It wasn't. I never arrive at a checkin counter less than 1.5 hours before flight time...it's something that I'm anal about. Now you know why.
I love how people think differently. I rarely, RARELY arrive more than 5-10 minutes before baggage cutoff at the respective airports and have only missed two flights in 7 years. Both of which were this past month of course.
The first was because I thought IND was on central time for some reason and the other was because of an understaffed ticket counter at DAY. I actually checked in 45 minutes early but they didn't give me my bag tag until 8 minutes prior to departure and ergo, it was too late in their opinion at that point.
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There are just some airports where you need to allow more time. LAX is one of them, LAS is another (plus several others). I have known of people to show up 4 hours before UA flight time at LAS and still miss their flight (day after a big convention week).
That is why CO has the 45 min. rule. I would allows recommend two hours in advance arrival at LAX. That is why it is a good idea to have a PC membership. Don't fault CO, some airports are just real crowded.
If everyone on your flight showed up at the ticket counter 1 hour before departure, then what?
I use to work the shuttle flights from DCA to EWR. We would arrive at the gate area (this was before 9-11) at 5am for the 6am flight. No one was checked in and no one was in line by 5:30am. At 5:45am, 150 businessmen would be standing in line, checking the time and tapping their shoe. And of course I was expected to check in all 150 men in 5 minutes! Everyone of them thought that there wouldn't be a line and all of them were surprised to find a very long line.
Yes all those businessmen made their flight but only because we got inventive with the rules.
But that was then and this is now. And now we have cut off times. You take your chances by showing up just before your departure time.
what is this "two hour" non-sense? i never get to the airport more than one hour early. never. i never print my BP's at home or work. always reprint at kiosk. I have never had a problem and i almost always check a bag.
LAX, LAS, ATL, MCO and a handful of others have a 45 minute cutoff for baggage check (the gates are so far from the check-in counter that the bags literally need more transit time) but that's all i have ever heard of.
I got dinged in ATL once when i got there 30 minutes before. had to wait for the next HP flight which was six hours later.
Now I have my BP printed out and I'm leaving earlier tomorrow morning.
I thought of printing it out at the hotel before, and I was just too lazy to make the phone call and pick it up at the lobby. I thought it would be easy to print it out at the airport.
I can see that a lot of people are saying 1 and a half hour is the best rule,
and I certainly learned from this experience.
I guess I didn't fully realize the difference with a busy airport.
( But nowhere did it really say during my web check in about this 1 and a half hour "rule". )
Well oh well.
Now that the panic is gone and I'm more calmed down.
I'll just say it was a new way to start out the new year.
Hopefully the rest of my year will be of better luck.
Happy New Year to you all too.
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Glad you are over the stress of the situation and ready to start anew tomorrow morning. Missing a flight isn't the end of the world. It's happened to many of us. I have become the official travel agent for my family since I travel so much myself (and usually get them tickets with my miles) and always make sure I book both my Mother and Brother on mid-day flights when the airport isn't as busy and NEVER on the last flight of the day!
If everyone on your flight showed up at the ticket counter 1 hour before departure, then what?
I use to work the shuttle flights from DCA to EWR. We would arrive at the gate area (this was before 9-11) at 5am for the 6am flight. No one was checked in and no one was in line by 5:30am. At 5:45am, 150 businessmen would be standing in line, checking the time and tapping their shoe. And of course I was expected to check in all 150 men in 5 minutes! Everyone of them thought that there wouldn't be a line and all of them were surprised to find a very long line.
Yes all those businessmen made their flight but only because we got inventive with the rules.
But that was then and this is now. And now we have cut off times. You take your chances by showing up just before your departure time.
This thread isn't about everyone showing up at the ticket counter "just before departure time" but someone who was already checked-in needing a reprinted boarding pass an hour before departure. That is something that should be handled without any human assistance, yet CO can't seem to manage that. I'm not saying that CO is totally at fault - the OP clearly had other options - but it's ridiculous to just chalk this up to not getting to the airport on time. One hour with no bags is plenty of time for all airports save Vegas after a convention.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sfogate
If everyone on your flight showed up at the ticket counter 1 hour before departure, then what?
I use to work the shuttle flights from DCA to EWR. We would arrive at the gate area (this was before 9-11) at 5am for the 6am flight. No one was checked in and no one was in line by 5:30am. At 5:45am, 150 businessmen would be standing in line, checking the time and tapping their shoe. And of course I was expected to check in all 150 men in 5 minutes! Everyone of them thought that there wouldn't be a line and all of them were surprised to find a very long line.
Yes all those businessmen made their flight but only because we got inventive with the rules.
But that was then and this is now. And now we have cut off times. You take your chances by showing up just before your departure time.
At LAX, at least, AA has anticipated customer behavior and accommodated it; CO has not.
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At LAX, at least, AA has anticipated customer behavior and accommodated it; CO has not.
Since when?!
I had to endure an extra 6 hrs till the next flight cause by the time I reached the Biz checkin line to check my 1 bag, (on the line over 1/2 hr) it was 38 mins till flight 2 mins over and was told Sorry you cant check the bag.
The reason it took so long as every CSR was small talking with every person checking in
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rjque
...it's ridiculous to just chalk this up to not getting to the airport on time....
I would agree with you in a perfect world, but as this thread suggests, it ain't a perfect world. Better to have to kill some time at an airport than have to scramble to find another flight, especially with load factors being what they are these days.
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This is one of the reasons that I thing LAS is ahead of the times. They have check-in kiosks that access all airline check-ins (most I think) and you can print your BP from these at anytime. I have rarely seen a line for these and if you are all carry on these work great. Has anyone else seen these in use throughout the country?
