Passengers told 'don't be early'!

[ExSimGuy]

"Air travellers should not be "too early" for flights from Heathrow over Christmas because they are causing congestion, British Airways has warned. Passengers should not turn up more than two hours before short-haul flights and three hours before long-hauls, BA said."

(From the BBC - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6186129.stm?ls )

Nice idea, but if I'm travelling round the M25 to get to the airport, and the airline tells me (as they do) to be there 3 hours before the flight ("minimum check-in time)- how the devil do I make sure not to be late, and not to be early if I have to allow for traffic congestion and variable speed limits over say 30 miles of motorway?

It has got worse since the MCT has been increased to 3 hours (to allow for security checks which, from my experience,have never justified the increase of an hour on the MCT)

I have once missed a flight due to a 2-hour delay on the M25 (truck with broken axle blocking the motorway) - next BA flight 3 days later. Was a little late last time checking-in at LHR due to a train hitting someone further down the (Southern Rail) line.

My next flight out of LHR has a quite respectable departure at 09:30 - but I can't reliably guarantee to get there in time for MCT even by the first train out of my local station (South Coast!) - and there's very limited flights out of LGW)

The only way to turn up "not late and not early" (same thing!) is probably to travel to LHR the previous night, and to stay in an airport hotel! No wonder that it's probably faster for European travellers to go by train!


Some better facilities landside might be a better idea - years ago, if you lived in the area, you could nip down to LHR for a beer or a late-night sandwich; not any more - until you get airside there's very little that you can do apart from squeeze through the throngs and try to cross check-in queues that stretch from the desk to the opposite wall. Ah - problem - no space to put more facilities :ugh:

[Jet II]

Handling agents at LGW are forecasting 1 hour 30 minutes to get from check-in through security into the departure lounge in the run up to Christmas.

We are already seeing long delays and quite a few off-loads at the gate for no-shows so its going to be an interesting week.

[WHBM]

OK, so you mustn't arrive more than 2 hours before your flight or else you will be criticised by BAA for messing them up, but you also mustn't arrive less than 2 hours before your flight or else you will be in danger of missing your flight with your non-refundable ticket.

So if you don't walk in to the terminal exactly to the minute to suit BAA's organisation, you are subject to criticism.

Meanwhile their own security checks can take anything from 5 minutes to 2 hours to get through. But the poor punters have to be able to schedule themselves to the minute.

Customer-facing business or what ? It's like something from Stalinist socialist Eastern Europe.

BAA, with the competition enquiry going on at the moment, should be trying extra-hard to put on a good show. But the are doing the opposite. They lobbied hard to the government on the restriction on hand baggage, pretending it was for security reasons, because it gives them a profitability benefit in reducing the number of screeners they need to employ. And likewise they lobbied hard to prevent any larger liquids going through security, but you can then buy the same things airside as much as you want, because that increases their profits on the retail side.

Which as we all know is the only thing they are interested in.

Roll on the forced sell-off.

[haughtney1]

Dont you just love the BAA?......they dont seem to be able to manage a good fart, let alone LHR, or LGW. Makes you wonder if there aren't more than just one or two Sir Humphries in the silver BAA management towers:hmm:
I've been fortunate in my job, and in my travels in general to have visited a large number of the major longhaul hubs around the world, and with the exception of perhaps LAX on a bad day....LHR and LGW are a bloody shambles!
Next thing will be, you have to cue for three hours at security...because there are leaves on the line:rolleyes:

[akerosid]

Isn't it a bit risky, from a legal point of view; surely, it's only a matter of time before someone sues BA because they turned up 2h before their flight, only to spend more than that going through security.

Most major airlines at airports in Europe - for example, KLM at AMS and SK at CPH, allow check in at any time of day; if that could be done, then it surely reduces the problems of "passengers milling around".

[wiccan]

Had it on the "Chunnel"..drove down from Manch, arrived 2.5hrs early....Shock Horror....but you can pay £xx to go early... no thanks, I'll have a burger :ugh:
bb

[apaddyinuk]

Something tells me that this christmas will be the real test to the new security proceedures! Good luck to anyone travelling, I for once in my life will be nowhere near an airport this christmas and thats how I intend to keep it!