Hi, we already did online check in for all of our flights in Orly, Venice and Rome airports.
How early do we need to be there if we have a hold luggage and if we don't have a hold luggage.

Still contemplating if we should add a hold luggage.

Thanks in advance!

You need to tell us on which airline ? (easy I guess?)
On Air France, it is indicated on the boarding pass (depends on airport, with and without bags to check)

It depends where you are going, also. At Orly, I presume you are going within Europe, but am not sure if they have any flights outside Europe.

I always plan for about the same amount of time at any airport -- 3 hrs for international flights (meaning from Europe to US or another continent) and about 2 hrs for within-Europe flights. If I only have carryon and I know the airport and time isn't busy, I may cut the latter down to 1.5 hrs or so. I don't adjust much with online checkin, although in recent years they have gotten a little more efficient with that at some airports for international flights. Used to be that wasn't much possible, or if you did it, you still had to wait to check bags.

So I'd be at Orly 1.5-2 hrs ahead myself. Some people like to take more risks than I do, though. I hate worrying about whether I'm going to make a plane in order to fool around a little more in the morning or whatever, at the hotel.

Depends. For Orly I usually arrive 50 min in advance. For the following reasons : I know my way, speak the language, know how to reach it etc. However when I don't want to miss a plane I come earlier.
Pay attention with Easyjet, they do close the gate sometimes at the exact time indicated. You arrive 2 min late you can miss your plane.

You did check in for THREE different airports? Since check-in only opens 24 hours ahead I am sure your trip will be VERY memorable.

If you have to check baggage, you usually have to drop it at least 45 minutes before departure.

This time span is usually sufficient to pass security UNLESS you are flying into the USA. In this case, you need more time, better 2 hours, because the NSA carries out an additional security check within European airports.

If you have only carryon baggage, I would also suggest being at the security check 45 minutes prior to departure, because sometimes, there are are lined.

I am a frequent flyer within Europe, and I usually enter the airports 60 minutes before departure to have a time buffer.

If you are flying business, you can usually use the fast lane, but you cannot count on this. There are always situations that lines are very long. You never know.

'Since check-in only opens 24 hours ahead I am sure your trip will be VERY memorable'

Last you flew was in 19th century ?
OP checked ONLINE and you can indeed check in 15 days in advance or more or less depending on the company.

You did check in for THREE different airports? Since check-in only opens 24 hours ahead I am sure your trip will be VERY memorable.>>

not so with companies like Easyjet, Dukey - on our recent trip to Sicily we were able to check in for our outward and return flights [which were 10 days apart] at the same time, roughly a week before we left.

marione - let me talk you through what happened in our 2 recent flights, the first out of Bristol, with which we are very familiar, and Catania, which we don't know at all. At both we had luggage that we wanted to put in the hold, which we checked in at the "bag drop".

Firstly, Bristol - our flight was at 5.50 am so as we live about 3 hours' drive away, we had stayed overnight in a nearby hotel where we left our car and they ran us to the airport in a shuttle bus. We got up at 4am, had a spot of breakfast at the hotel and left there at 4.30 which got us to the airport at 4.40 am. DH then went back to the hotel in the shuttle to collect our rucksack which contained all our travel docs [but not the passports!] and he was back by 5am, so then we could drop off the bags and head for security.

in fact Bristol was a lot busier than we had anticipated it being at that time in the morning, but they have expanded the security area, and we got through rally quickly. But once we were past "duty free" it was a lot busier and it took about 20 mins to buy a paper and a bottle of water by which time they were giving out the last call for the Gate. We were quite late getting there, but we weren't the last and i suppose that we passed through there at about 5.20.

At Catania,we had reckoned on arriving 2 hours in advance of takeoff as we had to return our car and didn't know the airport. the traffic was a lot heavier than we'd expected, so we lost 30 mins that way, but returning the car was a doddle so we made up a bit there. The rest of it was fine [no mislaid rucksacks] and we had lots of time to look round the shops and buy our lunch to eat on the plane.

The moral of all this - you never can tell. I would now allow 2 hours unless I knew of some really good reason why not to - for example at my tiny local airport where if you get there 2 hours in advance, you'll be climbing the walls by the time you board the plane and an hour is more than ample.

2 hours - ALWAYS! And I'm no stranger to these kinds of flights.

Checking in online does not change the time you need to be at the airport in advance of a flight.

Checking in online varies from airline to airline and in the case of Easyjet can be 30 days before the flight.

If you have only carry-on baggage 1 hour before the flight is ok and maybe less if you have a fast pass clearance through security. However, be absolutely sure your carry-on baggage conforms with the airline's requirements which also vary from airline to airline.

For luggage needed to be checked in allow at least 2 hours but remember some airlines closing luggage check-in 1 hour before the flight - such as Easyjet but generally they have someone calling people out of the line if near to the luggage drop deadline. However, again with Easyjet, if you book a seat in the first 5 rows or the emergency exit rows you get a fast track baggage drop pass.

Note that you may need more time with early morning flights as so many planes leave first thing in the morning so the baggage drop and security queues are very much longer.

Checking in online does not change the time you need to be at the airport in advance of a flight.>>

Suze - i beg to differ. If you are checked in online, they [at least Easyjet and Flybe "they"] no longer ask all the "did you pack this yourself?" questions, which makes the process a lot quicker, not just for us but for everyone else, so long check-in lines are a thing of the past. At Bristol and Gatwick, for example, they just have one bag drop for everyone wherever you are going to, and it goes very quickly.

The only reason we needed longer than an hour to check in at Bristol was because of our own stupidity, but we were glad we'd allowed the extra time.

And having only carry-ons means you don't have to go to dropping bags desk, so having printed beforehand means you don't have to go to as desk at all, wich in turn means a lot of time saved.

Online checkin on Ryanair flights is 30 days in advance.

I always leave for the airport with a 2-3 hour leeway for long flights within the US (west to east coast or Hawaii) and for international flights.

Anything can happen and since airports now generally have restaurants, shops, and bookstores I can be quite happy to have an hour or two of downtime.

I flew out of London's Gatwick in June of this year. Because we had to check bags we had to be in line and for some reason the airlines (I think it was British Air) had about 50-60 people that they moved ahead of everyone in line because that flight had been cancelled and these passengers had to be rerouted.

And having only carry-ons means you don't have to go to dropping bags desk, so having printed beforehand means you don't have to go to as desk at all, which in turn means a lot of time saved.>>

unless, as happened to some poor unfortunates on our flight out of Naples, you manage to get a huge suitcase all the way to the gate without anyone telling you that it's too BIG to go on the plane with you. Why no-one said to them they needed to check it in, I do not know; they must have got it through the entrance to security, onto the security belt, and through passport control without anyone pointing out to them that it would have to go in the hold.

That held all of us up.

annhig - poor unfortunates? No - I think it will teach them a lesson!

annhig - poor unfortunates? No - I think it will teach them a lesson!>>

from their behaviour and what they said, I gathered it was their first flight. as we left the plane they asked where they would collect their luggage and kept looking round as if they expected to see it as they were walking towards passport control.

I think that they were too green to be taught any lessons.

And goodness knows what they were going to make of London.

There are two airports in Rome. What follows refers to Fiumincino. Times may be shorter at Ciampino, which, for one thing, has no intercontinental flights.

At Fiumicino, everything can get very backed up at times. Bag drop can take up to half an hour, and security at very busy times can take up to an hour. So I would allow two hours, to be on the safe side for a domestic or inter-Schenghen flight, although an hour and half should normally be enough.

Then,if it's an extra-Schenghen flight, you have to go through exit passport control, and that could take up to half an hour. Finally, if your destination is Israel, or the USA (on a US carrier) you have to check in at Terminal 5, where there is enhanced security, and then be bused to your departure gate area. If you arrive at the airport by train, you have to take a bus from Terminal 3 to Terminal 5. All of this takes more time, of course, and three hours are not too many.

Note that what counts is the destination of the flight you're taking, not your final destination.