Advance check-in for an airline flight; why?

(I ask this question from the airline’s point of view. I can see why a passenger would want to skip the check-in line at the airport.)

A lot can happen between when I buy an airline ticket and when the flight leaves. I can understand why the airline would want me to check-in with them when I get to the airport. I’m basically saying to them “hello, I haven’t died in the last three weeks; I still want to be on this airplane.” I’m "check"ing with them so they know that I’m “in” the airport.

So what’s the point of advance check-in? Even if I do it just before I leave home, stuff can still happen. My taxi might not show up. I could have a flat tire on the way to the airport. Conversely, I paid for the ticket, can’t they just assume that I’ll be there to use it? And they’ll want to make sure I show up so they can give the seat to a standby passenger if I don’t.

Do people checking in from home really save them that much trouble and expense?

I can’t answer most of your question but the airlines do always have a requirement that you must be at the gate ready to board the plane X minutes before departure time or your seat may be (or is?) forfeited. This would apply whether you have managed to check in somehow or not.

The more people who check in at home, the fewer agents (and check-in computer terminals) they need at the check-in counter at the airport.

Well, yeah, I understand that, but then what’s the point of checking in at all?

The airline knows how many tickets they’ve sold for a particular flight. The only reason I can see for the check-in is to count how many actually show up, in person, to be on the plane. What’s the point of counting people when they’re still at home?

Seat assignments would be one reason, I’d imagine.

That’s not always available at the time the ticket is purchased (far enough in advance and they can’t even be sure what plane will be involved. So requiring check in gets seats arranged, including forcing a change on anybody who already had a seat assignment that can no longer be honored (changed plane, etc.).

If they didn’t have check in, you’d have, at best 400 people showing up and 150 not knowing where there seat is, or if the plane changed recently the entire plane being in turmoil.

Southwest needs it still so they know which barn to put you in for boarding.

You can generally only check in 24 hours before the flight. I think it is simply assumed that if you’re checking in then, you’ll almost definitely be on the flight. Sure, something might happen, but then something could happen between physically checking in and boarding. The amount of things that go wrong in that 24 hours must be low enough for it to work fine.

Remember that airlines routinely oversell planes – they sell more tickets than there are seats on the plane. So having advance check-in gives them more time to deal with it when all the passengers show up and they have to bump people.

You also have to remember airlines over book and if a person checks in 24 hours prior it’s probably 95% sure he/she WILL be on the flight. So this information goes into an alogrithm of how many the flight can be oversold

Also remember most flights don’t go from point A to point B.

For instance a flight from NYC to San Fran may do a stop in Chicago where 1/3 of the pax get off and change planes.

Then you have to consider connecting flights. Also weather plays a chance. If the weather gets bad people miss connections and the airline has an obligation to put those who missed because of weather on the next flight if there is room.

Knowing 24 hours in advance, can help make all sorts of decisions.

If you just remember most flights don’t go from New York to Chicago and then turn around and go Chicago back to New York. Most flights connect somehow and these connections involve others that may miss flights.

Every empty seat on an airliner has to be explained by that airlines revenue manger to why it wasn’t sold.

Tell that to Jack Bauer!

Yes, but wouldn’t that remaining 5%[sup]*[/sup] be enough to screw up their planning? Besides which, what can they do with 24 hours notice (much less, really; advance check-in only starts 24 hours before the flight) that they couldn’t do with 1 hour? If there are more check-ins than seats, it’s too late to put a larger plane out the route. If there are too few check-ins, how many more tickets are they going to sell on the day of the flight?

  • I expect it’s really the uncertainty that’s the problem. If you knew, without fail, that 5% of the advance check-ins weren’t going to show up, you could plan things pretty accurately. That’s why airlines overbook in the first place, because they know some people won’t use their tickets. The problem is when there aren’t as many no-shows as they counted on.

Maybe that’s the answer to my question. Advance check-in gives the airline a more accurate forecast of the number of passengers than just counting the number of tickets sold. But is a good count with a few hours notice better than a more accurate count to come later?

You answered the bulk of your question with the first line of your post.

The main reason to provide an online check-in is because people want it. It has very little to do with overselling or accounting at all; the airlines know that checking in doesn’t mean you’ll be present for the flight. Similarly, since online check-in is an option and not a mandate, the numbers aren’t useful for anything.

Your two big reasons are because people want it, and because it reduces the amount of manpower needed to check in a flight.

They also fuel up based on carried weight; checking in allows them to give the estimated weight of the pax + baggage (cite: my ex-wife who used to do ticketing for Air France and United - 10 years ago+ so not gospel).

The option is there because it is easier and cheaper for the airline if people print out their own boarding passes. Decisions about upgrades, standy-by passengers, and bumped passengers (oversold flights) are made all the way up to the final minute before push-back, and when/how you checked in is irrelevant at that point. (Most of the uncertainty an hour or two before flights leaving hub cities is due to inbound aircraft with connecting passengers, and all of those passengers have checked in already.)

Basically, there are benefits to the airlines if there are fewer passengers who must be serviced by a human at the airport counter to get their boarding passes. Less congestion, faster processing, earlier confirmation, happier passengers, etc. That’s also why there are so many self-service kiosks for checking in at the airport. Checking in from home or office just takes it one step further.

One thing that I have come to appreciate about (online) advance check-in these last few years:

Say I have booked a flight leaving at 19:30. Airline requires check-in 30 minutes before that, no exceptions.

The bus to the airport is scheduled to arrive there at 18:55. That’s cutting it pretty close - if it’s only 3 minutes late (on a 50-minutes trip) I am at the check-in counter at 19:01 and am screwed.

The bus before that arrives an hour before - so if it’s on time I lose a whole hour at the airport.

Solution: I check in on the web beforehand (taking no checked luggage). If the bus is delayed in traffic for a few minutes that’s no problem (not much of a queue at security at that time); I am still at the gate in time for boarding (which in my experience is 15 minutes before takeoff, worst case i.e. when boarding is via bus). Plus I have reserved my favourite seat (apparently the last row of seats isn’t much in demand so usually I have got three seats for myself.)

That’s hardly fair; Jack Bauer is cursed.

but he does come with a free Frogurt.

Also, the airlines are now providing direct incentives for advance check-in – several US carriers now charge $20 instead of $15 for the first piece of checked luggage if you check it in at the counter.

How do I check in my baggage, in advance, from home?

It might be more appropriate to say that they offer a discount to pay in advance to check your luggage at the airport.

Right, you check in from home and tell them: “I WILL have ONE checked bag, all the way to Spokane”. The idea is you print out your internet boarding pass and then go to the airport, show the boarding pass, and they’ll stick the all-the-way-to-Spokane claim tag on that bag.