As an interesting data point, I accepted the auto check in for our return from Miami today when I checked us in for the outbound Thursday.

Both my wife and I are Plats, both on the same record (booked using her OP account) and fare (x).

At about the 24 hour mark upgrades came thru for both of us. I was curious as to what SEQ we had. When I printed the boarding passes, she was SEQ=1 and I was SEQ=2.

As an aside, we ended up in 5DE when a 735 showed up instead of a 733.

I just checked-in right at the 24hr mark and received seq9 for a flight originating without likely connections (FLL-IAH) - so is it possible the automated system is checking people in ahead of time and getting them earlier SEQ numbers before the manual check-in processes begin?

Is there any way to enable this feature after you've checked-in and opted not to select it?

There may be some connections from Bahamian/Gulfstram passengers, but otherwise it is probably the Auto checking them in exactly when thesystem becomes available. Your clicking will be close, but not exactly there, so you get checked in later. That being said, I'd be somewhat surprised if there really are that many people using it that 8 of them are on your flight.

Simply for the comparison file. I did an auto check-in yesterday and my return trip had SEQ 10.

Hi sdm1130, our new Auto Check-in service uses the exact same heirarchy as our Elite Upgrade Automation (EUA). This is also the same as the ordering we use for the airport upgrade standby list, except the tiebreaker for multiple Elites having the same Elite level and fare class will be the purchase date of the ticket, not the time of check-in. To be consistent, we plan to change our tie-breaker at for upgrade standby at the airport to be the purchase date of the ticket as well (late 2008).

Hi bocastephen, our new Auto Check-in service runs exactly 24 hours before the scheduled flight departure, but this system is able to check in several customers in a matter of seconds. It's also possible, as sbm12 said, that in your FLL-originating example that you could've had some inbound Continental Connection customers connecting from the Bahamas or within Florida.

The only way you can opt for Auto Check-in is when you check-in for your outbound flight online or at a kiosk. In the next year, we will be expanding our Auto Check-in service, including the ability to opt in for it outside of the outbound check-in process.

Thanks for the info, Scott. ^

Is it safe to assume that the auto-check in will automatically add elites to the upgrade list or auto-accept an upgrade if one is available at check-in?

Also, when can we expect to see this as an option for the outbound leg of a trip? :)

And are the CO mad scientists working on a way for us not to even have to take the trip, so that just by buying a ticket we get credit for attending our meeting, doing a site visit, spending xmas with the in-laws or whatever we would have been flying for?

NO-- as per my recent experience EWR-LAS-EWR. Did on line checkin at 24 hr mark, selected autocheck in for the return. At arrival in LAS (my flight home was the next day), I was told I was not on the waitlist for F, but they did put me on it when I asked. Also at the kiosk, there was no option for being put on a waitlist, when I went to print out my boarding pass for my return flight.

My auto check-in boarding pass from Tuesday did say I was placed on the waitlist. I printed that BP for co.com and not at a kiosk.

Are you saying you recieved both outbound & return boarding passes when you did Autocheck In? When I did it, (Mon AM) the only BP that printed was my outbond--where I had already been EUA'd at the 5 day mark. My return on Wed was just noted that I wanted auto check in (No BP printed). Thus at the LAS airport upon my arrival Tues, I went to the Kisok to print it out and then checked with the counter to see if I was already on the upgrade list and was told No, but they'd put me on.

When I checked in for my EWR-FLL outbound, it asked me whether I wanted to stand by for an upgrade. I said yes even though I was a bit curious about the question since my upgrade for the outbound had already cleared.

I'm guessing that the question was in relation to the auto-checkin for the return (which I was asked about a few seconds later).

Here's a question/suggestion for CO Insider, wondering if it's possible an auto-checkin confirmation can be emailed/texted, similar to TripAlerts and EUA messages?

I'd second that suggestion. It's a bit of a mystery if it checked you in automaticly.

Hi mauld, thanks for posting this. We can absolutely confirm that Auto Check-in added you to the First Class standby list for your LAS-EWR flight. We can also confirm that you were still on the upgrade standby list at the time the second request was made in LAS (the duplicate request has no adverse impact). When you asked about this in LAS, it's possible we simply didn't notice your name on the list, or just looked in the wrong place (for example, there's nothing at all in the reservation that ever indicates you're on the upgrade list).

Regarding your kiosk experience, we only offer the Elite upgrade option when you're not already checked in. In your case, you were already checked in and added to the upgrade list, therefore we didn't ask. As for why the "Added to First Class standby list" didn't print on your kiosk boarding pass, this is something we're checking into. Our kiosks in Las Vegas are actually owned by the airport, and have a somewhat unique version of our kiosk software. Although the experience is meant to be seamless, we're still working through some minor issues where some documents aren't printing exactly like our proprietary kiosks do. Sorry for any confusion this caused.

Hi Ysitincoach, when opting for the Auto Check-in service, you do have the option to either have your boarding passes emailed to you or to pick them up at the airport kiosk on your return (no email).