What is the purpose of check-in before flying? (2014)
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What is the purpose of check-in before flying? (2014)
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Re: What is the purpose of check-in before flying? (2014)
#2A few days ago I had to take a flight and forget to check-in.
Luckily, I was able to check-in at the airport but I wondered why check-ins are required at all in 2022. The answer is unexpected.
TLDR It's how most airlines get paid for the flight.
Re: What is the purpose of check-in before flying? (2014)
#3> Some airlines (particularly non-U.S. ones) will completely void your ticket (meaning that it loses all value) if you miss a flight after checking in. (Most U.S. airlines do not do this.)
Does this mean that in the US, if I miss my flight, my ticket is still somehow valid? I have never heard of this.
Re: What is the purpose of check-in before flying? (2014)
#4On many airlines they use check-in as a way to try to upsell you on higher priced seats or other services.
Re: What is the purpose of check-in before flying? (2014)
#5> Some airlines (particularly non-U.S. ones) will completely void your ticket (meaning that it loses all value) if you miss a flight after checking in. (Most U.S. airlines do not do this.) Does this mean that in the US, if I miss my flight, my ticket is still somehow valid? I have never heard of this.
I believe it relates to being able to approach a gate agent and having them rebook you on a later/tomorrow flight as a courtesy, after you checked-in but missed a flight because you dozed off, didn't watch the time, had a medical issue, couldn't find the gate in a huge airport, missed the connection from an inbound flight, etc. Really it's an extension of the US customer service ethos.
Re: What is the purpose of check-in before flying? (2014)
#6> Some airlines (particularly non-U.S. ones) will completely void your ticket (meaning that it loses all value) if you miss a flight after checking in. (Most U.S. airlines do not do this.) Does this mean that in the US, if I miss my flight, my ticket is still somehow valid? I have never heard of this.
Personal anecdote: I've found the tickets can be refunded/transferred. The airline recommended a 45min layover, and the airport's immigration machines broke and we were stuck in line for hours, missing our domestic flight in a separate area of the airport. In this case, I found out that the airline would've worked with me to reschedule another flight, if I could get ahold of them on the phone. Maybe not all airlines are like this, just one case.
Re: What is the purpose of check-in before flying? (2014)
#7> Some airlines (particularly non-U.S. ones) will completely void your ticket (meaning that it loses all value) if you miss a flight after checking in. (Most U.S. airlines do not do this.) Does this mean that in the US, if I miss my flight, my ticket is still somehow valid? I have never heard of this.
I have missed a few flights and if the ticket agent is feeling nice that day, they will traditionally rebook you on a flight later that day or the next day.
Re: What is the purpose of check-in before flying? (2014)
#8Just imagine if other forms of transport used the same ticketing system...
"I'm sorry sir, you can't get on the 09:03 Southbound Red Line express subway because you didn't check in 40 minutes before departure. Check in has now closed, so you'll have to buy a new ticket."
Re: What is the purpose of check-in before flying? (2014)
#9> Some airlines (particularly non-U.S. ones) will completely void your ticket (meaning that it loses all value) if you miss a flight after checking in. (Most U.S. airlines do not do this.) Does this mean that in the US, if I miss my flight, my ticket is still somehow valid? I have never heard of this.
[deleted]
Re: What is the purpose of check-in before flying? (2014)
#10> When you buy a flight or a journey, you are actually buying a ticket. This used to be a paper ticket, but now it's electronic. But the actual process is the same as before, it's just an electronic implementation of the paper. The ticket is your proof to the airline that you paid an organisation it trusts for the flight. The airline will only distribute its unique ticket paper to travel agents it trusts.
Back a very long time ago, I worked for a company that had a lot of traveling employees. We were our own travel agent and had on-site all of the things a retail travel agent (at the time) had. As a junior sysadmin, I was responsible for the computer parts, specifically getting the ticket printing machine placed in a secure room--TWO keys and a reinforced door and door frame--and working with our telco vendor to get the dedicated circuit connected to the nearest Sabre Global Distribution System hub.
One day, the ticket printing machine experienced a fault and ran a whole stack of ticket paper through at high speed, shredding all of the blank ticket stock we had. Though it didn't look like it at the time, this wound up being an absolute nightmare. We could only get a certain amount of ticket stock at a time (since there were few digital controls, if I took a blank ticket and typed my own details onto it, free flight!...until someone matched up the audit number). We couldn't just ring up our sponsoring corporate travel agency and ask for more ticket stock because they had the same limitations on themselves.
I spent all weekend picking all of the pieces out of the machine and taping them back together to get the audit numbers off of enough (I think 90%) of the destroyed ticket stock, along with pictures of the shredded pile and of the inside of and nearby the machine. The pictures were developed at a K-Mart and the whole works sent off via FedEx first-AM overnight (the most expensive parcel I'd ever shipped, $135 at the time) to an address somewhere in Colorado. Three hours after delivery, I had a phone call saying our request for replacement ticket stock was granted and they sent a stack of ticket stock via hand-delivered courier who I had to meet at the nearby airport.
Fortunately we didn't need to issue any tickets for our employees to travel that weekend.