Arrival time at airport for US flight

arielsmelody
arielsmelody Posts: 76 Forumite
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in Flights, currency & car hire
My daughter is flying by BA to the US from Heathrow in a few weeks time. I'm trying to work out how long in advance of her flight time she needs to arrive at Heathrow - the advice I'm seeing online is 3 hours - does that sound right or should she aim for longer? (She will have a large suitcase, but I expect she will do online check in beforehand.)
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Comments

  • EveryWhere
    EveryWhere Posts: 3,249 Forumite
    If she checks in on-line beforehand, I would say a minimum of ninety minutes. I usually go for between 60 and 90 unless I'm doing the lounges.
    Three hours if she has Executive Club Silver or is flying Business Class, as then she may want to use the lounges.
    Two hours for those of a nervous disposition.
  • Voyager2002
    Voyager2002 Posts: 15,281 Forumite
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    EveryWhere wrote: »
    If she checks in on-line beforehand, I would say a minimum of ninety minutes. I usually go for between 60 and 90 unless I'm doing the lounges.
    Three hours if she has Executive Club Silver or is flying Business Class, as then she may want to use the lounges.
    Two hours for those of a nervous disposition.


    That is cutting it fine!


    If she arrives at the airport 90 minutes before take-off she should be fine. However, if you plan the journey to arrive at T-90 then you have no buffer in case of traffic or other delays.


    I would suggest planning to arrive three hours before, so that most things likely to go wrong would not prove disastrous.
  • jonesMUFCforever
    jonesMUFCforever Posts: 28,898 Forumite
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    If it was me I would say at LEAST 3 hours - depending on where you will be staying the night before.
  • melanzana
    melanzana Posts: 3,953 Forumite
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    We fly to US from Shannon or Dublin. Three hours required there.

    But the beauty is, with pre clearance we just exit the airport in the US and get in a cab and are there. All immigration and customs done in Ireland.

    I don't know why more people don't just do this. Well I suppose it could depend on your access to Heathrow or any other airport that has flights to the US. Still.
  • victor2
    victor2 Posts: 7,598 Ambassador
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    Another vote for getting to the airport at least 3 hours before departure. Heathrow departure areas aren't such a bad place to spend a few hours in, plus if she is delayed, she's got a reasonable cushion to be able to still make the flight.

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  • photome
    photome Posts: 16,362 Forumite
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    Better to be too early than too late.

    Always stories from people complaining that they missed the flight ,

    ” but the plane was still at the gate ,they wouldn’t let me on”
  • Savvy_Sue
    Savvy_Sue Posts: 46,021 Forumite
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    She may well have done online check-in, but she's still got to queue up to get her suitcase booked in, no?
    Signature removed for peace of mind
  • Voyager2002
    Voyager2002 Posts: 15,281 Forumite
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    victor2 wrote: »
    Another vote for getting to the airport at least 3 hours before departure. Heathrow departure areas aren't such a bad place to spend a few hours in, plus if she is delayed, she's got a reasonable cushion to be able to still make the flight.


    I absolutely hate Heathrow departure gates (although the lounge/shopping centre is even worse), but missing the 'plane would be even more horrible.
  • cubegame
    cubegame Posts: 2,042 Forumite
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    Look at the minimum bag drop times. Arrive 5 minutes before that!

    Always works for us.
  • gettingtheresometime
    gettingtheresometime Posts: 6,911 Forumite
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    I always thought you had to be earlier for a flight to the US as i thought the manifest had to be sent to the US
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