I do not get anxious about many things. When it comes to flying I absolutely love it, I get far too excited and cannot contain myself. I love watching the planes all take off, trying to work out which plane is ours and clock watching until the gates open. I do, however, have one fear when it comes to flying and that is getting to the airport on time. After all of the issues I have had with booking the flights, I do not need to add to this list.
I am one of those people that as long as I have my passport, I do not worry what else I might have forgotten. Passports and money will mean whatever we have forgotten, if important, we can grab or simply make do without it. The one thing I get anxious about is getting to the airport on time. It has gotten worse since becoming a parent.
We have managed to avoid it in the past by breaking up our journeys, we usually fly from Gatwick and my uncle lives near by. We have been really lucky that we can either pit stop at his house, or on a couple of occasions he has taken us to the airport so we didn’t have to worry. He lives about 30 minutes from Gatwick.
This Easter we are flying from Stansted to Greece. I have never flown from this airport before, in fact I have never been to this airport at all. So that in itself can kick in the anxiety. I do not know where I am going. I do not know what to expect. I do not know, exactly, how long it should take us to get there.
Our flight is at 6:40am, so quite early in the morning. I was worrying that we would leave home around 3am to get there, but that wouldn’t be enough time. It says from our home to Stansted airport is 47 minutes. So not far at all. It’s probably our closest airport, so not sure why we haven’t flown from there before.
In order to alleviate some of the anxiety we have booked an overnight airport hotel stay and airport parking via Airport Parking & Hotels (APH Parking) for our holiday. It was such a relief when we booked it up. The obvious benefit to me is that we can travel to the airport the night before, which gives us over 12 hours to get there. We will be at the airport in the morning, so no panicking about getting to the check in desk on time. Also, we can have breakfast from 4am, which means we will not have to worry about hungry and grumpy children whilst waiting for our flights.
I am more excited now than worried. Just have to make sure we remember those passports… do you book hotel & parking when you go on holiday? I would love to know your tricks in the comments below or on social media: @mummyconstant.
