Flying_Duck

As a frequent day-traveler, that is, I will leave in the morning, come back in the evening, I have never been able to make sense of the check-in time rules, which on occaision has been annoying.

On the web, I can check in 24 hours prior to departure, in the airport, I can not check in until 4 hours prior to departure, whether via a kiosk or at the counter.

Thus, if I go from SLC-SEA, and upon arrival try to check in for a flight 8 hours later at the Kiosk/Counter, it is a no-go. However, if I hook up my computer to my cell phone, I can do it on the spot (have done it) using the kiosk as the rest for my computer!.

As some of my travel involves getting in a rental, dashing off to a meeting, dashing back to the airport with little time to spare (traffic!!! --> Seattle!!!) it is very convenient to have the boarding card, be able to drop the car and go straight to the security without having to make a detour around the Delta counter.

It makes no logical sense to me why this is - and being a logical person most of the time (before the on-board cocktails at least) it just doesn't sit right with me, as does the fact that you can print out your boarding card from a library computer without a picture ID, you can get it from a Kiosk by using a SM card without a picture ID, but in order to get it from the desk, whether in the CR or at the general check-in, you have to show "Government approved picture ID"!!??.

Just wonder if anybody can provide the logic to this.

sowalsky

Let's say that at a particular airport, DL flies onto two flights a day, one at 7pm and one at 9pm. DL has two flights that arrive into this airport per day, at 4pm and at 6pm. Totally hypothetical, but follow me on this.

This would mean that they can restrict the staffing of the airport from 3pm to around 10pm or so. They don't need to have people working the airport at 5am or at noon if there are no flights scheduled to go out. However, if you have a boarding pass that you received without the use of staff, you're more than welcome to use it in order to clear security. I would presume that they don't want you using kiosks to check in more than 4 hours in advance since kiosks offer to check baggage ---- something you cannot do without an agent right now.

Now, let's go to a different airport, like ATL, which has DL flights leaving from 5am through 10pm or so. Why can't you check in at 12am? Because no one is there... they've set their staffing hours so that all passengers will have reasonable amounts of time to arrive at the airport on time and make their flight, and not incur the additional expense of staffing odd hours.

Let's keep going here. Let's assume that your flight is at 5pm. You get to the airport a honking 6 hours early and you cannot stand by for an earlier flight. They won't let you check in. Why not? They'd prefer that you not crowd the airport and the facilities. They don't want your suitcase hanging around downstairs by itself for several hours where it might get lost or forgotten in the case of a gate change. They don't want you getting into lines with other travellers who need to get out of there before you do. Nor do they want you staying for extended periods of times at public areas of the airport, sitting in chairs that passengers who will need to wait 5-30 minutes for the next flight will want instead.

Finally, it would be my guess that the reason you can check in 24 hours in advance is so that you can do so the night before your flight and when you wake up in the morning, you don't need to show up to the airport until about 30 minutes prior to flight time... just enough time to clear security and get to the gate provided you are not checking bags.

I don't think they created the 24-hour in advance check-in system so you can hang out at the airport whenever you want in a new travel era where the airport is this super-holy area where only travelling travelers can go.

My 2 cents worth. Take it or leave it.

neverhome

Wouldn't the simple thing be to check in for both flights on the web before you leave home?

Flying_Duck

Yes, that clearly would be the solution - if permitted by the program, which it is not!.

You can only check-in to one flight, and the check-in to the return, even if within the same 24 hour period, does not open up until you have completed that first portion.

(Sowalsky, I wouldn't be surprised if what you write indeed is part or all of the reasoning, but it still leaves the inconsistent application as you for example can go into the CR upon arrival where the desk will not check you in for the return, but where you can go 10 steps to the Delta computer and check in from there.)

NoStressHere

To keep these moving, I think they need to have those hard check in times because there are lots of people that try to check in hours ahead of time. I have watched people show up to a gate way too early, just to be safe. And then the ones that are at the ticket counter even earlier "just to be safe" is crazy.

Does not always make sense... but ...

JS

My thoughts --

Normal people know that checking in two hours early is overkill in most cases.

Normal people also realize that checking in two hours early for a 5:40 AM departure is idiotic. Even more idiotic for an airport like HOU (Hobby), headed for DFW on an EMB-120 turboprop.

Last time I left Houston, I tried to check in at the kiosk at 5:11 AM for the 5:40 AM turboprop flight to DFW. The kiosk refused, and Delta Witch lambasted me for not being there two hours early. I was lucky to get a boarding pass from the employee's side of the counter. Geez ... do these people have functioning brains? Two hours early would be 3:40 AM!!! For crying out loud, the ticket counter doesn't open until 4:00 AM!


I must say I've never heard someone wanting to check in at the airport more than 4 hours early, but you have a point that while on a day trip, checking in for the return flight 6 or 8 hours later upon arrival is convenient. It takes several minutes to start up a laptop just to check-in, versus about 30 seconds with the kiosk.

Justin026

To do an on-line boarding card last week, I asked a client if I could print it at his office late the afternoon before my flight back to ATL the next morning. He let me, and was curious to see how it all worked.

theDeltaFlyer

Please note that this is a limitation of Delta's system. I have used on-line check-in at nwa.com to do a check-in at 8pm the day before for both my morning departure and afternoon return later the same day. So much for Delta technology...

edited to fix UBB

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Leo showed us his new loyalty program so we showed him ours ...
2003 DL spend = $0
2003 NW spend = $24.8k and increasing

[This message has been edited by theDeltaFlyer (edited 05-25-2003).]