In June I was flying EWR-FLL with my wife, 3 year old son and 6 month infant. We live 90 minutes from the airport but managed to arrive 2 hours early for our noon departure. Our flight was cancelled and we had to wait 65 minutes in a line just to rebooked. There were only 7 or 8 people ahead of us and 4 agents but the line never moved. Despite begging and pleading and the intervention of a supervisor the best the airline could do is get us on the 7:15 am flight the next morning.

My wife and I awoke at 4 am and had to wake the children at 4:30 am so we could leave for the airport and arrive by 6 am. We arrived on time but could not believe our eyes. At 5:55 am the curb side check in lines, of which there were many, were so long that had we chosen to wait on them we would have missed our flight. The lines inside were even worse. I tried to cut the line and I actually got yelled at by the next few people in line who shouted things like "why don't you try getting to the airport on time" and "the end of the line is back there." Not wanting trouble I did not cut the line: instead my wife took the baby and cut in and nobody said a word including the people who yelled at me. We made our flight on time only because she cut in on the enormous line.

If anyone thinks what we did was wrong, please tell me what the solution is. We arrived at the airport at 5:55 am (with two children) for a 7:15 am flight (the only flight that the airline could reschedule us on) and we still had to cut the line to avoid missing our flight. What else should I have done? How early should one have to get to airport for a short domestic flight?