It used to be 2 hours before for shorthaul, and 3 hours for longhaul. A lot of tour operators are opening their checkouts at 3 hours now, regardless.

Which airline are you flying with?

I ask because we flew with First Choice this year and our check in time was 2 hours before, however all flights being run that morning by FC were all checking in in one long queue (with about 10 check in desks covering all flights), so if this is the case with you then you can probably go for the 3 hour timing as they will probably accept luggage for all flights.

Officially check in closes 30 minutes before flight leaves, but I would be very wary about leaving things late with charter flights, and especially if you are going to be joining a 'communcal' queue as that will hold you up as there will be people checking in for flights leaving an hour or two after yours.

we are going with first choice, it's no problem getting there 3 hours early, in fact i might just get there even earlier just to make sure.

thanks for the quick reply

Hi. Yes most check in desks open 3 hours before (which is when we normally like to check in). I wouldn't leave it later than 2 hours before take off though. When we went to Corfu in May, Thomson were also operating a check-in system where you could use a number of their desks to check in regardless of your destination. Don't know whether it's a good thing. We were on the plane bound for Corfu (people were still finding their seats) when one couple got up and said that they were on the wrong plane. The stewardess immediately put out an announcement that the plane was headed for Corfu. I can't remember where this couple were headed, I think it was somewhere like Lanzarote. Don't suppose it had anything to do with the check- in system, but I've never seen it happen before. I still find it hard to believe that something like this could have happened.

Hello. There is already a similar topic running HERE which may be of assistance to you.

We were on the plane bound for Corfu (people were still finding their seats) when one couple got up and said that they were on the wrong plane.

Wow!
This is scary!
What about security?
Why weren't they picked up at the boarding gate?

Personally, as someone who gets to the airport VERY, VERY early (we have a 3 hour journey to Gatwick and 1.5 hour one to Manchester without any delays so we leave home in plenty of time to take potential traffic jams and accidents into account), the check-in arrangements where they check-in flights to all destinations together are great for us.
It means we can get rid of our suitcases and relax.

Also, they tend to utilise the single-queuing system which means that you don't get stuck in the queue that moves slowest, instead you just go to the next available desk.

On the negetive side, if you arrive at the airport late I guess it could be very stressfull if there's a big queue.

Polly

I must say i have complained a couple of time to the tour operators who run the one line free for all booking in a couple of years back we arrived two and a half hours before our flight,and joined the Que we had just checked in when our flight was called, we hadn't got through security when the second call was made, we legged it to the gate no time for a drink or pee (after standing in line we were desperate for both) on the bus out to our aircraft and away within 15 Min's, the only consolation is the other half did not have time to spend any money

Brian

We usually arrive at the airport about 3 hours before the flight. We flew with First Choice this Easter, arrived at FC check-in (3 hours before flight) and we were the only people there - no queue at all! It was lovely. I know with First Choice at Manchester you can check-in the day before, but you have to pre-arrange this with them (you can't just turn up) and all passengers travelling have to be there for 24-hr check-in (apart from I think children who have same surname as parents, but I may be wrong there...) No good for us, would cost us silly taxi fares twice and I don't mind just arriving 3 hours before the flight, because then we can nip over to T1 for a nice meal

We normally try to be there 4 hours before, as we have an hours journey and I panic incase something happens on the way to the airport (like traffic jams, hold ups etc)

Once we are there we have a meal, potter about and the stress goes!!

We are lucky and live 15 mins away from BFS international. BUT we still go up 3 hrs before, as people will be travelling from all over NI to check in and even at 3 hrs before there could be a queue.

Luckily we so far always seem to be near the top of the queue if not first.

well we are now leaving the house at 7am, we hope to be at manchester for 10am (after stopping for breakfast and booking the car in)

there are 11 of us in total so some of us can wait in the queue with all the cases while some of us go wander round spending money
we have booked meals on the plane, so maybe i don't need to, but i'm not taking the chance.

thank you for all your replies