Checking in for Int'l flight
 

How early do you arrive at the airport?
How early do you arrive at the foreign airport for your return home?

Does coach or BF make a difference in when you arrive?

at least two hours on either outbound or inbound, class makes no difference (To me anyway, I might actually be even earlier when I am in BF/F to enjoy the lounge) , I try to be early because of all the 'what if......I get a flat tire/car breaks down/etc etc'

once upon a time I totally underestimated how long it was going to take me to get from downtown London to Gatwick using the tube..... (it was really really early in the AM) .....and then the security lines were freaking longggg plus my gate was at the opposite end of the airport.

it took me the whole 2 hours the flight lasted (it was from LGW to GIB) to settle down after the mini-marathon .....:p

See....I agree with you...two hours, because "you never know"
My friends and associates say I'm nuts

there are too many things that can happen, an accident on the expressway......the decidedly stupid but still possible 'I forgot passport/computer/coat/etc' at home

I made that GIB flight with exactly 1 minute to spare and the stress I had from not making the connection probably took a full month of my life expectancy :p

besides in my case since all my flights originate outside the US and I am not American........I rather be totally checked in well within the timeframe that my name needs to be on the list the airline sends to the US goverment

Flying to LHR next March
 

I'm flying to LHR from SFO via IAH next March so I can do the Adidas Silverstone half marathon. I will definitely plan, on my departure back to the States, to be at Heathrow a good 2-3 hours before my flight leaves so I can enjoy the Holideck lounge and make sure I don't run into any unforeseen events.

different strokes. We do OLCI and carry on luggage. I have no problem arriving at EWR for an int'l flight one hour before the flight. My wife thinks I'm nuts and would arrive 3 hours early. we usually compromise on about 2 hours, but because she the insists we have to allow an hour to get to the airport and it usually only takes a half hour, we end up arriving 2.5 hours before the flight.

As hughw above says, different strokes for different folks, and of course it also depends on what airport you're going into, whether they have elite security lines, etc. From leaving for Austin, I will usually arrive at the airport for ANY flight, including international, about an hour and fifteen minutes before. When I'm coming back into the states, such as from MUC, I usually get there around 1 hour and 45 minutes before, as they have priority security lines, but do have a few extra checkpoints, such as passport control, etc.

and generally if you're flying BF, you can reduce the time somewhat, stateside or overseas. There will usually be a substantially shorter check-in line if you have to check your luggage or can't do OLCI, and there will often be a special security line.

You are nuts. :D I generally leave my house two hours before flight time. Then again, people say I'm nuts too! :p

For an international flight departing from the US, I usually plan to arrive anywhere between 1.5 to 2 hours prior to departure at Newark. I only live about 20 miles from Newark Airport, but depending on what time it is, it could take me over an hour to get there. Pre 6 AM departures takes only 20 minutes for me to arrive at Newark, anything after that would take a minimum of an hour travel time for me. Too many things can go wrong. An accident, forgetting your passport, which happened once, and I ended up missing the flight by about 1 minute, vehicle breakdown, ect. I also try to arrive early to enjoy the lounge benefits, but I like to arrive early to give me more options in the event of a cancellation or irregular operations.

When returning to the US I would prefer to arrive at the airport a minimum of 3 hours, especially at a major airport like LHR where line can be quite long. Again, this would give you more options in the event of a cancellation or irregular operations should you need to get back right away.

well go with what makes you feel comfortable. I like to be at least 2hrs early not for any other reason than to do Plane Spotting or checking out what the ops are like that day. some of us are just wierd that way :D

Same here. This usually gets me in to the terminal about 50-60 minutes before departure.

Last year my friends in Bristol thought I was nuts waiting so late to get to BRS. It was two hours before hand. With Elite access, I checked in, checked bags, went through security in all of 5 minutes. Boy was I bored for the next hour and a half. Non Elite check-in line was really long though.

At EWR for a CO international flight I'm around 1.5 to 2 hours range before hand because I won't to make sure my bag makes it to the plane..

Now I cut it close at LGW last December on a Sunday morning. Tube train went into penalty braking and that delayed things a few minutes which meant I missed the next Gatwick Express but because of engineering works that day they were running only every 40 minutes or something. I arrived at the gate 10 minutes before they started to board.

Sounds like perfect timing to me! :D

Int flights start boarding about an hour before departure. I enjoy having a little bit of time to relax in the lounge and get my bearings (especially when it's a really long flight). I usually try to arrive with about 30 - 40 minutes of lounge time before boarding (although lately it seems that I've been running to the plane the second I get to the airport). So I don't think 2 hours is excessive at all.