Use KLM quite a lot on long haul and agree with the comments.
Also in JHB there is no point in checking in on the internet, neither with KLM, SAA, Virgin, nor probably anyone else. All passengers are made to wait in what passes for a line before being let in one by one to the check in area. Travelling Upper Class/Virgin with only a briefcase, no check in bag, makes no difference.
Doesn't seem to make any difference either in the States because all bags have to be tagged at check in desk and then hauled over to screening.
At Heathrow it is all, not surprisingly perhaps, a mess.
The only advantage of it, if you can organise the thing, lies in the seating allocation. But this seems usually very uncertain in its benefit. Have to say that, especially on KLM, I find that the best seats in either class always seem to be blocked off permanently. Those who end up sitting in them, it has been remarked, always seem to be KLM employees.
Still the best bet, in this opinion, is to get there nice and early, chat up madly, get airside and relax even if it means paying for entry to a business lounge if you're flying with the peasants.
There seem to be few short cuts available to making air travel anything but just another journey. The exception to this, it has to be said, are BA First Class out of T4/LHR or Virgin Upper also LHR.
