Seachain

UKtravelbear

From the BA website LCY pages bag drop

LCY is not really an airport to arrive early and hang around.

Seachain

Globaliser

Is MMB misleading?

golfmad

I think the limiting factor are the storage facilities at the airport. There are other threads on FlyerTalk though with consistent references to the 2 hour limitation:

LCY Bag Drop
Bag drop at LCY - how early?

Dave Noble

Looking at my booking for a flight ex-LCY, it isn't exactly clear

Under Chekin it mentions online checkin from 24 hours
If I follow the not overly highlighted "other ways to check n" link , it states that self service is available from 05:30 and that desks are available from 2 hours

There is nothing to indicate that turning up 4 hours before departure would lead to not being able to check in. I would expect to be able to use the self service check in at that time

Admittedly, the main reason that we are using LCY is that there is no need to leave for the airport until 2 hours before departure , so won't be an impact

ajeleonard

Equally it doesn't say anywhere that you can drop bags 4 hours before. OP made an assumption with no basis that turned out to be wrong.

EJetter

Dave Noble

How does saying that self service check in opens at 05:30 and closes 30 minutes before departure not imply that you can check in at 13:00 ?

There is nothing saying that check in is restricted to those without luggage

orbitmic

It implies that you can check in, but not that you can bag drop. It was the same phrasing when LHR only allowed bag drop 3 hours before the flight for people without status flying in Y (I believe though aren't sure that the rules have been relaxed for them since).

To my knowledge, most European airlines with a check in limit of 2 or 3 hours do similarly allow self check in at kiosks (when available) on the calendar day but still won't accept bags until their stated limit.

orbitmic

I don't actually agree. Posters keep asking for more warnings about things they assumed that they would be able to do (the same request is frequent about fees to select a seat, the fact that you cannot through check bags on separate bookings etc) but the truth of the matter is that assuming that all rules are correctly published on the website, the more information you specifically highlight in the passenger's booking and boarding card, the less effective that highlighting is. In that sense, I personally much prefer that only the essential or information likely to be useful to a large number of passengers be highlighted (e.g. time when check in and gate close, baggage allowance, carry on allowance, lounge, and in the booking cancellation and change conditions) rather than clutter the page with information which specific passengers would indeed have needed but a vast majority are not intending to use. In this case, if BA gave all the indications that you and others want highlighted, I'd be the first accusing them of trying to use all that side information to hide what is actually far more essential.

HarryHolden68

I have been caught out by this too. Simply stops me flying from LCY. BA have little sympathy with people missing flights or at LHR, conformance - I know from personal experience. With a 135 minute train ride with 1 connection into Kings Cross followed by the underground transfer to Bank and DLR to LCY, the risk averse nature in me would never allow me to plan to arrive 2 hours before departure.

As far as I can see, at LCY BA operate as London airways for London passengers. It is not an airport for the masses.from the regions.

I will now put an thick Beano down my trousers - shoot away.

corporate-wage-slave

It is somewhat difficult to tabulate the logic of this paragraph. On the day that your train from the regions breaks down, and the tube also crawls down to the proverbial snail's pace, followed surely by some teenagers letting off a fire extinguisher on the DLR, is surely the same day that sailing into LCY 23 minutes before departure that you thank your lucky stars that you can still check your luggage in and comfortably make the flight?

And if you say "yes, but", what was the point in arriving so early in the first place?

Globaliser

I think that the point is that HarryHolden68 never wants to be in that position even if everything goes wrong, and therefore wants to plan to arrive at the airport perhaps three, four or more hours before the flight. I can understand why someone who is very risk-averse may want to plan in a way that means that even if things go sequentially pear-shaped, they will still have a very generous wait at the airport. For such a passenger, an inability to check-in bags many hours before the flight won't work. (We used to see many people sitting around in the T5 check-in area waiting for bag drop to open, probably arising in many cases from a similar level of risk aversion.)

But this has nothing to do with BA running LCY for Londoners. Similar limits may well apply to other LCY airlines, for the same practical reasons - so this may not be a BA thing at all. In any event, as a Londoner with an office in central London, and likewise needing to take the Tube then the DLR to get to LCY, I too have had occasional experiences of wondering whether I have been insufficiently risk-averse, and of being saved by the proverbial bell of LCY's quick processes. Londoners equally have to decide how to plan their journey to LCY in accordance with their own levels of risk tolerance. If I were as risk-intolerant as HarryHolden68 seems to be, and if my travel plans therefore also routinely included planning to be at the airport many hours before the flight, LCY would be just as inapt for me.

LCY is really designed for people who are comfortable with turning up just in time, or shortly before that. Indeed, the airport itself has an incentive to encourage and facilitate that, because even with its expanded facilities it would find it hard to cope if everyone were to take the view that they're only safe if they arrive at the airport three or more hours early. Before the recent expansion, there have been times when LCY might well have been a candidate for a form of reverse conformance, such as sometimes seen in other places: you cannot go airside until your flight departure time is sufficiently close.

corporate-wage-slave

But again, where is the logic? The point of having lots of time in hand allows a few things to go wrong and you're still OK. OK in T5 means 45 minutes if checking in a bag, in LCY it's 20 minutes. Being risk adverse means you don't want to chance that deadline, but you can't control all risks let alone all Eastender teenagers, so you add a buffer, or even an excessive buffer. You can still arrive silly early, there are two coffee shops in LCY that one can repair to if necessary, but for an airport like LCY it would be bonkers to encourage people to turn up even earlier than 2 hours. It's only got a single longhaul service per day, and not many services over 500 miles. What's more if HBO - which is overwhelming majority of LCY passengers - one can proceed through LCY any time the same day.