How long before flight can you check your luggage?

[dorlene]

We have 5 hours in fort lauderdale before our flight leaves. Thought we might check our luggage and go do something.

[14A04]

In February, flying on AirTran, we could not check our luggage in until 3 hours prior to the flight. This may vary from airline to airline, I'm not exactly sure.

[JLC@SD]

In February, flying on AirTran, we could not check our luggage in until 3 hours prior to the flight. This may vary from airline to airline, I'm not exactly sure.

We have been told 3 hours also.

 

And you can not check luggage 30 minutes or less before departure.

[tadjr]

It depends on the airline and location. The busier the airline and airport, the more restrcitive they will be on checkin times. 4 hours is the usual rule, although at some places you can check in 6 hours prior on the kiosks. Also the cutoff for checkin varies from city to city and airline. Many places 30 minutes is the absolute minimum for bag check, although quite a few are at 45-60 minutes. Call your airline to get specifics for the cities you are flying out of.

[scsagh]

Air Tran's website said you could check luggage 4 hours before the flight, but when we were at the Miami airport on Sunday, April 2, they would not allow any luggage to be checked sooner than 2 hours before flight time. Lots of people sitting around the airport with piles of luggage!

[caribbean dreams]

We have checked out luggage in 3 hours early before at SFO & San Juan

[DonLou]

Just a cautionary tale about early luggage check-in.

 

We once checked our luggage in early (about 3 to 4 hours) on a San Francisco to Los Angeles flight. When we flew into LA we went to the baggage area and waited for our luggage. The carousel spun around and around until finally we realized our luggage wasn't there. We sped over to the Baggage Claim office and there in the office was our luggage. Evidently, because of the frequency of flights between SF and LA, our luggage was shipped on an earlier plane. :o

[Huck]

Northwest is 6 hours prior to departture.