Aer lingus says check in 3hrs before flight

workaccount

Do you really need to be this early though?


I am going to check the bags in online and use fastpass at the airport.


It's a transatlantic flight.
Thanks.

spurious

You'll still have to do the immigration stuff.
If they say three hours, I wouldn't leave it any tighter than 2 and a half maximum. Yes there will be a fair bit of hanging around, but there always is.

Davidth88

Errrr Check in the bags on-line , how ?


Online check in will give you your boarding pass, but the the queues at the ' quick drop ' for the bags can be deadly , sometimes up to 1 hr ( no I do not exgagrate )

Then you have security , sometimes up to 20 mins

Then the US INS stuff , which again the queues can be deadly

Transatlantic I would always leave 2.5-3hrs ,even on short haul flights if I have a bag and I am travalling at peak time ( ie 6-8am) I leave at least 1.5 -2 hrs.

Go early , be stress free and chill, not worth the stress otherwise esp on transatlantic where you have endless forms and tight security.

jimmycrackcorm

my experience is that the reason appears to be due to minimal staff numbers.

killbillvol2

This crops up again and again.

At the end of the day would you prefer to have to kill a couple of hours in the departure area because everything went like clockwork or be stuck on the M50 an hour before takeoff because you wanted to fart around at home for an extra 20 minutes?

Some people think it's cool to swan into the airport an hour before departure as if they're too busy to be there earlier. There are two things wrong with this. Firstly there's nothing cool about missing your flight and secondly Dublin Airport is such an inefficient dump that you never know what's going to go wrong next.

Bottom line: get there early and bring a book.

ncmc

I think 3hrs is standard now with transatlantic flights.

We flew from Shannon to LA with Continental last month and I too was surprised by the three hour thing. We arrived 2hrs55 mins before take off (me panicing cos we were 5 mins late!). Check in took 5 mins, security something similar, swanned through US immigration in no time so we actually had about 2 and a half hours to kill in Shannon which is a complete dump.

But you know what, we had a nice lesurely breakfast, read a book and juts relaxed, I agree with KillBillVol2, what's the point of spending an extra half hour at home and then panicing if you get a flat tire or get stuck in traffic. It's worth being bored in the airport for the sake of peace of mind.

Plus, I like Dublin Airport, you could always just head to the pub!

jimmycrackcorm

killbillvol2 wrote: »

This crops up again and again.

At the end of the day would you prefer to have to kill a couple of hours in the departure area because everything went like clockwork or be stuck on the M50 an hour before takeoff because you wanted to fart around at home for an extra 20 minutes?

Some people think it's cool to swan into the airport an hour before departure as if they're too busy to be there earlier. There are two things wrong with this. Firstly there's nothing cool about missing your flight and secondly Dublin Airport is such an inefficient dump that you never know what's going to go wrong next.

Bottom line: get there early and bring a book.

I arrived two hours ahead for an Aer Lingus checkin and had to end up getting pulled out of the queue and into a special desk dealing with immediate departures because the whole area only had 2 staff on the normal desks.

Perhaps they figure that 3 hours is sufficient for 2 staff to deal with customers.

Benedict XVI

Back in 1996 the advice was check-in 3 hrs before departure, I am sure things have got even busier now so 3 hours would be a minimum.