British Airways trialling automatic check-in at 6 hours before departure

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• Capvermell says:

  24 Jan24 January 10:24

  Also Iberia already pre-allocate you a seat on all of their flights (except those Iberia flights departing from Heathrow T5 where BA’s check in rules apply including free choice of seat 24 hours before departure) and then charge you a whopping 14 Euros per sector if you insist on changing that seat for something else when you check in online. Also if you start the seat change process during online check in with Iberia but then don’t pay for that changed seat and/or don’t complete online check in Iberia will retaliate by swapping your computer pre-allocated seat on the flight for the very worst available seat on the plane they can possibly find right at the back of the plane!

• Capvermell says:

  24 Jan24 January 10:29

  Regarding overbooking my betting would be that once BA can say they are emailing everyone their boarding pass in advance they will then also sneakily increase latest regular check in time to 50 or 60 minutes before the flight for cheap Economy class passenger but perhaps allow you to still be handled manually up to 30 minutes before the flight in return for say a 50 Euros extra convenience fee……………

• abc says:

  24 Jan24 January 10:29

  Lufthansa offer automatic check-in on their Schengen routes and I found this very useful when I was flying with them frequently. It just saves a few minutes every flight, so why not.
  However, in contrast to BA this is an opt-in service, so no-one gets surprised or annoyed.

• Duncan Stevenson says:

  24 Jan24 January 10:33

  I’m not sure I understand the point in this. What benefit do BA get?

  I suppose it means BA minimise the number of people using their airport staff, but it also means they don’t have numbers for people who just abandon the flight.

  Further, how does that work for flights which are overbooked?

• Leo says:

  24 Jan24 January 10:39

  Struggling to see what is the problem if you check-in yourself online prior to -6 hours, even more so if you have status. Or am I missing something blindingly obvious due to not being awake yet…..

  • Leo says:

    24 Jan24 January 10:42

    Can you UN-check-in? Just thinking of the scenario when you erm (cough) mistakenly don’t check-in to your return flight to Dublin on an exDub ticket….

    • Polly says:

      24 Jan24 January 10:55

      If someone misses their connection from LHR to LCY due to a delayed meting, as happened to my OH, he is then checked in, another person cannot use his ticket, so a standby pax suffers, who needs to get to the EU. Crazy situation, what’s in it for BA, all those people having to fight for refunds when their biz plans change,,or meetings over run.. Unreal.. Who thinks up these bird brained schemes?

      • Leo says:

        24 Jan24 January 11:04

        I was thinking more like me not actually wanting to cause more hassle for BA…..but yeah well if they want to cause more trouble for themselves….is their a cost implication to being checked-in and not getting on a flight? I have never done that – I’ve missed flights obviously.

• planeflyer says:

  24 Jan24 January 10:44

  I’m struggling to understand the point of auto check in. How does it help BA is they have issuesd a boarding pass when the passenger doesn’t intend to travel? A seat is now unavailable when they might have been able to sell it. And if someone does plan to travel, surely they can pick up their boarding pass on their phone/desk just like they do currently. At least it’s done at T-6 though so people without seat assignments can log on early and get a reasonable selection, rather than over at AF when auto check in is at T-30 or something like that, so there is no choice in seat.

• harry says:

  24 Jan24 January 11:02

  There are going to be a few moans in my family as we are occasionally switching to HBOs for the saving (vs RFS) and as the kids get older. HBO = no seat choice. 4 out of 5 of us are BA ‘adults’ ie over 12YO. My wife can presently be sure to sit with my daughter as she is a child. The rest of us have to take pot luck. Choosing a European seat is £20 EW, so on the pricey side for a 2 hr journey. They’d prefer to sit together, they’re not going to have that luxury when we can save £100 EW. In reality, RFS works out @ c.£20 more than HBO on our route, so the reservation x3 strategy is (whilst daughter is a BA ‘child’):

  – #1 2x HBO, wife & daughter will sit together as ‘children’ sit with parent & seat allocation reflects this
  – #2 2x HBO
  – #3 1x RFS for the checked luggage option & seat choice
  – we see how useful the #2 allocated seats are, one option is to move the RFS seat to sit next to one of the #2 HBO seats so the boys can sit together, Dad taking the spare one
  – we ‘link’ the 3 reservations to see how that helps, on the phone the BA agent said she wasn’t sure one way or the other, if there was a child in the party, whether more than 1 ‘adult’ would end up sitting with the child.

• Pol says:

  24 Jan24 January 11:03

  OT- just upgraded to the platinum card via the 20,000 upgrade offer. Waited 10 days for my card but didn’t turn up, called them and they said that my account had been upgraded but as I could just use my existing gold as a plat they hadn’t issued a new card! I obviously asked for them to send me a new plat card, which they have but still haven’t received than welcome pack with all the benefits info. Can someone confirm the following benefits:
  Insurance for all supplementary card holders regardless of colour of sup.
  Cover for children under 25 if they live at home regardless of dependence (eg, they live at home but have a full time job)
  Car rental insurance, is this just for the main account holder or supplementary too. If just main card holder is there a way to cover car if my husband will be driving.
  Tried to look online but link to insurance documents not working. Thanks.

  • BrianDT says:

    24 Jan24 January 18:28

    This is NOT the place for O T”s….very annoying.Post it on FT.

    • Pol says:

      24 Jan24 January 22:06

      A simple FT is a better place to post this would’ve sufficed.

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