Auto check-in?
 

Has anyone checked in for a flight this evening? A post on a.net has screenshots that show a new option that enables someone to enable auto check-in at 24 hours and have their boarding passes automatically delivered. It looks like this is only available for your return trip.

Won't this have a pretty significant impact on sequence numbers when it comes to EUAs?

Here is a link to it. It is on the very bottom of the page.

No more getting up at 6am or staying up til 2am to do OLCI for some trips.

I used this feature this afternoon to "auto check in" for a return flight tomorrow. Don't know what the effect was on SEQ because I will need to wait until tomorrow to print out those BP's. It was single-click simple though.

ATF

Edited - this is also the flight that puts me into the Realm of Platinumhood :)

That really stinks for hub flyers, with any connecting traffic now automatically being checked in first on their flight.

At least when it was manual you could count on being SEQ 5/7 at checkin.

We'll have to see how this works.

This is very cool.

I wonder how they're handling return flights where the outbound hasn't completed.

Example:

Same day turn AAA-BBB-CCC, returning CCC-BBB-AAA

Normally, one can checkin for their flight 24 hours before the first segment. However in this scenario, 24 hours prior to departing CCC, co.com will choke on this return, presumably because the outbound has not been flown/used yet.

Only at 24 hours prior to BBB-AAA will co.com let you checkin for the return departing CCC.

So, if CO has some trigger set at about 24 hours out from your "return" flight (out of CCC in this case), I wonder if it will fail auto-checkin in this scenario, since it fails under traditional OLCI anyway.

I did 24 hr OLCI Weds for a Thurs flight - sequence 1 on all three segments. Since I must do a Continental Connection flight first that is 4 and 8 hours earlier than final two segments, I am always sequence 1 on those final two segments. This is not new - been doing this for a couple of years. I'd happily give up sequence 1 if I could cut off four extra hours on each end of the trip waiting for and flying on a stinky commuter flight.

However, yesterday was the first that I saw I could check-in for my return flight on Sunday! I asked for the passes to be ready at the kiosk at the airport - I assumed when I got to the airport on Sunday for my return trip. I toowill see what happened on those sequence numbers.

THis is a great enhancement - if it works by giving me seguence 1 on the return.

For those who have tried it, how does it handle your seat selection?

I am also curious to know how the sequencing will work if several people have selected this option and are eligible for check-in at the same time. Will the order of elites be followed (Plats, Golds, then Silvers)?

For the outbound, works the same as always, you can review seat selection before printing boarding pass. For the return, I did not see that option. However, I went back to look at my record after I printed my outbound passes to see if there was anything different that showed I was checked in for the return. I could see nothing different and went to the seating charts and could still change them (for the return) since it was not at the 24 hour mark. My guess is that the seat I selected for the return will be the seat noted on my boarding pass when I get it at the airport on SUnday.

The new automatic check-in doesn't really change how OLCI works for connecting flights. Connecting flights were always eligible for check-in at the same time as the first flight on the itinerary. So, if you were flying AUS-IAH-EWR, you could check in for both the AUS-IAH and IAH-EWR flights 24 hours before the AUS-IAH flight. It's been that way as long as OLCI has existed. Of course, if a connecting passenger doesn't use OLCI and waits until they get to the airport to check in, then it really doesn't matter, as that passenger will be checked in for both AUS-IAH and IAH-EWR at the AUS ticket counter.

The real difference here is that the system will automatically check you in for the return flight(s), if you used OLCI for the outbound flight(s).

Right that's what I'm saying...as a hub flyer you could count on many people just not checking in. Now you could have a heavy amount of connections automatically checked in before you at their original 24hr, travelers that normally would not checkin until getting to the terminal.

Yes, but why would those people be more likely to use OLCI now than they were before. Are you referring to their return journey? Why would this change make someone who wasn't going to use OLCI at all before suddenly start using it now?

Anyway, I would expect that most elites who are really concerned about their sequence number (or even understand how all that works) are already checking in online right at 24 hours. Those who are not using OLCI now probably aren't going to immediately start using it just because of this change. It may mean that some passengers who don't have access to a computer during their trip are more likely to be checked in 24 hours in advance for their return trip than before, but how many of those travelers are elite?

To me the biggest benefit of this is to people like my parents, who are semi-frequent leisure travelers, who don't have a laptop or a mobile phone capable of doing OLCI. They always do OLCI for their outbound trip from home, but almost never for their return trip. But to someone like that, I don't see much benefit, since they'd still have to stop by the kiosk at the airport to obtain a boarding pass.

If the PDA boarding pass thing spreads it could be beneficial to a lot of people. Especially on short trips it would save you from having to take time to check-in when you might be preoccupied otherwise.

It would only matter for their return trip the way Auto check-in is setup. From personal experience I'd say that it's easier to check-in from home vs. the return. So now you have an increased pool of travelers that did not have access to OLCI for their return that are suddently automatically checked-in because they were able to complete OLCI for their originating station.

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).

huh? do you mean "no fax"?

Thanks for the clarification, fly co to see the yanks. A fax option is also available with Auto Check-in, but only when you opt for it using online check-in.

I didn't get the e-mail the previous week and retrieved in latter on. But then again it was a bad weather day so I'm sure the system was overloaded with cancellations.

Wonder if there is a general glitch. My wife is silver and the OLCI did not offer the waistlist option and the BP did not display Silver elite access on a flight last week from RSW to EWR.

Thanks for the info CO Insider. It all worked out in the end, but as my return flight was looking very full, I was prepared to sit in the back. But happily didn't have to:D

I recently selected auto-checkin for the return portion of a PNR with four passengers on it. The sequence numbers that we received were interesting when compared with our individual OnePass status levels:

Platinum - 1
Gold - 2
Silver - 3
No status - 10

Interesting. My S/O had one with 30 on it (no status).

i just found about about auto check-in. Where can i choose this option? i tried to manage my reservations but i can't find it anywhere.

nm found out it's only for return flights.

This is the case at all Kiosks - if you check in online - then reprint the boarding pass - the "Added to First Class standby list" will not show on the reprinted boarding pass - even though you are on the list.

Likely should merge the two threads. I did not realize one was already started on the subject.

Yep, this has been happening for quite a while and I remember one or two previous threads about this.