XL Gatwick - 3 hours check-in

BernadetteN

hi there,
we are package holiday novices (almost) and have just received our holiday details of our almost free Tesco/XL holiday to near Marbella later this week. The flight details say LATEST CHECK-IN at Gatwick is 3 HOURS before take-off at 6.10, so it says we should be there at 3.10 in the morning!

I have checked on the Gatwick website and it says check-in for European flights starts 2 hours before first check-in, not latest check-in time at 3 hours, and says boarding commences around 45 minutes before take-off.

So does anyone have recent experience of XL flying to Malaga? Did you really turn up more than 3 hours before take-off?

bagand96

In my experience all of the tour operators/charter airlines are now printing 3 hours check in on flight tickets. I have been on two holidays this year Thomson and Mytravel, and have only arrived two hours before, and had no problems. I think they print it just to make sure people will get there and can be checked in with plenty of time to spare.

That said, when its my holiday I've paid for, I can take the risk and ignore what is printed on the ticket. I wouldn't want to advise you to do it however, in case anything did go wrong.

MarkyMarkD

There is no earthly reason to be there 3 hours early; I doubt that any airline actually opens their check-in desks that early either.

We were told to collect tickets at the airport 3 hours early for a late booking a few years ago, and duly arrived 3 hours early to find that the ticket desk didn't open for another hour. D'oh! So then we weren't first in the check-in queue despite being there earlier than anyone else. Most irritating.

exel1966

As long as you've you've checked in prior to check-in close (usually 40mins prior to departure) you'll get on the aircraft providing you don't go AWOL. It is EXTREMELY rare for a flight to leave without a checked in passenger with baggage as the last thing the airline wants to do is locate and offload that baggage as it causes big delays. Obviously the later you check-in the less chance you'll have on getting the seats you want/having a bite to eat/keeping kids content/shopping etc.

Operators are now putting 3 hours due to the ever increasing time it takes to get through security. Obviously each airport is different when it comes to keeping the pax waiting. BAA airports are particularly bad/slow at processing pax though the security areas due lack of manpower/equipment and concentrating on making profit from shops rather than making life easier for pax.

In the past three weeks I've departed Gatwick on two transatlantic flights leaving at 0945 and 1130 and had to wait approx 30-45 to get through security screening so bare that in mind.

All airports/airlines use various ways to get pax to arrive at boarding gates early - some of them ;-

1. They stipulate unnecessay 3 hour check in times
2. Screens will say 'Proceed to gate' even though the aircraft may not even be at the gate yet or have even arrived at the airport.
3. They will put 'gate closing' on screen a very long time before it actually is.

It's done to gee people up and get them moving particularly those who are not used to airport envoironments and don't know how to play the game and to hopefully get the flight away on time.

richardw

Gatwick in the early morning is very busy because of the large numbers of passengers on flights to the USA, Saturdays being the worst.