HELP please! BAG CHECK IN-WITH HOW MUCH TIME to spare?
 

My plane leaves at 7:30 a.m...I usually arrive at the airport 2 hours beforehand. Airlines used to suggest you be there 60 min. before;now I call the airline (American) and they said they suggest 90 minutes before the plane leaves. <BR> <BR>Question: how EARLY can I safely CHECK IN my bag in at the curb, before the plane leaves and be confident it'll be on the plane? I'm afraid I may check it in TOO early. Thanks. I'm desperate.

Nancy - I think with either 90 minutes or 120 minutes you should be fine. The difference between the two is only 30 minutes, and doesn't seem like a big deal. I am not an expert in the luggage area, other than that I fly a lot. Remember that people have layovers all the time that are many hours long and their luggage makes it on to their connecting flight. If you are concerned about your luggage arriving with you make sure that the skycab codes it for the right destination (e.g. HNL for Honolulu, LAS for Las Vegas, etc.), be nice to the skycab (heck, that never hurts), and carry a few things on with you (like medications) that you might need if your luggage is delayed. I think MOST luggage is delayed do to too little time, not too much. I hope this helps. Enjoy your trip. <BR> <BR>PS: I NEVER get to the airport more than 60 minutes early, even for international flights, and I never had luggage lost.

I don't know the answer to your question, but I WILL tell you that this has been my experience: <BR> <BR>if I check my bag in earlier, it comes out FIRST on the carousel at my destination. However, once I was running late and I checked it in about 30 min. before the plane left and I thought it would be last coming out and it was FIRST also. Don't know how the dynamics work. best of luck to you. have a safe trip.

Thank you scigirl. I appreciate the response. Thank you to Annabelle too.

That's funny. The later I check a bag, the sooner it usually comes off. Years ago, I used to check my bag at the gate for this reason, and I got my bag pretty fast. Now I live in the slow lane and don't sweat stuff like that anymore.

Why do you think you sit on the plane for ages before it moves? Because they are still loading the luggage. I recently just made an Air Canada flight at La Guardia with maybe 5 minutes to spare (thanks to an irate bus driver transporting people from JFK) and my luggage was there at the other end. Obviously this is not the way to do things everytime, but I generally think 40-60 minutes beforehand is a good time. <BR> <BR>Anne in Australia

If you check in early, you might want to ask "which" plane your luggage will be on. On a recent domestic flight, we got to the airport about 1 hr. 45 mins. ahead of time. The 11 AM flight to our destination was already boarding so we did not ask about getting on it. We figured our luggage would be sent on a later flight if we did. <BR> <BR>However, our luggage (with several other's) was not on the carousel when we arrived home. It seems the airline, for some reason, decided to send the "early check-in's" luggage on the early flight. We resent the fact that they did this without even indicating to any of us this would be done. We were all waiting at the carousel thinking our luggage had been lost! It was only brought to us when a gentlemen inquired about what happened to his. <BR> <BR>I feel passengers should have the right to know if their luggage will be on the same plane with them.