I believe they will have already allocated the seats, so getting there early will make no difference to whether you get window seats. (With Thomson, if you book 'seats together' it lets you choose how many window seats you want.) Their computer does a best-fit allocation a day or two before the flight. If you haven't paid to pre-book, you will just have to chance it. Your ticket booklet will tell you the latest check-in time for your flight. I think you are allowed to check-in half an hour later if you have booked 'seats together'.

depending on the time of day we fly depends on how early we get to the airport, if its an early morning flight the later the better due to the kids having as much sleep as possible (one with epilepsy) so got to be extra carefull. but if its a mid afternoon we tend to make it part of our holiday and go round the duty free shops and have a bit to eat ect...

Up until this year we used to arrive at the airport 3 hours before the flight, but after a few funny looks from check-in staff and comments of "we haven't actually opened that flight yet... hang on, let's see if we can open it for you now..." we now usually leave our house about 3 hours before the flight for the 20-25 minute taxi journey to MAN; by the time we arrive, pay the taxi, find the check-in desks etc it's probably about 2¼ hours before the flight, enough time to allow for possible check-in/security queues, a browse round the shops and a quick break in Starbucks.

Might it be less stressful to spend the night at a hotel near the airport? (Especially one with a good carparking deal?) You might be able to check in the evening before to save you more time ....

We like to get to the airport early so that we can have something to eat, do some shopping in the duty free and then go into one of the lounges for a couple of hours.

hmm, all very interesting comments.

We too love to browse the shops, but are they all open at 5-6am?

We had a 6.00am flight earlier this year and all the shops and restaurants were open from around 4.00am. If you check on the website for the airport you are travelling from, the opening/closing times for the facilities will be shown.

If you are travelling with Thomson or Thomas Cook you might like to pre-book seats to ensure you get a window seat and that you sit together - 10 and a half hours is a long time sat the other end of the plane from your travelling partner. I'll risk not booking seats for a 2-3 hour flight but wouldn't want to risk it on a long haul flight.

We flew to Cancun with First Choice recently from Gatwick and stayed overnight at the on-airport Sofitel with free parking. We were able to check in the evening before and wandered over to the airport around 7.00am for our 9.30am flight. It was so easy and we weren't rushed in the morning, so we would definitely do this again.

The paper work for my next flight to Tunisia with Thomas Cook actually tells me to check in an hour before flight time, which even I think may be cutting it a bit fine, so I'll probably go for the usual 2 hours. It's bad enough hanging around Stansted fpr a couple of hours from 4 a.m. as I only need time for a quick dash round duty free for a couple of bottles of whisky, and then a quick coffee and sandwich.

We like to arrive as soon as check in opens, no matter what the time of day or night. We are usually at the front of the queue and have often arrived before check in opens. Our holiday starts at the airport - browse round the duty free and perfume shops, have a meal (be it breakfast or otherwise), a couple of ( even at breakfast time, lol) and look at the aircraft. We never pre book seats and have always been lucky enough to be allocated the seats we request at the check-in desk