When does BA check-in open for connecting flights following a stopover ?
Discuss today's stories:
-
On 20th Nov, we fly from EDI-LHR with an overnight stopover then LHR-LAX the following morning. My BA app says check-in for the EDI-LHR flight opens 24 hours before on the 19th Nov.
If I check-in for the EDI-LHR flight on the 19th Nov exactly 24 hours before departure, will it also allow us to check-in for the LHR-LAX flight at the same time even though thats more than 24 hours away ? And more importantly (because we’re blue members), will it allow us to select our seats free of charge for the LHR-LAX flight ?
You used to be able to check in for both flights when the first one opened, but for a couple of years now we’ve had to wait until T-24 for each flight before being able to do so. This would also affect seat selection, I guess, if you haven’t already selected them.
Airport check in staff can check you al the way through and issue boarding passes before T-24 where there are multiple flights on the same PNR, which may or may not help depending on whether you’ll be at EDI more than 24 hours before the second flight.
I recently got a boarding pass at LHR for a subsequent AA connection LAX – HNL when the AA app was still telling me nine hours until check in.
On the app you can definitely only check in for each flight at T-24. However, I’m sure i read reference on FlyerTalk that checking in on the full web still allows you to check in for connecting flights at T-24 for the first flight.
Certainly desk check in at airports will do full check in.Just do it old fashioned way at desk.
I’ve been unable to do it on both the app and website for the past couple of years. The other thing which seems to have changed is that each passenger now has to get their own boarding pass so one person can’t just check everyone in and be done with it!
When we have checked bags and can’t avoid going to the desk, yes they can check you through and also insist on printing paper boarding passes even if you don’t need them. (Though occasionally this can be because they’ve upgraded you or given you a better seat, so it’s not all bad, lol).
Slightly off topic, but you can still check everyone in and download a PDF with multiple boarding passes via the web OLCI.
Or at least you could in March, I guess with the ongoing ‘developments’ anything is a bit of a moving target.
You can do that but if you’re away and in a hotel or whatever it’s a bit of a chore these days finding a printer!
You don’t need a printer, just use the PDF on your phone. It’s actually better than using the app anyway on Android as the app boarding passes stopped including your BA number and status some time ago, while the PDFs continue to include that.
You don’t need a printer, just use the PDF on your phone. It’s actually better than using the app anyway on Android as the app boarding passes stopped including your BA number and status some time ago, while the PDFs continue to include that.
You don’t even need a printer or indeed PDF. One person can check in the whole party on the same booking and the individual passenger can retrieve their digital boarding cards or BA emails the boarding card they can download.
Ah well, that’s another story. Last month the ability to email boarding passes was ‘temporarily unavailable while we improve our systems’. But yes I agree once checked in, anyone should be able to use the app to download their own boarding pass – assuming they can get the app to work at all that is.
I did say that everyone needs to retrieve their own BP now (as opposed to checking in). It used to be easy for one person in the party to get them all and send them to the other passengers’ phone wallets. More convenient if you’re in a group, anyway.
I get really annoyed standing behind people trying to find boarding passes somewhere on phone , whilst I’m ready with my old fashioned bit of paper in hand.
But that’s down to the people not the boarding pass format. It’s the same people who get to the gate and only then think ‘oh I need my passport, where did I put that’, or get to the front of the checkout queue in a shop and suddenly realise they need a means of payment.
I too prefer the simplicity of a paper boarding pass marking the right page to open the passport, but it’s easy enough to have a phone unlocked and ready to scan if you bother to think more than 10 seconds ahead.
I’ve only ever checked in on web or app. I’ve never checked in at the airport, or at least not since it was possible via web or app.
Above comments suggest that if we check-in at airport from initial flight, they will also check us in for the connecting flight even if its prior to T-24 from when the connecting flight departs.
If so, and I might be slightly confused here, but if we turned up the airport at T-24 from initial flight when check-in opens (EDI is only a 15 min drive away), would the desk still check us in for both flights, let us pick all our seats, and issue us with all boarding passes even though the initial flight doesn’t depart until the following day ? Then we turn up next day and do bag drop for our checked luggage.
In case it wasn’t obvious, ultimately what I’m trying to achieve is a way to beat the rush on picking our preferred seats for the LHR-LAX flight to maximise the likelihood we get to sit together in one of the club suite centre pairs. Chances are most travellers in Club World won’t be coming from connecting flights so any blue members will be stuck to T-24 for the LHR-LAX flight.
I think you’ve jumped too far ahead there. If you present yourself at EDI they will check you through to LAX, but airport check in doesn’t open at T-24. I don’t know anything about EDI but I doubt if you can do it that early. If they have an evening bag drop that should work as you would still be well over 24 hours before the second flight.
But that’s down to the people not the boarding pass format. It’s the same people who get to the gate and only then think ‘oh I need my passport, where did I put that’, or get to the front of the checkout queue in a shop and suddenly realise they need a means of payment.
I too prefer the simplicity of a paper boarding pass marking the right page to open the passport, but it’s easy enough to have a phone unlocked and ready to scan if you bother to think more than 10 seconds ahead.
Those are probably the same people wearing hats/caps/glasses or putting their passports in the wrong way cursing the passport machines for being useless.
One shouldn’t even need to open ones phone open to access the boarding card. It should appear on the lock screen with Heathrow rewards card if there as well.
Paper boarding cards also don’t entirely solve the incompetence issue either as people hunt for them at the last minute without even the good grace to step aside while hunting.
“One shouldn’t even need to open ones phone open to access the boarding card. It should appear on the lock screen with Heathrow rewards card if there as well.”
Maybe that works on iPhones through adding to wallet, but on Android I don’t believe there is any way of adding a BA boarding pass to a wallet. Or are you filling your Lock Screen with a widget of some sort. If I want to use a mobile boarding pass I need to open the app, hence why I always prefer some sort of paper as the app/wifi/data can be so flakey
@freckles, you can just take a screenshot of your BP so you don’t need to rely on an app functioning/internet connection.
If they have an evening bag drop that should work as you would still be well over 24 hours before the second flight.
They do but only for flights leaving EDI before 12 noon and our EDI-LHR flight doesnt depart until 7pm, with a 10am departure LHR-LAX the next morning.
Looks like it’s a non-starter and we’ll just need to hope for the best come standard check-in times on the web/app.
I have always been able to check in for both flights at T-24 for the EDI-LHR flight.
I hadn’t even thought about it. Although come to think of it, I always do so on a desktop PC.
I would suggest this is your best course of action (desktop PC given what peeps seem to be saying about the app). Make sure any information you have on the booking (passports etc) are up to date in case you get the dreaded “we can’t check you in right now – we’ll do it at the airport message”
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
