Steven and I are the type to get to the airport with time to spare. We don’t mind having an hour (or more!) to kill before our flight. We like the peace of mind of knowing we are there on time, especially since we usually fly out of a big airport (Chicago ORD) and sometimes have to deal with traffic to get there (and a whole lot of other stupid ORD stuff I won’t even mention).

And sometimes with flight delays we sit there a long time. We deal, though!

Steven sent an article (pdf here) this week from The Atlantic about people who are “purposeful late arrivers” to the airport because they like the thrill of it! WHUT. These people time their arrival as closely as possible so they are the last person on the plane. They’d rather run through the airport because they think they are going to miss their flight (and they sometimes do), than wait around.

Interestingly, a psychiatrist interviewed for the article said both styles (arriving super early or purposefully late) are different ways of dealing with the same issue – air travel anxiety:

 One person is hyper-efficient and overprepared, and another is someone who doesn’t manage their anxiety that way. It’s not that late people don’t find the airport as stressful as early people do, in other words, but that their coping mechanisms indicate a fundamentally different approach to the negative parts of life.

And of course, there was some discussion of Type A and Type B personalities*, but, snooze, we’ve all heard enough of that! So, which are you (poll below)?

[poll id=”4″]

*An interesting part of the article is people dealing with a travel mate who is WAY different than them. So they leave at different times to take the same flight together! That made me realize I’m lucky Steven and I are on the same page. We do know people who don’t understand why we want to get to the airport a bit earlier. That’s just how we are! This does seem like something people like to “talk” (aka argue) a bit about. Just do what works for you, folks!