A few years ago I was on an early flight into SFO from SEA before a VS flight onto LHR. The original plan was to go leave bags at SFO at 7ish, head into city for a few hours and come back to check in at 2pm for the LHR flight.

But the SEA flight was delayed, the locker queue was backed up so we figured tough. We figured that we might as well head for the VS check in area and see if there was anyone around. Unbelievabley there was - this was about 8am and the flight was 1630. They happily checked in our bags and we were able to head into the city after all - and since we were checked in, we didn't have to head back to the airport til an hour later either.

Worth a wander past your check in area for sure!