International travel and arriving at the airport 2 hours early

[Anonymous]

It's been so long since I flew internationally. We are flying to the Caribbean, through Charlotte, on a 5am flight. Do I really need to be at the airport at 3am?

[Anonymous]

No.

No kids, no luggage -- fine with an hour. Kids and/or luggage, I'd make it 90 minutes, at that time in the morning.

[Anonymous]

Dulles or Reagan? For Dulles, I'd be there at least by 3:30...

[Anonymous]

Charlotte is a domestic flight. An hour is fine.

[Anonymous]

most ticket counters don't open earlier than 5 am anyway.

[Anonymous]

Warning: security lines can be weirdly long and slow at that hour at DCA - there are only a few flights, but they all tend to be flying out of the same vicinity, and they have far fewer security officers than later in the day. Don't assume you'll fly through security just because it's 5am.

[Anonymous]

Although since it's international, it's probably not DCA.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, all. It is out of IAD, and we'll have three young kids and luggage. So, I called the airline to see what they thought. We'll do the international check-in at IAD, so it doesn't matter that the first leg is domestic. But, the ticket counter doesn't open until 3:45, so we were advised to arrive at that time.

Oy. I don't remember the thought process that went into getting these tickets. Likely cost and the appeal of having most of the day at the destination and likely no thought to the 2 hour rule. Oh well. It'll be rough, but then it will be over.

[Anonymous]

for iad I'd do at least 2. It just takes time to walk through security and to the gate. Don't frget most start boarding at least 1/2 hour early. So if your flight is 5 most probably boarding would be 4:30.

[Anonymous]

What's your connection like in Charlotte? It's a small airport but they tend to make the connections tight, I have sprinted several times through that one, with everything running on time.