irishguy28

Evening before check-in/Twilight check-in/Night bag-drop is a service offered by several airlines at several airports, and is generally well-advertised. It is only available at the times, airports and airlines indicated, and cannot be spontaneously requested by passengers at other airports and/or travelling on other airlines, because naturally it is not a request that can spontaneously be accommodated, but requires an infrastructure and procedure to be already in place.

In airports such as LHR where the Lufthansa Group have a sufficiently large presence and high enough frequency of departures for them to consolidate check-in activities and keep a dedicated check-in counter open (almost) all day, then the ability to offer such services as early check-in becomes much easier. This is also why, at an airline's home base where their check in similarly is open (almost) all day, an early acceptance of a bag is usually not a problem.

But for a small airline like Aegean, whose check-in is not handled by either the Lufthansa Group desks, or any generic open-all-day Star Alliance counter, then their 3 daily flights from LHR, which are relatively well spaced apart throughout the day, means that their desks open only for the upcoming flight and then close again. Now, of course Aegean *could* go the extra mile and initiate a procedure whereby they could accept bags for any of their daily flights whenever an A3 desk is open, but either there is insufficient demand for such a service, or the overheads are more than A3 are willing to pay.

DrHalxx

Before COVID i used to drop them and the economy self check in which was always open and asked the staff for a priority tag, they were happy to help, I don’t know if that’s still the case

Knobbgb

Just a data point from a recent experience (27/11/22). The business class check-in and the standard bag-drop at LHR opened promptly three hours before the morning flight (12:15) - well, a could of minutes early actually. There was no other desk available for early drop.

powergean

(27/11/22)??????

murilix

Thank you for all the input, fellows. Later I remembered that once I did manage to check-in a bag in the morning at LHR for the 22h15 flight.
We'll see. Maybe since I'll be both flying Business and Gold might help.
Unfortunately, I have things to do in London during the day and my final destination will not be ATH, so taking the earlier flight is not an option.
I will report back, hopefully I won't have to fork Ł30 for storing two bags.
Well, if I do, I'll drink the Ł30 back at the lounges
Too bad United lounge is closing earlier than last time, if I recall right.
Last time I was there waiting for the 22h15 flight, the barman started giving me a hard time after I had ordered the 3th or 4th cocktail.
- Your departure gate is quite far away, Sir.
- Don't worry, I have time.

murilix

Tried checking bags at 9am, the check-in attendant even phoned her supervisor to ask, but no way. Had to fork the Ł30... Now hope I can get inside LH lounge at 4h30 even though chances are dim for flying economy.

lio13

27/11/22?

KLouis

Twenty seven November two thousand and twenty-two: The European way of writing 11/27/2022. And welcome to FT!

PS Though, I'm certain, Knobbgb wanted to write October and not November...

Knobbgb

Indeed I did, but didn't think it was even worth correcting as it's pretty obvious.

Anyway, isn't dd/mm/yy the rest-of-the-world-except-US way of writing dates? I'm completely OK with our US friends (and a few others, yes I Googled it) doing things differently; I get used to it in one or two days when I visit, but it still surprises me that some people are totally unaware that THEY are the ones that are different. Ha, I guess that applies to many, much more important things in life than mere dates! Incidentally, I'd be very happy with yyyymmdd, like we use in IT systems as a 'standard' alphabetic/numerical sort will still put dates in chronological order. So do I win the FT off-topic prize for November

TravellingSalesman

Hi all,

Does anybody know the earliest time I can check in for an A3 flight at LHR? Arriving on a separate ticket in the morning and flying out on the overnight to ATH.

Are the A3 counters at LHR open throughout the day? And if so, will they allow me to drop my bag early? I am A3 Gold travelling in Y in case that changes anything.

Many thanks in advance!

AlwaysFlyStar

Would it be possible to check your bag all the way through from the original flight?

TravellingSalesman

Thanks for the tip - yes, I will ask about that (connecting from another star carrier) but unclear whether they will do it or not.

lio13

Please let us know if they accepted to do that.

irishguy28

Given that you're travelling on separate tickets, there is little or no chance that the unnamed first airline will (or will be able to) check your bag through to A3. And given the frequent chaos in LHR, I certainly would not personally risk having a bag sitting unattended somewhere airside all day, waiting to make a transfer to Aegean. They are not expecting you to have a bag in transit to them, and they know nothing about your bag...this raises the chances that your bag will go missing.

A3 do not have an all-day check-in desk open at LHR. The desks appear to open around 2-3 hours before each flight according to this other related thread: Checking bags early at LHR

There are left-luggage facilities that will store your bag for the day, or for however many hours you want to be free to go and explore London: https://www.heathrow.com/at-the-airp...s/left-luggage

Cookoovaya

Not possible to check in bags earlier than T-3h at LHR.