Checked Luggage pick up timing

If arriving at LHR from US, then I would expect by the time you go through the immigration process your checked bags will be waiting for you at baggage claim.

As for your onward flight to Santorini, what does your airline recommend for time?

I have never had more than a roll-aboard and 'personal item' sized backpack for Europe trips that were 20+ days. ( and probably could have brought less)

I know I could do less but I would like to have room for souvenirs (last year I had to buy a bag to bring home) and not have to worry about my toiletries during security. I have spent 2.5 months with a carry on size bag but it had to be checked because I brought a trowel with me for my Archaeology field school, so I had an extra bag.

Gatwick recommends 2 hours and Norwegian opens up check-in two hours prior to flight time.

The airport on Santorini is tiny. There is no baggage carousel. They just put the bags in the middle of the floor in a truly smallish room. We did check our carry-ons between Athens and Santorini. They were waiting for us by the time we got off the plane. By the way, there is no jet way. There are roll up stairs to go down from the plane.

This is the link to the Santorini Airport website. It looks a lot fancier than I remember. It was pretty much empty when we arrived. I saw no place for food, but perhaps that was on another level. I didn't realize that there were 2 levels. That was back in the fall of 2014, so a lot could've changed since then.

I flew from Boston to London this week. Border control was quite fast, 10 minutes at the most. When we approached the luggage carousel our luggage popped out. We barely broke a step to get our luggage and get out the door. Carry on people had no advantage over us.

Being British, I would never dream of going away for more than a week and only taking hand luggage, as I don’t want to spend valuable holiday time organising laundry every few days, so I always have a check in bag.

I usually use Gatwick, Heathrow or Stansted airports and rarely spend more than 5-10 minutes waiting for luggage to arrive after I have queued to get through passport control and I have an EU electronic passport, which is meant to be quicker than waiting in line with a non EU passport.

Who are you flying to Santorini with? I use EasyJet regularly and they have a fast baggage drop, which usually takes less than 5 minutes to drop. I used this on Tuesday and it took under 3 minutes to drop a bag. They have online check in that means you can have the boarding pass on your phone or tablet, so no need to print out tickets. I had 90 minutes at Gatwick, which was plenty of time to get through bag drop, security and have a coffee.

Jennifer, I am flying with Norwegian Air. They had a great deal on a direct flight to Santorini for like $75 with a checked bag included, I couldn't resist, even though I haven't flown with them before.

I've never waited any more than 15 minutes for luggage at Heathrow and that was only because immigration was so quiet. Typically it's already on the carousel by the time we arrive or not long after.

The supposed benefits of carry on over checked luggage in this respect is greatly over exaggerated. When we go on holiday we're not checking into different hotels every couple of days nor hauling luggage around, we either pick up a car at the airport or take a taxi to our destination so we don't need to pack light. It also means we can return from our holiday with stuff that couldn't go into our hand luggage, wine, oils etc.

Well, it’s nice to hear from a few people who actually check their luggage and do not travel carry-on only. Retrieving luggage at airports is quick and easy. Yeah, I know ,,,, sometimes it goes missing. Happened to me twice in 40 years of very frequent travel and both times the bags were delivered to me the same day. All the anguish that goes with packing a carry-on and keeping the weight and size down to that of a ham sandwich and doing sink laundry or constantly looking for a laundromat? Noooooo, not for me.

If I don't check luggage for these two flights would I be able to get to Gatwick airport later than I have planned? I currently planned on leaving my hotel, Hever Castle in Kent, according to them about 35 minutes to get there at 1430 and taking a taxi instead of the train or the bus

Gatwick recommends 2 hours and Norwegian opens up check-in two hours prior to flight time.

Am I confused? It seems like OP is asking will it save time before the flight checking in, not after arriving. One certainly doesn't want to show up at the airport 30 minutes prior to a flight. ??

Yes, assume you will have your bag somewhere between 30 minutes and never. ;-)

When I used to fly for the Air Force, we'd occasionally have to make our way sans-reservations from one airport to another when picking up or dropping off a plane. The longest was from Hawaii to Maine. I picked up the habit of carry-on then but it was reinforced traveling through Germany for a week, after a deployment, with only a day pack (two shirts, one pant, two extra pairs socks and underwear, travel towel and shave kit). I love traveling faster and lighter.

Without luggage, you can print your ticket at the kiosk and go straight to your gate via security. I find those check in lines can take an hour, or more. The later you arrive, the longer the line ahead of you.

Nowadays you need to use some care if you decide to carry on because airlines, especially European carriers, are shrinking their size and weight limits. A "carry on" bag doesn't always fit the airline's carry on requirements.