Go to the airport early — Tip #25
And get back peace of mind 🧘
It’s been about 11 years since I started living abroad, and I have lost count of how many flights I have taken. One thing that has changed over the years is my approach to getting to the airport. In the beginning, I was trying to optimize everything. I would aim to arrive as close to departure as possible, while still allowing time for check-in (if required), security and immigration. This strategy never failed me.
Then once, the following happened: I had a connecting flight from Dubai to Rome via Amsterdam: all on the same airline (if case you are interested…KLM 🙄). Guess what? The flight from Dubai arrived in Amsterdam 1.5 hrs late. I reached the gate and the Amsterdam-Rome flight had already departed 🤦♂️. Through no fault of my own, I missed the connection.
They rebooked me on a much later flight. I was annoyed because it disrupted my schedule and work, but after I calmed down I decided to explore the airport (Schiphol is pretty cool). Given that I had so much time, I discovered you can pretty much run your life from many modern airports. Some have sleeping pods for naps, some have good spas (Bangalore’s new terminal and Ho Chi Minh City’s airport are good examples), and many even have hotels if you need to stay overnight. I slept at an airport hotel once in Colombo and wow: it’s a game changer to wake up, shower, have a proper breakfast and get aboard 😎. The only thing I have not seen yet is a gym, but I do not think we are far from that becoming common. Modern airports are micro-cities where you can carry on with your life without major disruption.
This experience made me realized that instead of constantly rushing on a tight schedule, and adding stress to my mind and body as I cross time zones, I now go to the airport a few hours early. I no longer distinguish strictly between international and domestic flights, but if you do want to set different rules, make sure there is at least a one hour difference between the buffer you decide for yourself. Generally for domestic flights you don’t go through immigration and security checks are less crowded, so it’s overkill if you do like me and go a lot early. If your laptop is enough to do your work, I’d still argue go early.
There is a downside. Airports want you to arrive early so you spend more time there. They are designed to encourage you to open your wallet and buy goods and services that often offer worse price/quality ratio than in the city.
Your weekly tip: Flying is stressful for the mind and body. Do not add to it by trying to nail perfect timing or race the traffic. Go early and chill.
Don’t forget to share this tip with a friend who travels🫰
See you next week, until then…
Don’t Panic 😱
Damn, we are so similar 😂😂
Back when I flew often for work, I really tried to get to the airport as late as possible without missing my flight. To the point where I would sometimes sprint to the gate and be the last person to board.
And I felt great about myself for optimizing and not spending more time at the airport than I had to! Actually, I still do.
BUT of course there came a time when that strategy failed me: taking a flight departing from an unfamiliar city and airport—coincidentally also Amsterdam's Schiphol!
When taking flights from Athens, I used to arrive at the airport 30 minutes before the gate opens and that was always enough time (and if you consider the fact that flies are almost always late, it's usually more than enough).
So for the flight from Amsterdam I intended to arrive about an hour earlier. But a lot of things went wrong that I didn't predict: First, the train that I took from the city was delayed because of construction work. Secondly, the airport was MUCH larger than Athens’ and I also didn't know my way around it so it took me much longer to get to the gate. And thirdly, most infuriatingly, it was one of those flights where the gate CLOSES 30 minutes before departure! And I got there 20 minutes before departure…
Now I know that there are a bunch of flights that are like that, but until then every single flight I had ever been on, the gate OPENED 30 minutes before departure and closed exactly at the time of departure! Everything went wrong and since then I go to foreign airports 2-3 hours earlier. Which, not gonna lie, feels like a defeat. But I'm not paying another 700 € for a same-day flight! 😑
I realized recently though that I've taken this fear a bit too far because on my last flight from Athens I also arrived 2 hours before departure and there truly was no need. 😅