Yeah, I guess I really shouldn’t be talking, but still. I’m flying Singapore Airlines this afternoon from Los Angeles to Singapore (via Tokyo), and got to the airport at around 11:45AM for a 3:45PM departure. Way early, of course, though I arrived early simply because I would have lounge access and frankly, most lounges are nicer than the Holiday Inn Express I stayed at last night. Beyond that, now that I’m a Priority Pass member, I wanted to try out the SkyTeam lounge and also reLAX lounge.
Singapore check-in only opens at 12:15PM, so I headed to the reLAX lounge, which is landside. What shocked me was that as I walked by Singapore check-in, there were probably already 100+ people lined up in the economy class line, which is nearly half of the cabin… and that was four hours before departure.
I can understand why people do that for a late night departure, when they have to check out of a hotel at a reasonable hour. But four hours before departure for a daytime flight? Those passengers don’t have lounge access, not to mention Bradley is probably the worst airport terminal in the US.
I can’t come up with a good reason, other than that it’s probably a cultural thing. Most of the people in line had a bunch of bags and I’m guessing don’t travel all that often (or at least travel for long periods of time), so would rather show up way early than feel “stressed.”
On an unrelated note, what’s up with all of the people with machine guns in the terminal? I expect that at El Al check-in (and there were several of them there), but they were all over. Guess that’s heightened security (or intimidation, at least).
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