I did this last week. And in a moment when I wasn't paying attention, they changed the gate, causing me to have to jog across the airport a few minutes before boarding.
I feel called out.
The only thing I will add is that even though most of the stress is gone by being there early I am still super on edge constantly checking to make sure i really am at the correct gate or make sure it wasnt moved or delayed.
Can't commit to any intervening activity if you have something time sensitive and hard to reproduce in the immediate future.
And then 30 minutes before your flight you hear an announcement saying it will now depart from the gate at the other side of the airport.
Wow, this is literally describing me. I also probably won’t sleep the night before lol.
I seem to be one of the few people who actually enjoy my time in an airport...
It is fun to watch the planes come and go, to see people heading all over the world, it is interesting to see destinations all over, also, in larger airports, the architecture can be quite interesting.
I also like the feeling of being on a video game quest, you have a single main quest, to get on the plane, but you may have several side quests, getting snacks, eating, getting a powerbank, getting some tax free stuff.
Airports are strange and liminal places where the perception of time itself starts to break down. Flying long-haul is the only time you can somehow eat five meals in the same 'day', and airport bars are the only places that serve beer at 7AM and nobody thinks anything of it, because 7AM to one person might feel like 7 at night to the guy waiting for his layover from Singapore. It's weird but kinda fascinating.
The only thing I dislike is that the food is expensive and disappointing.
Agreed, but it is also loud and busy.
You’re not alone, I feel the same way. I love the act of traveling almost as much as getting to my destination. I really like your quest description! I always look at it like a game. Figuring out the secret ways in the airport, gaming the system.
I dunno how I've been so lucky in the past. But I got to the gate just as they were doing final boarding twice, TWICE. And I'm usually an hour and a half early type. Fucking smartphones and their malfunctioning alarms!
I have never once missed a flight, or even arrived less than 30 minutes early for one. But I have frequent nightmares where I am in the security line at the airport or in a car driving towards the airport and my plane is departing without me.
Even if you manage to do everything right, your brain will still never let you not be anxious about it I guess.
Fucking smartphones and their malfunctioning alarms
I got got by this too many times, so I bought a digital alarm clock at the thrift store, a cheap old thing from the '80s. It reliably blares FM radio at me every morning and I haven't missed an alarm since.
Sounds like perfect timing to me. Everyone else spent an hour+ sitting in an airport chair and you got extra sleep.
The first time I was actually at a bar across from the gate and a couple dudes were buying shots for everyone and I just didn't hear initial boarding and barely heard the last call. It was a pretty comfortable flight though.
Ah, to be one of those people who could afford to eat in a restaurant in an airport...
lol, my wife and I have been on enough flights we just get there 45 minutes to an hour before and walk on the plane as boarding starts, maybe a bit earlier than that if we want food in the airport. There’s really no need to get to the airport so early, especially if it’s an airport you’ve been to before.
Depending on the airport that's playing with fire. One time at SeaTac I showed up 3 hours early because I woke up early and was like fuckit not like I have anything else to do. I baaaarely made it to my flight because apparently there was a game and I showed up while everyone was going back home so the lines through security were absolutely fucked
My wife and I are usually the 3 hours early type, and the one time we carpooled with her parents who are more like you, something had gone wrong at the TSA stations, and only 2 were open, causing a huge slowdown with the line going well past the zigzag ropes and down the hall.
We barely made it on the plane before they closed the doors. My wife and I agreed then that 3 hours will always be our time. Neither one of us minds sitting at the airport and chatting instead of sitting at home chatting - it barely makes a difference.
I'm a 45-minute guy at most airports (some have a lot more walking or require a train/shuttle between the drop off and the actual gates and I adjust for that). Yes, I occasionally experience something like what you describe, but in the end I still get on the plane, like it sounds like you did.
So I interpret your story as one of the success of the just in time strategy.
Missing a flight is flat-out unacceptable to me. I know you can reschedule or whatever, but no, I'd never even consider letting that be a possibility. A near-failure isn't success, success is when you get there without the thought of missing the plane even crossing your mind. For me and my wife, that happens at the 3 hour mark.
A near-failure isn't success, success is when you get there without the thought of missing the plane even crossing your mind.
Oh don't worry, the thought of missing the flight doesn't cross my mind, either.
I've missed one flight in my life attributable to my late arrival to the airport. I've had maybe 10 flights outright canceled for weather, maybe 20 or 30 significantly delayed for one reason or another not in my control. I've missed connections maybe 10 times because my flight didn't arrive early enough to catch the connecting flight (and twice I've made it while my checked bags didn't). So to me, I'm not emotionally tied to the times on the itinerary, and don't feel any kind of inherent need to stick to those times.
The other thing, too, though, is that I'll never schedule a flight that barely arrives in time for the actual reason I'll be flying. I tend to fly the night before for even late morning meetings, and I always fly the day before for weddings and things like that. For afternoon things I'll sometimes fly the morning of, but will want to bake in at least 4 or 5 hour buffer for air travel delays. So maybe that's the actual path where the concern flows for me, rather than worrying about me getting on the plane.
Thats by design
Being a stupid ball of anxiety at all times is by design?
Yes people traveling typically need food
I don't see how. You can't do security checks at home. You can't deposit your luggage five minutes before the plane takes off.
Now what did improve it is self check in with baggage drop off, and what could improve it further is live updates on queues.
Do watcha gotta do. Traveling will be made unbearable - been enduring the horrors of greyhound bus since the 90s and its already getting palpably worse
I don't really feel anxiety about missing flights. Flights get canceled, delayed, rerouted all the time, so the itinerary I purchase is one I internalize as some kind of suggestion of how I might get to my destination.
I also generally aim to be at the airport 45-60 minutes before takeoff. I think I've missed one flight in my life, caused by a security line delay of over an hour, but was a city pair that the airline runs basically every hour, so I still managed to get on a flight to my destination immediately after getting through security. So I haven't learned any lessons, much to my wife's dismay.
3 hours is rookie numbers.
Three hours early, time to squeeze 5 or 6 pints in.
Mom energy
My goal is to waste as little time as possible. I once timed it so as to not break stride till on the jetway.
All posts need to have the same title: me_irl it is allowed to use an emoji instead of the underscore _
