Originally Posted by
Hipennine
However, the european Denied Boarding regs do make check-in an important key stage as to whether compensation is due or not in the event of delay/cancellation. The way I read it is that if I've checked in 2 weeks in advance, and the flight is majorly delayed/cancelled, I can legitimately claim compensation, even if I never turn up at the airport.
This is why I'm surprised there is not some kind of process in place which confirms that online check in passengers actually intended to fly on delayed or canx flights. There must be hundreds of cases where someone has checked in online then at the last minute decided not to bother, or has had multiple flights booked and gone on a different one instead, but remained checked in on another, only for them to then claim compensation for a delayed or canx flight they never even wanted to go on.
It also surprises me that airlines open themselves up to this kind of abuse by offering online checked in so far in advance. The time limit is dictated to by how far in advance the DCS has the flight details. In my experience, the passenger lists and configuration are only loaded into the airline system around 30 hours before. This gives ground staff time to allocate seats in advance for families and premium passengers (some airlines do that), block off any seats for operational reasons and double check the correct configs have been set up and adjust them as required before the check in opens to the public and it becomes a free for all.