Originally Posted by
uthornsgo
If you had been elite on UA I doubt they would have screwed you in this way, though they were out of line whether elite or not. This is a fantastic case in point of why you should always check in online.
Actually we had checked in online, but we had to check bags, and that was the problem. They wouldn't allow us to check bags that "close" to departure.
While I don't doubt that the system does not usually permit bag tags to be printed that close to
scheduled departure, I doubt that the system cannot be overridden in some way when departure has been pushed back 2+ hours (similar to when checking a bag through to a destination via a flight contained in a separate PNR).