How early do you get to the airport ahead of a flight?
This is not the first time I have started a blog from this very bar in this very terminal (E), that other one would have been two years ago almost to the day and this;
The chronicles of my 50th Birthday stateside.
This is the end of my fourth trip in a little over two years to the USA, which is in the main due to my brother, Sam, living here now, as the ever faithful reader should already know, and if you are not and you did not, well, now you do (little Lost Boys reference there, did you get it)?
This time we hit the west coast and Vegas Baby. It is mandatory to add baby after saying Vegas, that's the law.
Las Vegas is nuts, if you've not been it is everything you imagine and nothing like you expect.
Prepare your wallet, get good walking shoes and leave your liver at home is my best advice.
I will do a separate post on the trip, including my geek out in Santa Cruz and The Lost Boys filming locations, for now, let us get back to the sub-heading.
It is a long standing joke on social media that 'dads' will have the family arrive at the airport a minimum six to seven hours before the flight, there are numerous posts about that very subject, especially around the big summer get away of July/August and whilst tongue in cheek, we all know there is a certain amount of truth in those posts, we are all guilty.
I am also the type that is happy to get to the airport super early regardless of the flight time to 'ensure there is time for delays to be accounted for'. I fly quite often, I have racked up eight flights this year alone, thirteen in 2022, I know the system.
Sam trumps me, he flies a huge amount for work, in excess of thirty flights a year, so he is a master, yet also a slave to the ritual.
A colleague of his is more relaxed, much more, he is also the reason for this post and our actions that day to a degree. Adore you Mr Smith, always a pleasure, bless your heart.
I am also guilty of being in a Giraffe (you never see these on the high street do you) or similar chain restaurant and ordering a full English and a pint of lager at 0600hrs.
It is 'holiday rules' there is no official time once you are airside as you are now in no mans land, therefore all normal acceptable practices are null and void, we all know this, you photograph it every time and you also all do the social media post of your passport next to the pint of lager with the hashtag #holidaywanker.
Don't pretend you don't and don't try to convince me it is for any other reason than likes (and maybe to raise an element of jealousy in your friends, sssshhhhh I won't tell if you don't).
I did it, about two weeks ago and I am not the slightest bit sorry (twenty eight likes and five comments).
I am digressing, it is a habit, have you noticed?
Of course you have, I am known for it, I am not quite in the realm of a Trump Word Salad, but it comes close.
Leaving Las Vegas (great film), last Friday I had checked us in to our flights and was watching the relevant app for departure and gate closure and noted a delay on the flight, circa thirty minutes, we still had over four hours to go, plenty of time.
We had already had brunch at the Mon Ami restaurant in the Paris hotel, with wine and then met with a friend in Beer Park overlooking the Bellagio and its fountains around midday, for more beers.
What? It is Vegas and we are on holiday, it is the done thing, you'd do the same thing. Don't kid yourself.
Our bags were with the concierge at our hotel, the New York New York, a ten minute walk away, they take circa five minutes to find and return your bags, the airport is a fifteen to twenty minute Uber drive. Simple math, we needed to leave the bar at least thirty to forty minutes before the time we felt we needed to be at the airport, we can relax.
Our delayed flight was due to depart 1620hrs with the gate closing about twenty minutes beforehand.
There was later flight at 2200hrs and also a morning flight the next day... so not all was lost if things went a little south.
The sun was shining, the beers were cool and the company superb, maybe we could stay another night, what's the worst that can happen? Aside from having plans on the Saturday of course which a heavy night in Vegas may ruin.
We had another beer and another and were trying to convince ourselves that re-booking the flight was not such a bad idea after all, but maybe we should try for the flight and let fate decide.
I know you have all had those battles in your head, the alcohol confused mindset that says, one more can't hurt.
We decided to set off and make the flight, we had 58 minutes to gate closure as we drained the last beer.
Taxi to New York New York, down the Strip (they are everywhere and faster than walking)
Collect Bags
Taxi from outside the hotel to the Airport.
Already checked in, awesome.
Hand luggage only, result.
TSA Passport check
TSA security screening
Gate
Board
Beers, sorted.
Wait for this to all blow over, ha ha
In the Taxi to the airport the flight status changed from forty two minutes to eleven minutes before gate closed, we were still ten minutes from arriving.
Balls.
US internal flights are easy, TSA passport and security are back to back, you can get through both in circa fifteen minutes, unless, like Sam, you have a Samsonite case that has a logo on the front that looks like a knife blade in an X-Ray machine, he has been pulled before and he got pulled this time.
Samsonite, you have an email coming your way!
TSA do not like to rush their checks of pinged bags, maybe as a deterrent. My app was showing 'Gate Closing'.
I was looking at hotels back in Vegas whilst waiting for Sam, it was inevitable, we were not making this flight.
Sam was released and we followed the signs to the Gate, which involved a Monorail ride, seriously!
In my mind as we raced to the gate was the thought 'we are not making this flight, we are going to be drinking more beers in the Vegas sun, blowing a grand and regretting it all the following day'.
Sounds like a good plan actually, shrugged shoulders emoji.
We made the flight, and we were not the last to board.
We had set off from the bar with less than an hour to gate closing, collected bags and went through passport and security and made the flight, easily as it turns out, so it can be done!
So, am I a changed man, have I broken the habit of leaving stupidly early for the airport and then wandering the area looking for the cheapest and best of the overpriced food on offer, looking at the sunglasses and duty free offers, leaving lots of little carboard sticks of sprayed aftershave on the shelving after deciding that it smells great, but £120, bugger off, sitting on uncomfortable chairs, constantly checking the boards to realise you still have another ninety minutes to kill?
Nah, I still got to this airport nearly three hours early...
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