check in times

[Britchick]

just looking at gatwick airport information and it said that you should check in 4 hours before a long haul flight!! is that right? i thought it was 3 hours

[Keith]

just looking at gatwick airport information and it said that you should check in 4 hours before a long haul flight!! is that right? i thought it was 3 hours

The wording was always iffy. They used to say "check in thee hours before your flight to ensure you can checkin and clear security". When asked what that REALLY meant, most uk airlines said that it meant they'd like you to have been in the queue BEFORE that three hour peiod to have gone through checkin by three hours before the flight. Hence the four hours before thing.

In reality on say Virgin, as long as you've hit the checkin desk reasonably before 60 mins prior to the take off time, you ought to be ok for THAT stage (of course you may have to run like heck through the airport and hope there aren't security queues)

[Britchick]

crikey! i may as well not bother going to bed!

[Keith]

crikey! i may as well not bother going to bed!

yeah I always think that too

We normally aim to get to the airport exactly 3 hours before. I figure that's me meeting the airlines "3 hrs before" criteria and allowing easily enough time (although virgin seems to say 2.5hrs nowadays).

In May because Virgin messed up our booking horribly and as usual, couldn't be bothered to help fix them, I ended up leaving the house at 5am to get there at around 6am (for a 10.25am flight) and there were still tons of people and queues in front of us So I just think no matter how early you get there, there'll be queues

[Britchick]

our flight is at 9am i'm not sure what desk we need to check in either as we booked with delta and it is being operated by north west. Anyone that knows me will appreciate the thought of me arising at 4am

[Keith]

our flight is at 9am i'm not sure what desk we need to check in either as we booked with delta and it is being operated by north west. Anyone that knows me will appreciate the thought of me arising at 4am

yep me too, indeed what I was coming around to was, I dont normally sleep much before 4 or 5am anyway so I decided there was just no point even trying to sleep the night before that one

Tbh the desk is going to be dead easy when you get there. I'm a total worrier until we're in the air. Love flying, hate the logistics of the airports, but even for me finding the gate has never been an issue. Even if its operated by someone else, it'll have the flight number on the screen above one of the desks

[Britchick]

oh yeah didn't think about the flight number - doh!

i think i'm worrying so much about these flights as they were so cheap!

[Keith]

oh yeah didn't think about the flight number - doh!

i think i'm worrying so much about these flights as they were so cheap!

yeah totally know what you mean! tbh the cheaper flights have often worked out for us whilst the more expensive ones have sometimes been hideous LOL

[sunsetlakes]

We usually arrive 3 hours before and have never had a problem with that with whatever airlines we are flying with that day. We just head for the lounge once we clear security so Rob can sit and have a couple of drinks and I can read the paper in comfort before boarding - 4 hours does seem like a bit of an overkill.

[lisaw]

our flight is at 9am i'm not sure what desk we need to check in either as we booked with delta and it is being operated by north west. Anyone that knows me will appreciate the thought of me arising at 4am

Even I won't be up and thinking of you at that time in the morning!

Last time at Gatwick it took 45 minutes just to get through security.