Airlines and airports tell you to arrive at the airport 2 hours in advance for a domestic flight and 3 hours in advance for an international flight. And then during peak times they warn you to show up even earlier than that. This is insane.

Here are the things you need to account for when arriving at the airport.

• The time to get from the parking lot into the terminal, if you park
  
• The time it takes to check you bag, if you aren’t just carrying on
  
• Maybe you think it’s still 1996 and you want to wait in line for a human to give you a paper boarding pass?
  
• And you have to go through security – if you’re listening to the airline’s or airport’s advice you probably don’t have PreCheck or CLEAR
  
• Plus it’s a long flight and you may want to stop for a snack, and if you go to the bathroom prior to boarding you’ll weigh less so the airline saves a little bit of money on fuel.

If you’re leaving on an international flight throughout much of the world you’ll have to go through departure immigration, as well as security. For the most part that’s not how it works in the U.S., Canada, or U.K. Extra time for a U.S. flight assumes you’re waiting in line, document check takes awhile, and maybe there’s some confusion over your eligibility to travel (visa issues).

Even with all of this, an hour or hour and fifteen minutes is probably fine for domestic flights – maybe a little more for international if you’re unsure your paperwork is in order – 90% of the time. But it’s the outlier cases for which the advice is given.

Since airlines and airports are giving advice, they are kinda (not really) responsible if it’s wrong. So they offer an amount of time that will cover 99.9%+ of cases. And that leaves you with far more time twiddling your thumbs by the gate, in the lounge, or milling about the terminal than you possibly need.

On the other hand, maybe it’s all a conspiracy? They just want you to shop.

the myth that you have to arrive two hours before your flight is propagated by airports to make you spend more money on overpriced snacks. you really only need to arrive 5-10 minutes before departure

— Sam Weinberg (@SAMUELJWEINBERG) December 7, 2023

This is possible! Or at least, this explanation is consonant with other incentives that those giving the (usually bad) advice face.

Airports generally take a cut of retail sales on top of per square foot rent payments. And the higher the sales, the bigger those lease rates they can charge. Airlines generally share in this revenue. High end retail in airports isn’t because the average passenger has a huge urge for last minute Gucci. It’s because passengers skew higher-income, they have time on their hands, and a percentage of expensive item sales adds up.

This is also why airports have removed moving walkways. It cost $1 million to take out the walkway in the Dallas – Fort Worth D terminal. People were simply passing by retail shops using the walkway instead of wandering in. A walkway was similarly removed at O’Hare for the same reason.

Passengers aren’t the customer at airports in fact airports usually don’t even know who’s in the terminal (cameras and facial recognition notwithstanding).

The truth is – either way – is that you do not need to show up at the airport as early as you’re told. If you’ve never missed a flight you’re spending too much time in airports.

You need to evaluate, in each case, what the consequence would be of missing a flight. Sometimes it just means you’d take a later flight. Sometimes you’d just skip the trip. And other times it is a ‘very big deal’ and so you want to show up early for a flight that gets you to your destination very early, giving you plenty of buffer if things go wrong.

So when should you really show up at the airport? Check in online or using your airline’s mobile app and then:

• If you have no elite status and no TSA PreCheck and you’re checking a bag, probably 90 minutes. That gives you half an hour to get through the line and check your bag, and half an hour to go through security. Then go straight to your gate. You do not need to be the first to board.

• If lines are long to check your bag, see if it’s an option to pay a Sky Cap outside to take your bags and give you your boarding pass if you need it.

• If security lines are especially long, ask passengers around you to cut in line because you’ll miss your flight. If the terminal has CLEAR they do signups on the spot, and it could be a good time to join. Look for a Priority line that may not have anyone in it

If you’re traveling with young children, adjust accordingly. If you’re traveling the Sunday after Thanksgiving, out of Las Vegas at the end of the Computer Electronics Show or Austin after Formula 1, adjust accordingly. If you’re flying out of Denver, my condolences, the airport and TSA have never managed to get that one right. But in the limit, 90 minutes should be fine for most, almost all of the time.

Personally, with status and CLEAR and PreCheck and no checked bags I like to leave home 75 minutes prior to departure, hitting the airport 50 minutes out. Even if security takes 15 minutes, and I’m heading to the other end of the terminal, I’m still walking up just after boarding has started – so I’ve got at least a 15 minute buffer.