Serious question. Does anyone know? I’d have thought check-in was a way of saying ‘I’m here,’ but obviously not if you can do it online, days before your flight. What purpose does it serve? And how do travel companies know whether or not you’ve turned up?
Yours confused, of Leicester.
JustB says
As someone who was until recently married to a senior echelon type at a major airline, allow me.
It’s quicker at the airport. Once you’ve got your tag printed, you just drop your bag and don’t spend half an hour+ queuing at a check-in desk. Instead you spent 5-10 mins max queuing for a bag drop, if that. I’ve never been longer than about 2 mins dropping my bag.
They know whether or not you’ve turned up by whether or not you’ve passed security and are airside, and then when they scan your boarding pass at the gate.
Bingo Little says
Oh, snap!
Bingo Little says
I would guess that it’s a way of reducing check in queues.
People who check in online the night before/day of a flight are probably fairly unlikely to then miss it. It’s not an “I’m here”, it’s an “I still intend to fly”.
In terms of how they know if you’ve turned up, you scan your issued ticket on the way into security, so they can see exactly who’s being processed onto the flight at any given moment.
nickduvet says
also, it makes it easier to secure your preferred seat if your agent hasn’t already done that for you
JustB says
Related question: why do people still use travel agents? This always amazes me. Even the people I know who travel a lot with work have to pretty much sort the logistics themselves (or at least have their PA do it).
I literally don’t know anyone among my family or friends – even my septuagenarian parents – who uses a travel agent for holidays. I’ve heard a couple of acquaintances mention it lately and it just baffles me.
NigelT says
We still have a couple of travel agencies in town. They seem to mostly advertise package deals and cruises in their windows. I’m guessing they will eventually go the way of other bricks and mortar shops, but they seem to be surviving!
On the check in question – presumably there are people who check in and then don’t turn up….so what does that mean?
Bingo Little says
Stuck in traffic? Family emergency? Trapped in a large pit in their back garden fighting a lion using only a sharpened stick and a box of matches?
mikethep says
I’ve just binge-watched a pretty good Dutch TV series which revolves around this very topic. Called Flight HS13, on More4.
JustB says
Usually means that someone on standby (usually a staff member on a discount) gets the seat, or else someone who was bumped off a previous flight due to overbooking (which all premium airlines do, as business travellers on flexible tickets often don’t turn up).
But if they have to take off without the seat filled, they’ll take off without the seat filled. Gate time is gate time. It really does happen that people lose track of time once they’ve checked in, checked their bags and gone airside – then gone to the bar, or the shops.
If they don’t respond to last call, their bags get dumped off the aircraft and it takes off.
NigelT says
OK….what I was trying to understand was what happens if I check in days in advance and then don’t turn up….in other words, it doesn’t mean I’m there on site, so why do it at all?
fortuneight says
I do all my own work travel via a UK agent. They get fares that you can’t get online / direct. For personal travel I would never think to use one.
JustB says
Huh. Interesting. A close friend’s PA just does everything direct for him, via discounted web portals provided directly to companies by the airlines and hotels.
Bingo Little says
Same deal for me. PA sorts it out with a nominated travel agent, who give pretty massive discounts.
fortuneight says
My conclusion from this is that I need a PA.
JustB says
The only thing I miss about stepping down from my old job is my PA. I might make a kid be my new one.
Moose the Mooche says
Do it Guardian-style and call him/her an intern, then you don’t have to pay or be responsible for them in any way! Offices are the new Victorian chimneys!
JustB says
Amazing, “it’s great experience and will look good on your CV. Now mark this pile of 180 books.”
mikethep says
Last time I had a PA she endeared herself to me by booking me business class to NYC even though I’d specifically told her not to.
That was a pleasant surprise when I checked in. Discovering that I’d been upgraded to first class, even more so. That got me a flight into Manhattan in a terrifying rattletrap chopper.
Question to someone who know: does checking in online mess up your chances of an upgrade?
JustB says
Last question – nope. Not in my experience.
fortuneight says
It makes no difference. These days airlines have loyalty schemes and know what you are worth to them. I always check in online and have my boarding pass on my phone, and get upgraded on about 1/3 of my flights. It only happens because they can sell my seat to someone else, and so they bump me to an unsold seat in business class.
It’s fairly common to see people trying to barter their way into better seats or lounges but I’ve never seen anyone succeed. These days an exit row seat in cattle class commands a supplementary payment because there’s room to move your knees.
Moose the Mooche says
Fuckin ‘ell, first I find out that Waitrose is where plebs go (I’ve never even set foot in one…. I couldn’t even venture into M & S until I was in my late 20s), and then I find out that I’m the only person here who’s never had “staff”. If the Afterword was a real place you’d have set the hounds on me on day one.
mikethep says
I’m so old I’ve even had a secretary. They disappeared, in publishing at any rate, some time between me ‘going freelance’ in 1991 and getting another job in 1993. Before that only secretaries had computers; after that, everybody did.
Sewer Robot says
I’ve been thinking about getting one too f8. Sorry, I just walked in on this thread – you are referring to Penis Augmentation…..?
fortuneight says
I’ve decided to start by getting a few plant pots
Moose the Mooche says
I don’t know why this is so funny… but it is.
Carl says
I still used Travel Agents from time to time because they can secure better deals on some things.
When we have toured in the US and Canada I’ve investigated booking flights, hotels, cars etc on-line. The price mounts and it becomes prohibitively expensive. Then we go somewhere like Trailfinders, tell them where and when we want to go and end up getting the same holiday for less than half the price it would have cost on line.
Arthur Cowslip says
Travel agencies – yes. Book your holiday as a package then you are ATOL protected and whatnot. If you book your own flights and accommodation etc, then if one part of that fails at the last minute it’s down to you to sort it out and book an alternative.
Mousey says
I used a travel agent for a trip to Europe last year. Had to get to an obscure part of Germany and he immediately knew the best way to do it, sorted train tickets, car hire etc.
In the words of Orson Welles “surround yourself with experts”
fortuneight says
If you check in on-line, and are taking carry on only, you can go straight to security and then head straight to the gate. Although with BA they rather bollox it by wanting you to check in for a passport check which sort of negates the whole thing, as (I think) they are liable for anyone flying without a valid passport.
I get the impression online check in reduces the number of check in agents they need to have – quite a few airlines have you check your own bags too.
Gatz says
And another thing … it’s been years since I used an airport check in desk, but in the days when I did the procedure took seconds. ‘Yes, I packed my bag myself. No, no one could have interfered with it without my knowledge’ and so on.
Yet every time, and I mean every single time, the people in front of me in the queue would spend whole minutes in intense conversation when they got to the desk. What were they talking about? Honest question. Does anyone know? The standard set of questions seemed to leave little room for discursion.
Bingo Little says
When I was young and travelling alone many years ago, I was checking in for a flight from Buenos Aires to New York. It was late and I was tired – I’d been awake for over 24 hours due to some fairly excessive farewell drinks the evening before.
When I got to the desk, I was asked all the standard questions and gave all the standard answers. I passed through security, and only then did it occur to me that I had not, in fact, packed all my own luggage. Because my luggae contained a small, mysterious parcel given to me by a recently acquired mate (a mate with some fairly violent communist and anti-US views, no less) to pass to his girlfriend upon my return to London.
In my sleep deprived state, and with a little too much time to think this development over, i have to admit to being quite at a loss as to what to do. After some deliberation I decided that I should probably tell someone, as a sort of insurance policy in case things really went tits up. I didn’t particularly fancy prison (or worse).
I balefully approached a member of the security team and, in extremely basic Spanish, confessed to her that I could not take sole credit for the packing of the bag I’d checked.
Her reply: “I really wouldn’t worry about it – I have no idea why we bother even asking that question”.
I later discovered that the mysterious parcel contained a framed photo of some particularly romantic graffiti. I never did get to visit Guantanamo Bay.
Fifer says
In my experience, the topics may include, but not be limited to, the following: “I’d like an upgrade”, “We’d like six upgrades”, “l/we want to change seats”, “What’s for dinner?”, “What films are showing?”. Often language issues make it more difficult.
I was once upgraded to First on BA, much to the disgust of a competitor who was on the same flight. (We knew each other) He spent 15 fruitless minutes arguing his case at the check in desk! I would not have wanted to be next in line.
Harry Tufnell says
It’s the other end where I always get frustrated. At immigration the line always seems to be going at a reasonable pace until I’m next in line then it’s always a bloody family of 6, every one of them has a well used passport and the immigration officer insists on looking at every page on every passport before stamping them and waving them through. Then he goes for a coffee break.
fortuneight says
Then there’s the ePassport gates. Heathrow has 15 of them – to quote the Heathrow website – “Simply scan your e-passport at the barrier. The system runs a face-recognition check against the chip in your passport, then if you’re eligible to enter the UK the gate opens automatically – all in a matter of seconds.”
Which may be (just about) true but for reasons known only to the UK Border Force I’ve never seen more than half in operation, and often no more than 5 or 6. Which means a tidy little queue to have your face recognised by an algorithm. I didn’t realise that machines had to have such long rest breaks or days off.
Carl says
In March we flew into the US via Fort Lauderdale.
We had to queue to have our passports scanned electronically. It didn’t take too long (about 10 to 15 minutes) but then we had to have them checked by a human being from the Immigration service that resulted in us having to join a queue that took about 15 to 20 minutes.
What’s the effing point of that?
Black Celebration says
This is a useful thread because it has always intrigued me too. I will check in via an app or something but only when I am physically at an airport and definitely going on that flight. I am worried that if I check in, this means I can’t change it at the last minute – which I have done before with domestic flights when stuck in traffic or when a planned meeting is suddenly rearranged with very little notice.
Leedsboy says
My list of benefits.
1. If I’m hand luggage only, I go straight to security.
2. I can select my seat (and pre select via the app).
3. Boarding pass on my phone. Honestly, this is a godsend. No bit of paper to lose.
4. Knowing I have a boarding pass. As someone that worked for an airline for 12 years and travelled stand by regularly, a boarding pass is a good thing.
H.P. Saucecraft says
This thread has made my life so much simpler. From now on, I will get my intern to tell my PA to arrange my flights through my travel agent!
Can’t imagine why I didn’t think of this before.
Gatz says
I think you may not be making full use of your amanuensis.
H.P. Saucecraft says
Sorry, Gatz. Let me try again:
(Can’t imagine why I didn’t think of this before).
Junior Wells says
Phone boarding passes. Down here they scan it then print you off a paper one as you enter the plane.
SteveT says
I left Heathrow terminal 5 on Sunday for Toronto. From parking my car at the meet and greet car park it was 10 minutes to drop my bag and get through security. In fact within 15 minutes I was having my first pint.
Online check in is ace.
Tiggerlion says
Was that 6 o’clock in the morning?
Moose the Mooche says
You’re a pilot then!
fortuneight says
I hope you had better luck than me when you got to Toronto. 3 visits so far this year, all greeted by a 30+ minute wait in the plane once we’ve landed due to their being no spaces free to park up and unload. Given it takes 7 hours to get there, it’s not like they didn’t know we were coming.
mrxsg says
There’s no point even attempting online check-in if your name’s on some FBI wanted list.
Mine has been for about the last 20 years.
I have no criminal record, not even a speeding ticket.
I did apply and get a redress number which was supposed to speed up my check-in process but Nah.