How early to be at the airport: our method
Always a range, never a promise
We give a range of time to be at the airport before departure, plus the one firm rule: when your airline closes check-in. Queues change by the hour, so no range can promise you make your flight.
Where the range starts
If the airport publishes its own advice (for example "2 hours, 3 for long-haul"), we start from that. Otherwise we start from 3 hours for international and 2 hours for domestic flights, the advice most airports give. The range runs 30 minutes above that.
Busy days
On public holidays and long weekends we add 30 minutes; on the busiest days (Songkran, New Year) 60 minutes. The dates come from official holiday lists, for Thailand the Bank of Thailand's list of public holidays.
The firm rule: check-in closes
Each airline sets when its check-in counter closes, usually 40 to 60 minutes before departure. We take it from the airline's own page and show the date we checked it. The range always leaves you at least 45 minutes before the latest closing time of the airlines at that airport.
Your own experience helps
Our review form asks how long check-in, security and immigration took. Once an airport has enough answers, they will replace our default additions.