I was supposed to leave for the airport by 6pm. Unfortunately at 5:30 I still hadn't put anything in my bag yet. Finally left the house by 6:30. Got to the Continental desk an hour and 20 minutes before departure only to be told I had to check in at the Virgin Atlantic desk which is on the other side of LAX (the really annoying thing is that I did the exact opposite on the flight to LA from London). Got there with almost an hour to spare. By the time the checkin clerk was done lecturing me about arriving early for international flights I had 40 minutes to catch the plane...