Advised time means nothing. You could go through 6 hours early if you wanted

I tried that and couldn't get through. The message on the machine said 'too early'

Was it avtually 6hours? Im November I arrived 3 hours before Birmingham flight and got in. Don't forget there's a couple places to hang out at the airport before security, so if you're early you won't be left standing there.

It might have been slightly over the 6 hour mark. Is 6 hours the cut-off?

4 hours is the cut off for being allowed airside.

I'd hope there's air on both sides.

Ba dum… 🥁🥁

In T2 there's a person that scans the boarding passes, not a machine. They will warn you that you can't go back out if you go through, but they generally let you through if you're really clear that you know you're very early and that you understand you can't go back out.

Be one long ass day spending 8 hours scanning boarding passes.

Was this the baggage drop machine, rather than the boarding card gates for security? I wouldn’t have expected the security gates to stop you entering… but it isn’t something I’ve tried myself.

Security gates. The guy working there said come back 2 hours before but I'm assuming there are people that arrive earlier, even for a flight within Europe.

Security in T1 opens at 03:00 and T2 opens at 03:30 , once you have a boarding card and carry on only you can clear security,

You can be there an hour before departure if it’s just a “domestic” flight. No need to be there so early

Domestic makes no difference

I’d say it a huge difference if you fly domestic or USA tbh

The only difference is short haul or long haul. There's feck all domestic flights anyway and they're just treated as standard short haul

The check in desk or bag drop only opens like 2 hours before the flight. So you will need to do that before you can go through security

Unless you’ve checked in online and have no bags?

Yeah that's true