I’ve started to realize that I may be arriving to the airport WAY earlier than I need to. I’m not sure I’m as bad as the guy in this Onion article, who suggests arriving 14 hours early, but I feel like maybe I’m getting there! And while each time maybe only “wastes” 30 or 60 minutes, as I fly more, those hours are starting to turn into days!
Heading to #ResellingDO
I have tickets to attend the ResellingDO in Baltimore. I do try to minimize my nights away from family, so I booked a 5:50 a.m. flight to head to Baltimore. 5:50 a.m. didn’t SEEM that early, till I started calculating when I’d need to wake up. Thinking backwards from my 5:50 flight
- Flight leaves at 5:50
- Boarding starts at 5:20
- Figure 20 minutes buffer time puts us at 5:00
- 30 minutes to park, get the shuttle to the terminal and go through security
- 60 minutes to drive to Dayton puts us at 3:30
- 30 minutes to wake up, shower and get ready puts us at a alarm clock time of 3 a.m.!!!
This was bad enough, but we’re also in the middle of March Madness and of course, the tournament decided to put my Cincinnati Bearcats in literally the 32nd out of 32 start times – tipoff Friday night at 10:30 p.m. I HAD to stay up and watched the game, which ended about 12:30 a.m. Naturally, UC proceeded to lose in one of the most heartbreaking ways possible (Don’t worry – I’m used to it)
How early is TOO early?
I feel like I can’t really help it – I’m a planner by nature and I always think about what COULD go wrong. Maybe it’s from having 6 kids, where when you go somewhere, someone always seems to need a diaper change, is missing their shoes, or needs to spend some time in timeout before we can get out the door. So whenever I try to get somewhere, I am always wanting to plan extra buffer time in case something goes wrong. Actually, on this morning’s flight, I did “waste” 10 minutes by missing my exit off the Interstate due to a combination of construction and not paying attention, but I still made it to the gate by 4:40 a.m. (70 minutes before the flight time), giving me plenty of time to actually WRITE this post 🙂
Still, I think it was Gary from View from the Wing who mentioned something along the lines of “If you’re not missing flights, you’re spending too much time at the airport”. I thought that was an interesting way to look at it. I can say that I have never missed a flight, though my sister did end up missing one by not getting to the airport early enough (SEE: “Dan, I think I’m going to miss my flight!”)
So, readers, what do you do? How much time do you leave yourself before your flight? Does it change based on how “important” the flight is?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
You could start by being a Muskie fan (although your vested interest time in the tournament would increase)
LOL. Too soon… too soon 🙂
It’s not a good thing when I know exactly what BA blog it is just by the sensationalist, click-bait title with random capitalized words.
It’s routine for me to spend days and night at the airport. Watching passengers on and off. How about a privite flight…
Although I have different values for my time budget than you, in aggregate, I too have a 3 hours lead time between getting up in the morning and my flight taking off (I live in Wisconsin and fly out of ORD.)
Like you, I also like to be at the airport ~20 minutes before boarding, in case there’s a snafu at security, or they switch terminals on me, or in case they start boarding early.
My wife, on the other hand, prefers being at the airport at least 90 minutes before the flight… this is why lounges were invented.
Yes – lounges are nice…. except there aren’t any lounges in Dayton (or Columbus… or Indianapolis….)
Indy does have a Delta Skyclub (decent, considering it is the only one in there it gets the job done!). Amex Plat holders have access but do have to be traveling on Delta the same day.
Ah good point. I forgot about that as cincinnati has a skyclub too and if I’m traveling delta , it’s usually out of cvg
If one is OCD, 90 minutes prior isn’t ANYTHING.
Plus, you don’t mention anything about longer than a 1 hour layover: I like longer layovers to write reviews, charge my electronics and most importantly, SHOPPING!!!!!!!
(Terminal 5 at JFK is admirably suited for this type of activity aimed at separating me from my coin)
I’ve missed a few flights myself and would agree, for myself, that “If you’re not missing flights, you’re spending too much time at the airport.” But thinking about giving that advice to the general population, it occurs to me it depends a lot on what kind of traveler you are. For example:
At one end is the business traveler going from Chicago to NYC, who has status, has lounge membership, is on a refundable/flexbile fare, and traveling on his own. If he misses his flight, he gets on the next one at little or no cost. The airline will go out of its way to accommodate him because he’s a very high-value passenger. If he has to wait he can hang out in the lounge. The flights are frequent and he only needs to find space for one, so 99% of the time he’ll get on the next flight with no problem. And if his airline won’t accommodate him, he’ll walk over to the airline and buy a walk-up fare, knowing his employer will pay.
At the other extreme is the leisure traveler going to some leisure destination, that may only be served once or twice a week, and traveling together with spouse and three kids. They’re on a non-refundable, non-changeable fare (unless they pay $200 or whatever per passenger). And they’re traveling at peak times because of school holidays. If they miss their flight, they might be hit with the change fee, fare difference (potentially exhorbitant at the last minute) – if there’s even space for five people on the next flight, which might be in a week. Add to that all the stress of traveling with small children.
Of course, these are just examples, but I’m thinking the “you’re arriving at the airport too early” applies more to the first kind of traveler than to the second, for whom the cost of missing a flight is far, far higher.
You hit the nail on the head, O2nz!!
Well put!
If I’m traveling by myself, I tend to cut things as close as possible. Ideally, I am just walking up to the gate about 5 minutes before they start pre-boarding. I typically have only a carry-on and can pretty much control my time not having to worry about wrangling kids through lines, slow walking, etc. When I travel with the family, however, I always try to get to the airport 90-120 minutes before departure.
Living in NKY, CVG is my closest/most convenient airport and I certainly consider the hassle/time factor when evaluating my options at the other airports. I’m probably not going to drive to Dayton just to save $100, because that usually entails fighting traffic/construction twice in Cincinnati and the south side of Dayton. I do use the other airports in the area, but it is usually when it results in very significant savings and/or award availability (IND and CMH can be great starting points for Europe or Asia premium award trips – I can often find space from there when it is non-existent at CVG).
Excellent points. I’m on the north side of cincy, so while Dayton is further, it’s not THAT much further
My whole outlook on this has changed since getting my American Express Platinum card. There is a great Centurion lounge at Seatac. To get to the airport from my house involves traffic, a ferry ride and a light rail. There are a lot of possible delays but I still used to always cut it too close. Now I don’t mind planning for extra time and it does make it less stressful knowing I am giving myself more buffer room. It will be so sad when I lose this perk since I definately won’t be paying the $450 annual fee again.
I’m in the same boat though I think I’ll squeeze out one more year by signing up for it myself (current card is my wife’s )
Something to consider as well is your experiences at your local airport. I typically know what the lines are like for the flights I regularly take and feel more confident in cutting it “closer” than I would for a flight I don’t take often. Still, there’s always the strange events that can cause additional traffic at the airport as well.
For airports I don’t frequent as often, I would rather give myself more time that I may end up waiting longer there. I use the wait time to work, write, finally pause and relax for a minute, or walk some laps around the terminal. Do I want to be there more than I have to? No of course not. But the goal is to maximize the time you spend anywhere.