Originally Posted by otralot
Just a couple of thoughts:
4) While it's nice to be able to check in online. I don't think early check in online should count toward place in priority for upgrades. It brings back the old days when you had to call after midnight the day of flight. What a lousy stressful system. Clock watching for the exact moment of 30 hours out, staying up late to be first in line... Not everyone can access the online check in especially when they are on the road. Printing out boarding passes while traveling is extremely hard. In fact, I see no advantage to online check in with the number of kiosks at the ariports ( afterall why increase the chane you'll lose a boarding pass. (by the way I mentioned this to staff person at PC lately and she said she hadn't thought of that hassle that the online 30 hour rule causes). The whole idea of elite flyers is to make travel less stressful.
Actually, check-in order doesn't really have an impact on your place on the UG wait list. If you look on co.com, the tie-breaker when elite tier and fare booked are equal is the date the ticket was purchased, not who checked in first. Or am I missing something?
The only reason I try to check in at the 30 hour mark, which creates a timing hassle similar to the one you described, is to ensure I get an exit row seat. It would be nice if these could be allocated to elites prior to the 30 hour check-in window.