Originally Posted by
Foofighter69
I assume the reason this question gets asked and why there were so many people desperate to check in across all classes is because holiday makers don't have much to do that late and they choose to pick up bags from the hotel and head to the airport?
Yes basically. Once people have had dinner etc., they probably just decide to head off to DXB.
The issue with getting there even earlier than t-3hrs though is that they often don't even have the barriers/ropes etc up, so there's this loitering gang of obviously-British people wondering how to start queuing and just generally being a bit passive-aggressive.
I'd go for t-2.5hrs, so that the initial queue has died down but you'll still be early enough to get a seat in the lounge.