Is There an Advantage to Online Check-in When You Have Luggage to Check?

[Kevenswife2]

I'm flying Northwest/Delta and have already chosen my seats. Is there an advantage to checking in online if I have luggage to check (get tags for) at the airport?

 

[safetymom]

Not really unless you are looking to change seats or you don't have a seat assignment.

 

[n2mm]

As a United frequent flyer member, I get bonus points for checking in online so I always do at home, then checkin and get another boarding pass when checking my luggage at the airport. My daughter checks in on line because hubby drops them off with the luggage, she and kids check the luggage while he's parking the car and he doesn't have to get his boarding pass because she printed it from home. This has been a great saver for her, since the last two times she flew this year, Dulles airport was packed and she would've missed her flight (arriving 2 hours early) had she had to wait for hubby to arrive and get in line. And as others say, it's a good time to change your seat. When you checkin online for United, they will sometimes offer a better seat for a small fee if you're interested and they are available, which in turn opens more seats so you can change yours. But this is all on United/Ted, not sure about other airlines.

 

[seashoreCM]

On some* airlines, even with reserved seats, earlier check in means less of a chance of being bumped. Also gives you the choice of using only the skycap for baggage checking if the ticket counter line is long.

*On some other airlines including Delta, just having a seat assignment means less of a chance of being bumped, but it would still be a rude awakening to arrive at the airport without advance check in and find that your seat assignment was lost as well as find that the flight was oversold.

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[hercamore]

since you are flying out on Nov 23, a very busy day, I would certainly checkin asap.

herc.

 

[DonnaL]

We do the same thing as n2mm's daughter and her family. Check-in online and then do curbside for the luggage while DH goes to either park our car or take the rental back. Then we just meet him somewhere near the TSA area. It saves us a lot of time.

 

[Kevenswife2]

since you are flying out on Nov 23, a very busy day, I would certainly checkin asap.

herc.

We've actually found Thanksgiving Day to be a very slow day at the airport. This will be our third time flying out on turkey day. (TSA says the day BEFORE is the busy day)

 

[bopper]

if you are an very frequent flyer and have advanced standing, checking in earlier will put you at a higher priority for upgrades.

I will say if you check in at home, make sure when you check in your bags at the airport that you re-look at your seat assignments. We did this one time (checked in online) and we had made sure we were all sitting together even though we had different reservations. I was going for work, DH and DD had their reservation separate from mine. We checked in our bags on the day of the flight, and unbeknownst to us, they had changed the type of plane to be used. I was put in the back, DH was upgraded to First class, and DD was in the front somewhere. We didn't notice this until we were about to get on the plane! I just sat next to DD and hoped that whoever was assigned to that seat would not mind switching, although I would have of course moved if that was not possible. Lucky a grandmotherly type was assigned to the seat and didn't mind switching so I could sit next to DD.

Moral of the story: Check your seat assignments after your bags are checked in!