I fly from the UK to Las Vegas annually (I have some great friends there.)
Now I live in the countryside, so have a journey of just over 2 hours to the airport.
So I book an airport hotel the night before my flight, travel down the evening before and check-in the night before my flight.
I then stay overnight at the hotel and board my flight the next day.
For the cost of a hotel room, I get:
a relaxed check-in (there’s never a queue, and sometimes I get offered a seat upgrade)
a guarantee that I avoid all traffic problems (since the hotel is literally a 5 minute walk to the terminal)
a good night’s sleep and a pleasant breakfast
the ability to walk past queues of screaming children and panicking adults waiting to check in one day
that on the day, I only have my flight luggage to carry
Thanks, everybody, for your comments. Very informative.
I guess I can see the utility in an early check-in, in many instances. But I don’t really fit many of them. This is a business trip, and my expenses are being looked after. It’s also in business class, and I have a confirmed seat assignment, so I’m not worried about losing it. Or having to scramble aboard an aircraft with unassigned seating, and trying to find a place on board for my luggage—I can just check it (included).
Plus, business class passengers tend to get moved to the front of the line at in-person check-in, and the same for security. At least, here in Canada.
I do have the airline’s app on my phone, and I will use it for updates; though I should mention that this airline (Air Canada) sends notices to both the app and my e-mail address, so I’m informed either way. At any rate, I’d prefer a paper boarding pass, to something on my phone. Maybe it’s the lawyer in me, but I’m a firm believer in, “if it’s not on paper, it doesn’t exist.”
Thanks again, folks. Your comments have been helpful, and more comments would be most welcome.
Good advice, and I’ve done that before, when I’ve had morning flights; especially early-morning flights. Except today, my flight is late at night. Between hotel check-out time, and tonight’s flight time, I’d be waiting ten or more hours around the airport. No matter how nice the business class lounge is, that’s a lot of time to kill.
When I have flown in Europe, luggage check-in is only available about 2 hours prior to departure and they don’t even say which lane until the last minute.
There might be a special arrangement between the hotel and the airport. I know there’s a cruise port ( Seattle?) that has an arrangement with some airlines where cruise passengers don’t need to pick up luggage when they disembark - it will be taken to the airport and checked in with the airline and passengers don’t have to deal with it until they reach their destination.
I prefer paper too and I usually have one when I’m flying from home - but it’s gotten harder to print boarding passes at hotels and I don’t want to wait on line at the airport just for a boarding pass if I’m not checking luggage.
I don’t know whether it’s because it’s an international flight or it’s British Airways (or Virgin), but I’ve been checking in the night before for around a decade now.
Me too. I worry that my phone may run out of battery or have a bad connection at the worst possible time.
I try to have the phone ticket ready well ahead of time but then the phone decides it has to reload the image right when I walk up to security. Paper ticket skips all of that.
That said, I never use a paper ticket anymore. Go figure.
It’s been a long time since I’ve flown, but at one time Alaska allowed you to print the luggage tag, fold it and put it in a tag holder you could order from them. Now it looks like they’re testing electronic bag tags.
If you’re flying on Southwest there’s another advantage that only applies to Southwest. I haven’t flown them in decades, but from what I understand they way their boarding system works now the time you check in determines your place in line for boarding. Since Southwest doesn’t have assigned seats, a spot closer to the front of the line means you’re more likely to get a good seat. If you wait to check in at the airport you’re guaranteed to be near the back of the line and will almost certainly get stuck with a middle seat, unless you can convince someone to switch seats with you.
The couple times I did fly on Southwest they were were back when they were dividing the passengers into boarding groups A, B, and C, but your boarding group was still determined by when you checked in. And checking in at the airport meant your were going to get group C. And I learned the hard way that getting boarding group C pretty much guaranteed only middle seats would be left by the time you got to board.
LAX has something like that for Spirit Airlines. It’s a bit like the self-checkout at the supermarket. You are supposed to do it yourself, but there is an airline employee hovering about who can help if needed.
Yeah this is how Southwest is currently operating - your check-in time determines your place in the line for each boarding group. You can check-in 24 hours prior to your flight, but now the airline offers a way to “auto check-in” for a fee, at that exact time.
When flying Southwest, not only is getting a decent seat on the line, but also the coveted overhead storage near your seat. And when you see others with their full-size suitcases in the boarding area, it does take that competition to a new level, if you happen to be carrying a normal-sized carry-on bag.
This is still correct, as I flew Southwest last week. My wife and I both like aisle seats, so we check in as early as possible so we can get those seats, somewhat close to the front of the plane. In fact, the last flight, we paid extra (ten bucks each, per flight) for the ‘automated’ early check-in, which is done by the app, before the ‘manual’ check-ins.
Really? I, nor anybody I know, has ever booked several flights to the same destination on the same day. Unless you’re super-rich and can afford to lose money (whether by just not using the ticket or paying for flight insurance for every flight), I can’t imagine anybody doing this. Or, perhaps, that you know you will fly in the near future and will definitely use the vouchers. Because you will not get your money back from the airline.
I’ve heard of people doing it. IIRC it’s mostly business travelers. They’re not sure if their business is going to be done by noon, or 3:00, or 5:00, and don’t want to waste time sitting around waiting for the 5:00 flight if they do happen to be done by noon. So they buy fully refundable tickets for all three flights, take the one that’s soonest after they finish, and collect the refund for the others.
Or maybe they know they might possibly need to travel to New York, but things are up in the air and they don’t know exactly when they’ll need to travel. Not wanting to risking waiting until the last minute and finding the flight fully booked, they buy fully refundable tickets for Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday, use the one they need, and collect refunds for the others.
You will if you pay for the fully refundable fare.
Early Bird for Southwest is great if you know you are going to be out of range of internet/cell phone services - like hiking. We used to use it when at Disneyland or World and didn’t want to remember it when waiting for or being on a ride.
Well, I’ve done this exact thing for my upcoming trip to Texas next April to see the eclipse: that is, booked two flights on the same day to the same destination on two different airlines.
Why? Because I originally booked a ticket on Southwest for a good price and a convenient itinerary. I then found out that the pilots on Southwest are threatening to strike and in fact have already voted to do so.
I really, really don’t want to miss the eclipse, and it does me no good to arrive late if my flight were to be cancelled or delayed, so I subsequently bought a fully-refundable, more expensive flight with a less convenient itinerary on a legacy airline. It is supposed to depart later that same day. If things look good on my Southwest flight, I’ll cancel it and ask for a refund. I don’t have a clear answer on how soon before the flight I need to cancel it though. I’m not sure if I need to cancel 24 or 48 hours prior, or if I can wait until the same day.
I know others who have done the same thing in reverse for “can’t miss” flights, like making a cruise. They’ll book a flight on an airline they like, then book a backup flight on Southwest. Southwest will let you cancel your flight up until 10 minutes before departure and you can get a flight credit.
Good point, and I stand corrected on that fact. You mentioned business travelers doing this, which makes sense (it is on the company’s dime, after all), and @robby did the same thing for a special occasion which he did not want to miss.
But I still say that the casual flyer, like most of us, isn’t going to book multiple flights in the same day.
