How Early Can You Check In Bags For A Flight?

Last Updated on April 11, 2023

So you have a long layover between flights or some other reason that you want to check your bags early for a flight.

But how many hours before your flight departure time can you drop off your checked luggage?

This is actually a more complicated question that you might have imagined.

Bag Drop Machines

Modern airlines often offer the option of online check-in and then a self-automated baggage drop.

These automated machines usually won’t accept your bag a long time before your flight.

The bag drop machines are programmed not to accept luggage before the designated time.

Check-In Counters

You might imagine that you’ll be able to drop off your luggage early at the check-in counter and then go off sight-seeing for the day before a later flight in the evening.

When airlines fly out of larger airports they might have a check-in counter that is open all day because flights are leaving all day.

It’s important to realize that the counter isn’t open for your flight.

You cannot check-in your baggage before the check-in counter is open.

At smaller airports if your airline doesn’t have a flight leaving anytime soon they won’t even have a check-in counter open at all.

How Early Do Check-In Counters Open?

The vast majority of airlines only allow you to check in luggage 2-6 hours before your flight departure time.

Checking your luggage on a different day from your flight is out of the question. No airline will allow you to check luggage the evening before a flight.

Your only hope for an irregular bag drop is a sympathetic check-in agent but you won’t know whether that will happen until you ask nicely at the check-in desk. So don’t make any assumptions.

You can ask. You might get lucky and a ticket counter agent might take your bag early.

Of course the check-on counter would need to actually be open and staffed for there to be a chance of that happening.

Airline Bag Check Isn’t A Substitute For Luggage Storage

Airlines are not a hotel where you can drop off your bags and go sightseeing, and they are not a luggage storage company.

If an airline were to advertise a service where you could drop bags off long before your flight departure time they’d need to staff the counters. Airlines don’t want to staff counters when no flights are departing soon. It’s not economical.

There are stories where a sympathetic ticket counter agent has accepted a check in bag long before a flight is due to depart. But these are stories, not policy.

Let’s look in more detail at some of the popular airlines in the United States to see how early they say you can check in your bag.

Alaska Airlines

Louise asked Alaska how early she could drop off her checked bag for domestic travel:

Alaska answered that bag drop starts 4 hours before the flight departs.

Allegiant Air

Bianca asked Allegiant about how early she could check her bags in:

Allegiant answered, “Our ticket counters typically open 2 hours prior to the flight departure. Once open, you’ll have the ability to check your luggage.”

American Airlines

Sarah put the question to American Airlines:

AA answered, ”Anytime on your travel day during the ticket counter hours or up to four hours at select airports.”

How early you can drop off your bag seems to depend where the flights departing are departing from.

But Karen also asked the same question and got a different answer:

American Airlines said that ”counters for flights open 3-4 hours before the departure time. That’s the earliest we can allow you to have your bags checked”.

Delta Air Lines

Major airlines often have better customer service levels.

You might think that premium airlines like Delta would have their check-in counters open for longer and accept bags earlier.

Mike asked about checking luggage early at ATL:

Delta replied, ”Due to security and storage space limitations, checked baggage cannot be accepted no more than 6 hours in advance”.

So 6 hours before departure sounds good.

But this passenger asked Delta how early they could check-in for an international flight and got a different answer:

At LAX for an international flight the check-in desk was only going to be open for checking baggage 2 hours prior to departure.

Frontier Airlines

You might think if you are checking in online and simply using the bag drop to print a bag tag you can do that at any time.

Unfortunately no.

The bag drop machines will not let you print your baggage tag early.

Brandon had this problem on his Frontier flight when he wanted to drop off his checked luggage early but the computer said no:

In this answer they told Robert that ”you can check your bag as early as 2 hours prior flight”:

But ”as early as” doesn’t sound like a firm commitment, and you certainly won’t be able to leave your bag with Frontier many hours before your flight to enjoy your layover without dragging your bags around with you.

Hawaiian Airlines

Leor asked Hawaiian Airlines how early he could check bags for an upcoming flight:

The social media team said “we ask that you check in no earlier than 4 hours prior to departure”.

Airline agents might check bags earlier than 4 hours if the counter is open but Hawaiian doesn’t have a policy to support this.

JetBlue

Most airlines give mixed responses about how early bags can be checked.

Here’s JetBlue sending out mixed messages.

First they tell Adrian that ”the earliest you can check your bags is 6 hours prior to your flight departure”.

But then they tell Mark that baggage check opens 2 hours prior to departure time:

Southwest Airlines

Southwest told Michael that he could check his bags up to 4 hours before departure:

Spirit Airlines

If you are at the airport early there is no guarantee you’ll be able to check your bags.

Spirit told a different Michael that ”bags can be checked in at the airport 3 hours before departure”.

United Airlines

United told this passenger that ”you may checked your bags as early as four hours prior to your flight departure”.

Baggage cut off times exist to provide baggage handlers enough time to load luggage on to the plane before departure.

For international destinations the cut off time is earlier because there could be more luggage to load on to the plane so the baggage handlers need more time.

Final Thoughts

If you are able buy tickets for connecting flights where you can check your luggage through to the final destination.

Failing that, airport luggage lockers can provide storage space at the airport if they are available.

The best way to avoid needing to check in bags early is to learn to travel light and travel with only carry-on luggage.