Our departing flight for CDG to SFO departs at 9:15am. What time would you advise arriving at the airport? We have always gone with the 3 hour rule but I have read people saying 4 hours in some older posts, but I think that was during covid and later in the day.
Suggestions?
Thank you!
I'll be curious to hear responses - we arrived early in Dec in Munich - we got there at 5:45am and they didn't even begin letting down the gates and begin checking us in till 6:30 for a 9:30 flight - so they began processing us 3 hours before. I guess it just depends on the airport and what time the staff opens that first area. There was a long line of people standing, so I guess it's good we got there early, but I was surprised with Munich being a big international airport that the gates weren't always open.
3 hours is good. More was recommended during Covid, and is still not a bad idea if you are travelling, say, on the Saturday before Christmas, but on a normal day it is plenty of time, especially with an early flight like yours!
Thank you!!
Definitely no more than 3 hours. I had a 9:15 am flight at BER last year and got there at 6:15 am. Unfortunately no one from Air France did, and I (and others) had to wait at least 30 minutes for them to show up. I posted something about that here, and someone else responded that the same thing happened to them at CDG.
I've gotten to CDG about 3h45m prior to a Delta flight to the West Coast. It left around 1015-ish and I'd arrived at 630 (no traffic and the taxi ride was pretty quick, lol). The Delta check in desks did not open until 7 and as someone else mentioned, there was quite a line. It was crowded in the concourse so I'd gotten in to line right away just to get out of traffic and was pretty glad of that.
I'm glad you'll be there at 3 hours ahead of time!
We won't be checking luggage, so can we just scan our passports and go to security?
there are 2 export lines after airline check in, though - passport and then baggage security and both can be lengthy.
