On: Why high speed rail hasn’t caught on

[matkoniecz]

> You can show up 30-45 mins before any domestic flight

Where? I was flying in Europe and was asked to be on airport 150 minutes before departure.

[Leherenn → matkoniecz]

They ask you to be there early just to be sure, but you don't have to, it's at your own risks. I've done 30 mins at smaller European airports no problems. Online check-in, only carry-on luggage, 10 minutes for security and you board among the lasts with minutes to spare. Of course you don't have a lot of margins if anything goes wrong, but at airports you know it's definitely doable.

[politelemon → Leherenn]

> but you don't have to, it's at your own risks

That isn't a scalable or viable solution. The recommendations exist for capacity and planning reasons.

By the same logical extension you can simply show up at a train station 5 minutes before the train, the results of taking a chance are on you.

[cmckn → Leherenn]

Miss one flight and you won’t bet on this again; because unlike trains you’ll be waiting 6-12 hours (or longer) for a re-booked flight.

[matkoniecz → Leherenn]

The risk is high, and if it goes wrong you have huge problems.