Is Alaska starting automatic check-in?
 

Well, this is a first....just received an email from Alaska Airlines with my boarding pass for my flight this afternoon. It appears that they went ahead and automatically checked me in and sent me a mobile boarding pass. I remember back during my UA days that their system would sometimes check you in automatically, but this is the first time I've seen it on Alaska and frankly, it's not a feature I appreciate.

UA (and before that CO, I think) did/does automatic checkin for the return segment.

Do they still do that?? This isn't even a return segment. I called since I've never seen it before and yes, it appears I was checked-in by Alaska...weird...I sent note saying that I didn't really appreciate this new "feature".

UA stopped a few years ago.

Last November-ish, according to https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...heck-gone.html

Hmmm. I'm flying tomorrow and did not get auto-check-in.

Maybe they decided to launch this on a soft roll out on a few routes instead of advance F meal ordering :cool: :D

If this was like VX where you lose the option to do things (e.g. seat upgrade) after check-in, I'd understand the downside.

But given that we can go through the web check-in flow again (e.g. to SDC or upgrade purchase), why would this be unwelcome?

How does AS deal with checked bags and auto check in?

It auto checked me in AND changed my seat....thankfully my original seat opened back up and so I re-checked myself in and got my seat back...I just prefer checking myself in rather than have it be automatic, especially when seat assignments are not maintained.

Ahh that makes sense (and it would bother me too!)

Pure speculation, but I wonder if you were in a seat that required some sort of confirmation, i.e. an exit row? Maybe they couldn't assume a "yes" response and changed the seat to not require your input?