entrada

Air Canada's policy to delay use of the on-line check-in until 24 hours from the departure time of your last connecting flight is a real inconvenience for us in Europe traveling to the US through Toronto. Instead of checking in for our flight tomorrow at the standard 24 hour window, we are having to wait until only 7 hours before our first flight leaves due to the departure time of our last connection. I have never encountered this before. And my traveling partner says he will never fly AC again because of this. What could be the rationale for this?

okazon69

There is no rationale. You should be allowed to check in online for your first flight 24 hours before departure, even if the second flight is not yet within its own 24-hour window.

There is a glaring discrepancy, however: you can check in for your AC flight 24 hours before departure, even if your connecting UA flight (for example) is still > 24 hours away, and you'll get both boarding passes. I do this all the time.

entrada

Unfortunately, my connecting flight is also on Air Canada. Probably the last time I'll do this!

acysb87

Same issue on a recent YXU/YYZ/ATL flight(s) NO OLCI until the 24 hour window opened for the cnx US flight.I verified with SE desk and agree with OP.Rather dumb approach and makes it difficult for me using certs from Europe to Canada with my standard YSB cnx

742

I've been able to (for both myself and my sister) do AC OLCI at the start of the 24h window for the first flight when travelling west to east.

(MCO-YYZ-YHZ-YFC) checked in 24h before the flight from MCO left, with the last connection departing almost 10 hours after the first flight

and HKG-YYZ-YFC for her at 24h before the departure from HKG.

I'm not sure if I've ever tried it (at 24h) when going east to west.

Sopwith

I have also noticed this has changed in the last few months. No problem checking in with later connecting flights in the east. These were domestic flights.

CdnFlier

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9700/5.0.0.743 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/107)

I've noticed this as well..mostly on international itineraries though, occasionally it'll let you check in and just mark the connecting flights as not open yet. Wish it was consistent! Although I'm not sure if it's such a big deal as to give up an airline for.

YEG USER

IMHO the inability to OLCI until 24 hrs before your final flight is a small annoyance at most. What would your partner have done (only a few years ago) before OLCI? Peoples' lack of patience these days amazes me. The only people this could have a real impact on is AC's own top tier members where check-in time is a tie-breaker for upgrading. Since you are a US based 1k, I'll assume your partner does not have AC status.

There are many reasons I've heard why people would stop flying an airline. Giving up on an airline because you can't checkin at 24 hrs is rediculous but sure would make JK proud.

pkeung

How things were a few years ago is irrelevant as the industry standard is to offer OLCI. In addition, it isn't a lack of patience, it's that AC wants to be a top airline so they have set our expectations that when other airlines allow better check in options, such as 48 hrs before for many airlines, we ask why AC can't do this as well?

highflyer88

What I noticed when checking in for SYD-YYZ (via YVR), was that the system prevented me from completing checkin at 24 hrs prior to SYD-YVR, but when I checked in at the SYD counter, the BP sequence number was 10. Could it be that you are assigned a sequence number when you attempt to checkin (which is then used to determine tie breakers), even though you can't complete it?

emcampbe

Try checking in on some ex-US stations (I think all the ones where UA does check in), and you can't use OLCI at all. I personally prefer checking in at the airport for transborder flights. But having no OLCI system at all for some of these flights is pretty bad.

global happy traveller

its a pain in the butt when flying to/from SIN and YYZ..... On the return I can only check-in with my YVR-YYZ flight which is almost 14-18 hours after my first flight departure time. Similarly to SIN they want my HKG or NRT to SIN flight to open up (12-15 hours later) before I can check in.

What a disadvantage for me when choosing seats and UG to Exec First using SWU/SSWUs........

DaveTO

You have got to be kidding me.

Of all the reasons to not fly an airline, this one is quite possibly the most inconsequential of all.

Forget about uncomfortable seats, surly flight attendants, clueless gate agents, unreliable scheduling, horrible IRROPs...they won't let you check in online at T-24 hours!

Please, take a step back and realize that the only consequence of a later check in is that you might lose the third upgrade tie-breaker for an upgrade.

YEG USER

I agree that what the standard was a few years ago no longer matters, and that if AC wants to be on par/better than other airlines it will need to move towards earlier OLCI times, etc.

I brought up the old standard because I think that this case deals entirely with a lack of patience. I assumed 2 things... 1) that the passenger does not have AC status and 2) that the passenger has previously had seats assigned. In this case all OLCI really does is allow the passenger to skip the check-in line and head straight through security (unless the passenger has bags to check). With this being the case, it makes no difference if you can check in 24/48/72/96 hours in advance or if you check in before you leave for the airport. To me, someone swearing off of an airline because they don't want to wait a while to check-in (even though it makes no difference at all) comes across as someone who is very impatient and needs to give their head a shake. Usually people swear off of AC because they've had a terrible interaction with an employee, lost baggage, cancelled flights, etc. not something like this.

BlondeBomber

You can phone an agent and get them to work the file so you can check in for the first flight. Explain the situation to them and they will somehow disassociate the connection so you can complete your checkin--yes it is a pain not to even be able to get your boarding pass sometimes because your next flight is more than 24 hours (local time at your first destination) ahead of your flight departure time at the start of your journey!

AC should fix this glitch since the agents can do it manually and override . . .