how many minutes before flight is enough?

W

wigwammer

Registered User
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34
I'm flying on thurs morning at 1045. Travelling up from the country.
I can get a bus to the airport that gets me in at 10.10.

If I have checked in online in advance and have no checked baggage - do I have enough time in advance of boarding?

I know the sensible option is get an earlier bus but that adds about 2 hours to my travel time.

Cheers
 
What if the bus is delayed. You could make it on time but if there are delays at security and if you are flying from the end of pier D you would be cutting it very finly.
 
Hi niceoneted - you are right about the bus it could be delayed but if that is out of scenario, then I have approx 20 mins to get thru security and onto an aerlingus flight to Europe. Is it doable?
 
is it "doable"? -yes ,of course it's "doable".

Lots of risky and stressful and stupid actions are "doable".
 
I wouldn't risk it, there are too many things that could delay you as the previous posters mentioned (traffic, security, walk to the gate etc.).

If I were you I'd just get the early bus and take my time going through the airport (have breakfast, browse the shops, read the paper).
 
I tought boarding closed 30 mins before the flight (might vary per airline). So that means you have to be at the gate by 10.15. Given it will take up to 10-15 mins to get through security and some gates can be a 5 minute walk I would say you will not make the flight on time.

Get the earlier bus so you won't be stressed on time, get to the airport and have some breakfast and relax a bit.
 
wigwammer said:
I know the sensible option is get an earlier bus but that adds about 2 hours to my travel time.

Cheers
Click to expand...


Get the later one, it'll save you 2 hours flight time

10.10 is way too tight timewise
 
Looking at bus eireann as it's a direct bus, the other earlier bus (bus eireann and private operator) stops everywhere along the way and goes into city centre first also only gets me in at 945. I'd consider driving but would get hammered in traffic and far more risky of being late. May just have to travel to Dublin the night before.

Ok all thanks for your advise. Thankfully its not life and death so not getting overly stressed about it, just wondering.
 

If you can drive then I would do that. What road are you coming in on? If its the N4 for example you won't hit any traffic coming in the N4 to the M50 now that its 3 lanes. There should be no problems heading north on the M50 either from there.
 
One thing to consider is the computer before the security check. They scan your boarding pass there which lets the system (and the airline) know that you actually showed up for your flight. I asked staff before - and not even they could tell when this decides that it is "too late". My best guess would be that once boarding starts officially, the passenger list is closed and the machine will not let anyone through anymore. In your case, that would be about 5 minutes after your bus gets into the airport - not a chance of making it.
 
To digress a bit on Undo's point - I don't think the scanning machine at security for boarding passes will stop you going through before the flight has departed and I'm not sure how linked it is to the boarding system (since many passengers at Dublin won't have bar coded boarding cards) ... I'm not aware of any such restriction at DUB anyway .. and I've passed through security pretty late with scannable boarding passes before

The only place I know of that systematically does this is Heathrow Terminal 5 with BA where you must pass through security 35 minutes before departure time otherwise you're offloaded from the flight (I've nearly got caught out by this a few times!) .. the reason they can do this is because 100% of passengers have scannable boarding cards (whether they checkin at home or at the airport) and it's only one airline's systems they need worry about (Terminal 5 is 100% British Airways)

Boarding closing 30 minutes before departure time is normally to some extent nonsense written on boarding cards to scare people towards the gate early .. apart from the first flight out in the morning the chances are your aircraft is still unloading from the previous flight 30 minutes before depature time (if it's even arrived) and you'll normally be pretty lucky if boarding even starts 30 minutes before departure.

Having said all that though .. no way would I risk a 1010 bus arrival for a 1045 departure ... too dodgy in my view .. if the bus arrived at 1010 you'd almost certainly make it .. but if it was even a few minutes late then it's getting into very dodgy territory
 

I don't know where you're coming from wigwammer .. but is there not maybe an earlier bus to Dublin City Centre that you could catch .. and when you get there you could change onto the Aircoach/Airlink out to the airport (they go via the Port Tunnel and avoid most traffic even at rush hour)
 
Ok so 10:10 is out - no doubt when i'm there there'll be loads of time but not worth the risk.
I can get a multistop bus that gets me into airport at 945. Think I'll go for this and get my poor hubby up nice and early to drive me the 40 mins to the bus stop!
@EvilDoctork - the earliest bus I can get to Dublin gets me into the city centre at 9 and it might be an option.
Cheers everyone
 
Petermack said:
When you hear the announcements looking for the passengers who are late for the flight they are actually passengers who are somewhere at the airport and not no shows. Thats according to the security guy who I was talking to last night
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I know of at least one case where a passenger (me) who had checked in but was definitely not at the airport (I was in another country) still got called out on the PA in Dublin... no idea why though. I cannot imagine this is standard procedure.
 
My name was called out at the airport once when I wasn't there. I had checked in on line but was sick so didn't make the flight. Friends I was supposed to be travelling with were at the airport and heard it
 
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