I mentioned this thread to my wife. She said to go "earlier than 2 hours" and have a drink in the bar while you are peacefully waiting for your flight.
I agree with the arriving to check in at least 2 hour minimum for domestic and at least 3 hours for international flights.
But on our last trip, we cut it way too close and barely made the checked bag cut off time! I don't know if we're just getting too lazy or lax when we travel, but we're finalizing packing the night before departure. And the last trip was the "comedy of errors" nightmare - we did plan to leave the house early enough or by 1:30-2:30 for the drive up to LAX (1 hour without traffic or up to 2 with traffic) to check in and drop off checked luggage by or before 4:30 pm and just hang out in the club lounge until boarding for the 6:30 flight.
We're usually pretty good about leaving enough time to check in and relax at an airline lounge for a while before heading to the boarding gate right before boarding starts. We also try to travel light and can get away with a personal bag and carry on each. But since we were also stopping in Tokyo, our daughter wanted us to bring more of her stuff (all that checked luggage!) for her since he and whoever is on his itinerary is allowed two checked bags each. Yes, the parents have become luggage mules!
However I didn't realize that husband did not recharge the EV rental car before we left-I thought he had "topped" off the EV charge after he picked up the rental which would have been enough when returning the rental. So he wanted to recharge at some EV charging locations towards LAX before he returned the one way rental to avoid the "refueling/recharging" fee. And of course since we're not familiar with exactly where the EV charging stations up in that area are, we wasted a lot of time driving through parking lots to find the EV chargers only to find them occupied or broken... He finally found the section with several available EV chargers and of course unfortunately hooks up to the one that isn't working. He spends more time calling and talking to the EV rep before they determine that the charger isn't working and to try another one.
This all would have been fine, but we didn't leave the house at the planned time of 1:30-2:30 but more like 3:30. Fortunately we were able to use the carpool HOV lanes because traffic was heavy that afternoon and made it near the airport by 4:30. We wasted 20 minutes on the chargers and he figured we just better get up to the airport since he had to return the rental car and check in before the cutoff for luggage. So he dropped me at the airline terminal curb and I pushed in four large suitcases. At least he has Premier status, so I was able to check in with that and get the luggage checked in (right before the cutoff time!) and tagged and headed for the gate to board. Also fortunate that the TSA pre-check line was open and short so that saved me a few more minutes because they were already boarding groups 3 or 4. My boarding pass had group 1 or whatever 1K's get, so I went to the desk and showed the gate agent my boarding pass and asked if I could board in the empty premier line, which she confirmed. I kind of got the stink eye look from the passengers waiting in the other groups, probably thinking I jumped the line.
Husband was also lucky that the rental car shuttle bus was leaving right after he dropped off the rental, so he got back to the terminal quickly and was one of the last persons to board. Hopefully, he (or we!) learned our lesson and won't procrastinate as much.
Unless you're in Japan where ANA or United start check in precisely at the 3 hour mark and not any earlier! So we learned unless we have business to take care of or something to do at Haneda or Narita, there's no use to arriving too early. But still, the line to check in starts forming at least 3.5 or 4 hours ahead so unless you have first class tickets or status you might want to show up a little earlier than 3 hours. And some of the LCC (Low Cost Carrier) airlines in SE Asia will state the last boarding or check in cutoff time, so check your tickets so you aren't denied boarding.
Anyways, 2 hours for domestic and 3 hours for international is less stressful for us!
