Fed up with online check in.

[esa-aardvark]

Just preparing to depart for an 82 day trip.
Voyages, Flights, Hotels. Everyone wants an online check in,
always at different times. Sometimes quite to hard to comply with, ie not before
36 hours before, sometimes much longer. Can be difficult if you are on a ship
with poor internet. Since my tickets are non refundable in general I'd really like
to do the online check in when I purchase online.
Just me being old & grumpy, I suppose.

[Hotel Tango]

Yes, it can be a problem at times if you have poor internet facilities where you are. However, unless you fly with the trash, the majority of carriers will still accept to check you in free of charge at the airport. As for online hotel check in, I simply ignore that!

[Asturias56]

Hotel check in can be useful sometimes - especially ones (like Premier Inn in the UK) where they have machines to get your room card form - when there is a large tour group checking in ahead of you the online system is worth its weight in gold

[Hotel Tango]

Actually, I use the Premier Inn quite regularly and have never had to wait to check in. Either I'm just lucky, or it depends on the location.

[Kiltrash]

Came back recently from a 28 day 9 flight 6 hotel trip to the North / Central American continent

Two Flights would not let me do Online Check in as they needed to see our exit visa's and that was the only hold up. Other than a delay checking in at a Hotel, they had a power cut and as I could show them a email confirmation that I was where I was meant to be they sent us off to the lounge bar and called us when all up and sorted, Never did charge for the drinks and lunch. .With the Hotels I generally also e mail them with a guesstimate of our arrivals. Especially if extra early or late in the day. We always try and book Hotels with (free) wifi to do the next stage of our trip check in and 24 hr manned front desk. Also useful to have their phone numbers pre - loaded on my Skype account

[esa-aardvark]

Just checked my airlines...
AirNZ from 24 hours before, but not essential
KLM from 30 hours before, will be at sea then, maybe possible when we get close to land.
Ryanair, surprise, from 60 days before, no problem.
Singapore from 48 hours before, will be on land then, so no problem.
I'll install the apps from all of these on my already over-apped phone.
Would be worthwhile for someone to develop a check in app that worked
for all airlines.

[nonsense]

Just checked my airlines...
AirNZ from 24 hours before, but not essential
KLM from 30 hours before, will be at sea then, maybe possible when we get close to land.
Ryanair, surprise, from 60 days before, no problem.

Being old fashioned, I always thought "check in" was about confirming you're actually at the airport and will be on the flight, plus handing over your "checked" luggage.

What does a "check in" 60 days before you fly achieve that is not already achieved when you buy your ticket?

[aloominumtoob]

To check.in online, the airport/airline should have a dedicated bag drop desk. Some airports don't have this bag drop and one still has to queue with the others to check baggage, thereby cancelling whatever advantage online check in provides.
Rgds.,
alt

[Hotel Tango]

Or, as I experienced with Eurowings at Düsseldorf a couple of months ago, the bag drop line (with only 2 desks open) was 3 times longer than the normal check-in line (with 4 desks open). Got to the point where some tempers got frayed and the airline eventually decided it might be a good idea to reconfigure accordingly!

[parabellum]

I check-in on line just to confirm my booking and seat, I don't print off boarding passes and use the normal, (not bag drop), queue to dump bags and collect printed passes. I have found this to be the least time consuming way to go.

[Asturias56]

What drives me crazy is when I've done the whole on line checkin thing and then get to Security and the scanner rejects my boarding pass - so I have to trail back and join the mob to get a new one printed off on a much better quality printer by a human