Why get to the airport two hours in advance? This new TikTok trend challenges travelers to check in at the last minute
A new daredevil trend, designed to save you valuable time, could easily end up being more costly in the long run: “It’s more of a gamble than a strategy”.
Even if you don’t have luggage to check in, most airlines will advise you to arrive at the airport at least two hours before your flight is due to leave. And that’s usually just domestic flights, if you have booked a long-haul international trip you might be required to be at your point of departure three hours in advance.
Hundreds of ways your travel plan can fall to pieces
The reason? To make sure passengers have plenty of margin if they get delayed - and that can easily happen, even before you arrive at the airport: traffic jams, road works, finding a parking space, bus or train cancellations...
And more factors once you are inside: queues at check-in, queues going through security, being stopped for a bag check... Then there are other curveballs: a long walk to the gate, a last minute gate change, losing a personal item, or leaving something behind at the duty free shop...
So it’s easy to see why the two-hour rule applies although most of the time, it just means you’re hanging around the departures lounge with nothing to do, waiting for your gate call. And airports want you to be waiting around because you’ll be more likely to spend money - maybe on a coffee and something to eat, or something from the gift shop, out of boredom.
What is the latest you can arrive at the airport to catch a flight?
Of course some travelers are always going to leave things to the last minute and cut it as fine as they can. Cue a new trend that’s doing the rounds on TikTok. Creators are experimenting to see how much of the two-hour rule they can slash.
Some claim that they have managed to successfully board their flight, even after getting to the airport just 15 to 20 minutes before boarding time.
In theory, it sounds great - but 15-20 minutes leaves no time if you get held up. And some airlines state on the boarding pass that you must be physically at your designated gate half a hour before the gate is due to close - as some planes must taxi out to runways that are some distance away.
The Huffington Post put the airport theory TikTok trend to the test, asking experts and regular travelers if it’s realistic or even wise to try and cut corners.
First of all, just because you can read something or watch a video online, it doesn’t mean it is true. Videos are edited to suit a narrative, as travel adviser Eli Harris, explains: “Just because they show their watch doesn’t mean they didn’t change the time. It could be an attempt at schadenfreude”.
Self-confessed travel hacker Jesse Neugarten, agrees: “It’s more of a gamble than a strategy. The airport is wildly unpredictable and one of the few places where hundreds of variables are completely out of your control.”
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