Online Check In issues with Checked Baggage
 

On Monday, I went online to check in for my BOS-DCA flight. While doing so, my office phone called, so I was trying to do two things at once. When I got to the boarding pass screen, I realized I didn't click that I had a bag to check. I played it off as I got distracted by the phone call.

I just went to check in online for my return flight tomorrow and I didn't notice an option to check a bag online.

Anybody else notice this or is there a policy/notice about checking in bags online that I missed? I searched through the forum and couldn't find anything since mid October, so I apologize if it's a repeat.

It's not a big deal. You have to go to the airport and drop off your bags anyways and to do that you have to walk up to the counter. Unless you were trying to prepay for your bags online?

Since I have the card, the first bag is free so no need to prepay on this one. Also, you're right in that it's not a huge deal especially for the BOS/DCA shuttle flights. However, I was curious for my other trips I have planned.

American Airlines will not let me pay for checked baggage online!
 

I travel infrequently by airplane. Today I was flying from Indiana to Virginia on American Airlines and I checked in online before leaving for the airport in Indianapolis. American Airlines would NOT allow me to pay for checked baggage online, I could only pay for checked baggage at the ticket counter at the airport. I asked half a dozen AA employees why they have this policy and nobody knows. Does anybody know why AA has this policy while other domestic airlines let you pay for the baggage when checking in online?

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

An old IT system, maybe?

What difference does the "why" make? And did you try to pay for the baggage at a check-in kiosk at the airport?

You might want to ask in the American Airlines forum or do some basic things like clearing your cache or trying it with a different browser.

Exactly. It sounds like the OP is used to LCCs. But with AA or any of the legacy airlines, paying online vs paying at the kiosk at the airport isn't going to save you any time or money. There is no "penalty" for paying at the airport like the LCCs have.

I can't speak for AA (or UA or DL), but there is zero reason for it, it's a hassle for the customer and I suspect a hassle for the carrier in those instances where people prepay, then cancel and whine about refunds and the like.

There is some argument that prepaying might knock 30 seconds of the interaction time with an agent / kiosk, but then you get people who paid for 1 bag and now have 2, who paid for 1 and now it's overweight and so on.

Me? Unless there was a huge discount for prepay, I can't conceive of doing it.

This. Easier and quicker to figure out the cost and charge it once at the point of service than to figure out the cost, then figure out how much was already paid online, then charge/refund the difference, etc.

Hi PaladinJKC, welcome to FT.

I'm going to move this thread over to our AA forum. Please continue the discussion there. Thanks.

No bag check online
 

I just checked in for my AA flight and it did not ask about baggage. Since we are in first class, I'm pretty sure checking two bags is free but I don't want any surprises so this is annoying. We are going to Key West again and the year we took Delta we got to the airport and they said we could only take one bag per person.....period. Didn't matter which class and you couldn't pay extra. There was fine print on the reservation. Normally wouldn't have 2 bags but the bf takes a bunch of fishing equipment. Had to do last minute repacking at the airport and carry on more than we planned. They held the extra bag until we got back. Hassle!

This is a non-issue. Bring your bags to the airport and have a good trip.