Originally Posted by mblajolla
I2. Flying out of a hub, I am never first because people on my flight from other flights get to check in at the 24 hour mark of their first flight.
Hub flyers and connectors will almost always be on different fare classes (e.g., there are no W fares for connecting flights, there are no T fares for non-stop flights). So the checkin time issue will usually not come into play.
Honestly, I don't bother with 24-hour checkin anymore. I do it when I can, because the chances of there being another Platinum on the same fare class as me is very small. Sure it's possible, but there are 16 different coach fare buckets on CO, and with the number of Plats on a flight and the expected distribution of those among fare classes, it's not likely.