I think its fair to say that most of us travel pretty often by air nowdays. The main reason would be cheaper prices and the next would be better availability of seats than maybe 10 years ago.

With these frequent visits to the airport, do we take our flights for granted? Most flights require you to arrive at the airport 3 hours in advance. Exceptions would be first and business class travelers and those that do an online check-in where they need to arrive about an hour in advance.

My sense is that only two things would motivate you to arrive at the airport early.

1) Duty Free Shopping

2) Free high-speed internet at the lounges :)

Take for example the airport in Kuwait. The duty-free section is terrible and prices there are almost double. (I’m sure they have a good excuse for that). Has anyone ever seen a crowd there? Compare that to Dubai’s Duty Free. Its huge, there is a lot of choice and most of the items are either cheaper or at par with market prices (and any day cheaper than prices in Kuwait).

Personally, I prefer to arrive at the airport about 1 hour before I plan to clear immigration (since duty free shops are beyond that). This would normally mean about 1.5 to 2 hours before departure in Kuwait and about 2.5-3 hours if its Dubai.

How about you? 

When do you reach the airport?

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