me. But it was a small airport. Sometimes I've been the only passenger and we started once I'd sat down.
I used to fly a lot for work, & reckoned that the stress of planning to get through quickly wasn't worth it, so 90 mins minimum before departure. Then coffee and a nibble.
My brother-in-law and wife managed to miss a flight from LGW this summer, after allowing 90mins to get through. They complained that the queues were too long....
I always add the couple of quid for fast track security onto my ticket for work trips.
I flew from Manchester twice in the past 2 months, both weekday morning flights, but the security queue was totally different for each flight- for one I was queuing for at least half an hour, for the other, I waited about 2 minutes. Totally unpredictable.
Don't risk it. Too many factors to build in for contingency at Birmingham airport.
M42 snarl up (I've been delayed with m5 accident at 5am heading to the airport.
The security chaos when several hundred travellers appear all together for a flight to Islamabad 😯
Arrive early. Chill.
The flight is the least of my worries, it's getting to the airport!
Therefore I usually arrive about 3hrs before check-in even opens.
at least 2 hours for me. I get incredible anxiety in airports - about the only time / place I do. Last time I flew from Edinburgh the whole process of hurry up and wait ie baggage check security passport check etc took over an hour
In the brexit day and age, flying to or from the UK I'd get to da CHOPPA at least 2 hours early.
That's for hand baggage only, if I have hold luggage, I'd factor in another hour.
Then have a cheeky pint or two.
No point getting stressed and rushing to the airport.
1 hour from entering the airport to departing and I even had time for a bacon sarny. Lovely.
