All true, but I would submit that, if your passport is expired, getting there early won't fix anything, most people flying on this guy's flight from Nashville to Chicago will not be people who don't speak English, and most people will not be bringing more luggage than usual for this particular flight segment, because it's a normal domestic flight.

There are, of course, valid reasons to arrive early and to require early arrival for international flights. I'm not certain that many of them apply to this guy's domestic segment.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

or they are within 6 months and you can't fly. Did you know that?

Not true across the board, but is common for certain destinations to not allow people with less than 6-months life left on the passport in. You just have to make sure whichever country you are flying to has this requirement.

If you are traveling internationally, check out the passport requirements for the country you will be visiting here.

I agree on the domestic side and am with you on his Nashville check-in.

On the general international side, you'd be surprised at what people will argue about or not understand, all which takes time....

Correct. Some countries will allow you in but you have to pay a fine (Taiwan). Point being, this stuff all takes extra time and explanation at the counter.

  
Only flown out of the country a couple of times, but both times I flew from Boise, ID to either Chicago or some other Eastern hub and then on to Europe. Boise airport is always a ghost town so you don't typically need to arrive anymore than 30 minutes before your flight. However, both times I left, they "selected me for a random bag check". Pulled me aside to the little room then went through my bag and swabbed everything. Didn't take forever, but it added 20-30 minutes. They got my sister both times as well, doubt there was anything "random" about it. Do that in a busy airport and it is going to add some time.

" If the first leg of the flight is part of one ticketed international trip, it's considered international travel and all rules and regs for international travel apply... even if the first leg is domestic."

This gets to the gist of my question. What are those "rules and regs"? What is done differently when my domestic flight is leg 1 of an international flight? I can't tell that anything is done differently except that they ask me for a passport rather than a driver's license. I think I will ask when I check in Friday if it's not busy. I doubt if they attendant will both know and tell me, but I am going to ask.

For what it's worth, I plan to arrive plenty early. I probably won't get there 2 hours in advance, but I'll be close, and might actually make it the full 2 hours early unless traffic is bad. My question is driven by curiosity rather than practicality. I don't have anywhere near a full 2 hours in Chicago by the way. That is where it could be a little tight, although obviously I don't have to check bags there.

The biggest argument from passengers traveling internationally is the cost/weight of luggage. This happens with domestic travel as well but most travel with too large carry-ons that do not allow for others to be stored. Offering to do a free check-in adds to the take off time.

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DISH is how we do it.

It's just a recommendation to get through security based on past data. You not actually going through additional rules and regulations that you need to be aware of. More than likely you will get through no problem. I'm sure it's based on a worst-case scenario from their whatever optimization analysis has been performed.

Keep in mind that it can be a big crapshoot at BNA on how long the lines are. I always have TSAPre and have cruised through, back door at home to gate in less than 20 minutes and then a week later in 60 minutes due to huge lines everywhere. And last week they had one line only partially working due to a broken belt on the bag conveyor in the TSA line (terminal 2).

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com