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.
I usually check in at 10 to – 2 minutes before the bag check cutoff (alas, I usually need to check a bag.)
But for the random domestic customer, 2 hours is about right. Plenty of times I have been at an airport where the general security line is over an hour long.
And the infrequent fliers waiting in line is what makes it expedient for us frequents.
“Even with all of this, an hour or hour and fifteen minutes is probably fine for domestic flights “… Do this and around 20 pct of the time you will have stress and delays adding up to far more than getting to the airport earlier and chilling out somewhere until boarding. I always try to get to security 2 hours ahead of domestic flights. I have Pre. So usually I am sitting somewhere chilling for an hour or so until boarding starts 20-30min before. I’ve learned to enjoy it. Life is too busy and short, taking some chill time is good for my soul and stress levels. Numerous times I’ve encountered no parking spaces, problems in security delays despite Pre and found myself thinking “Man, am I glad I go early or I’d be screwed!”.
Recently a person scurried up into a line through security exclaiming “I need to cut or I’m going to miss my flight”!!! A nearby person looked him in the eye and said “We all have some place to go, next time get here early like we all did so you don’t miss your flight. Get back in line and cross your fingers but you’re not jumping ahead of all of us who got here in time”. Felt bad for the guy but I realized if he jumped it was less likely he’d learn his lesson and be there early enough to mitigate problems. Life s short-learn to chill out and take some time to relax then have a stress free flight.
“…ask passengers around you to cut in line because you’ll miss your flight..”
That’s when you’ll see me turn my head back over my shoulder and hear me say, “I guess you should have gotten here earlier.”
The TSA app can advise you on security wait times. I’m not aware of any airport in the US that pre-clears foreign customs so that happens at your destination. Precheck is great and saves tons of time. If you fly out of Canada into the US… give yourself lots of time for the incompetent “security”. They don’t recognize your Nexus or Precheck status and don’t fasttrack anyone.
I’m with Jesse. Planning to cut it close with the assumption that you’ll just cut in line because you are far more important than anyone else and can just pass by the ordinary people who foolishly get to the airport on time is the height of ego and entitlement. Yes, when Plan B is “I’ll just be a jerk,” you can play by your own rules. Not impressed. There are people who legitimately have an issue – their inbound international flight was late and the inability to transfer inside security in the US has tossed them unwillingly into a long security line – but then there are people like Gary who apparently just bully their way through.
All of this advice depends upon which airport and airline you are flying. We showed up at SFB 2 hours before our flight with carry on bags only, but we had our dog who was flying in cabin with us. Waited 1 1/2 hours in the check in line for our clearance tag for him. They finally pulled anyone who was on our flight to the front of the line so we didn’t miss the flight. We have TSA precheck so security was a breeze. They closed the aircraft door behind us.
MCO often has 1 hour TSA lines for those without precheck or clear. I’ve seen lines at the Southwest check in counter 300+ people long.
If you are an inexperienced flyer, show up early.
Oh Gary, this is such awful advice! I guess you haven’t been traveling out of large airports in the last year or two. You won’t have a prayer as the average person does not have clear or pre-check! SMH
This story is completely misleading. You can’t put all airports into one bucket. As someone who is based in ATL, it’s a total crapshoot as to how long it will take to get through security. At best it might be 15 minutes but you can spend up to 90 min even with Precheck and Clear. Even Delta’s digital ID line has become slow. There are many occasions where is quicker to go through regular security and use Precheck.
I always do an hour for smaller airports and 1.5 hours for larger airports and I have always had time to spare. The closest call I’ve had was arriving to the gate just before boarding started and that was at Orlando during an unusually busy time. But I always drop off my rental car the night before and use the hotel shuttle service. That way I get dropped off at the ticket terminal. But precheck has been the biggest time saver.
One very important factor hasn’t been mentioned yet: traffic on the way to the airport.
You see, you don’t actually control your arrival time at the airport. You control your *departure* time to the airport. So an unexpected traffic jam could easily cause you to miss your flight if you cut it too close.
I personally aim for 90 minutes prior to the flight, with Prechek. The check in lines are actually shorter the closer you get to their closing time, and I’ve never been on a Prechek line that has taken more than 15 minutes to get through. The only time I’ve come close to missing a fight was when I got stuck in bad traffic.
I (really enjoy this site and love your work Gary but) don’t get your obsession with showing up ”late” to the airport. I easily prefer to avoid the potential stress caused by the occasional long lines and mess-ups by showing up early and just working from the airport. For instance, last week I got stuck in a 80 (!) minute security line at LAX and today my ride to Istanbul airport that was supposed to take 35 minutes took 2,5 hours due to an accident and unforseen traffic jams. I prefer to minimize stress and worry rather than time at the airport, especially now when you can easily be productive at the airport.
It is now the bag cutoff time that forces me to be at the airport early. Recently when checking in at my local 2-gate airport that ONLY flys to DFW, I was told that the system was going to no longer allow them to override the bag cutoff times. So for international, that is one hour. And even if I am not flying intentionally from my tiny airport, connecting to an international flight, makes the rule apply.
So now I have to make sure I’m there for the bag cutoff time which is 40 mins before I really need to be there. Just insane.
@MYB, I got the dreaded SSSS for my international flight the other day. A very bored guy took my carry-on, opened the main zipper, pulled one thing out, put it back in and told me to be on my way. Took about 30 seconds max. He obviously knew the whole thing is nonsense and didn’t care to go through the motions of playing that game. Wish they were all like that. But yes, it’s one more thing that can go wrong.
Appreciate the Stigler reference!
You get their early. Of course, I have TSE PRE/Nexus/Elite status etc. and I avoid checking bags, but my flight misses are extremely rare (and were from flying discount airlines in Europe that are so firm about their check-in deadline that the agent leaves the desk at this deadline so there is no arguing yourself onto the flight.)
Yes, if you absolutely must make that flight, get there early. But if you can survive missing it because you’re flying home, or it’s a vacation, or there are many other flight choices that get you there in time you can be put on, then do a little math. You might miss one flight in 50. When you miss it you might lose 4-10 hours of time depending on the other flight options. But if you show up 30 minutes earlier 50 times that’s 25 hours of time. No brainer — cut it to the point where you can expect to miss a flight every so often, but you will save far more time. When it’s vital, put in more slack and you can avoid missing those.
We look forward to spending time at the airport before our flight. Well, it’s always pleasure type travel,not business. We enjoy sampling the different lounges. Often we lounge hop from one lounge to another lounge before catching the flight. It’s part of what we look forward to at the start of our trip. We have not traveled so much that the novelty has worn off. We mostly fly out of LAX and we still haven’t tried all the lounges. So far, Emirates 1st class was our favorite. We usually get to the airport at least 2 hours before our flight departs. We have TSA pre check and check bags.
happy holidays!
The information here does not make a valid point. There are different times of the year, and different airports that yes, you need to show up this early. Better earlier than later.
The real question is how you deal with stress. If you are someone who doesn’t stress out easily (“Ah,I missed the flight. No big deal — I’ll catch the next one”), then you can “…walk up just after boarding has started.” OTOH, I’d much rather time it to arrive some 90+ minutes early (and thus not have to worry about California traffic), and then relax in a lounge for an hour or so before heading to the gate right be before boarding starts. (And since I’m not flying Delta, I don’t get turned away from the lounge…
Last few trips through Austin, LA, Las Vegas I’ve been through security with PreCheck/Clear in under 15 minutes.
@Herb
There are NEXUS security lines at Canadian airports which you can use by showing your NEXUS card
I am super glad I turned up to Kansai airport 4 hours in advance. I spent 1hr clearing check-in, and another hour clearing customs. Everyone is like (I have a flight to catch, can I be in front of you?). No shit. I am rushing for my own flight as well. Security clearance queues were snaking almost till outside the airport. That is downright crazy. Especially in such high peak times right now, this is the worst advice to give anyone.
Good Lord! Whoever wrote this hasn’t flown since 1964! I’ve had someone try to cut in line before because they’re going to miss their flight. Look, I got up at 345 am to get here on time, you should have too. Not getting in front of me. This is horrible advice. And if you think arriving 5-10 mins, remember, boarding door closes 10 mins prior to departure and I’ve denied access once the door closed as I will not and cannot open it once it’s closed because the jet bridge has been pulled and I’ve got other flights to deal with. Get to the airport in plenty of time to grab a drink or a sandwich. I’ts one day, you’ll be fine.
There is a saying in the airport business, “Once you have been to one airport, you have been to one airport”. The author has not taken into consideration peak demand hours at an airport that may require a two hour or more arrival (number of flights, aircraft category, average seats filled, hourly processing capacity of checkpoints). Airports can now use predictive analytics to give more accurate advice as to what the wait times would be at a particular hour. However, this depends on the number of checkpoints open since TSA is budget constrained. One cannot blame airports for using the 2 hour window as a guide.