Any Upside or Downside to Checking In Early?
 

I normally check in online the day (24 hr) before a flight. If I'm not trying for an upgrade, and I don't have a printer or mobile phone to download a boarding pass, is there any real point in doing this?

Later checkins on overbooked flights may be more likely to be given departure management cards instead of boarding passes. This is likely most important if you are flying on assigned seating airlines but were unable to get a seating assignment prior to checkin.

On open seating airlines (e.g. Southwest), later checkins board later with less seat choice since earlier boarders have taken some of the seats.

I've cut it close before without checking in the day before. Not only did I have to stop and spend precious time to check-in, within a certain time period from departure the self service kiosks won't check-in and print a boarding pass for you. Then I had to wait for a ticket agent...

That was a bad morning. Somehow I still made that flight.

You never know what might happen. It's one less thing to worry about and line to wait if you have access to check-in.

You may be able to improve your seat at T-24 if the airline uses that cutoff to release seats that were previously held out of the availability pool (for any number of reasons).

It's done
 

I always do this, just to get it out of the way and feel that I'm "on" the flight and "in" a seat. For most of my flights these days it's possible to print out the boarding pass at the airport (LHR, bmi) by entering the booking code at a terminal rather than going to a desk. In the UK for international flights, unless you've got baggage to check, this allows you to get to the airport an hour or so later.

Check-in early - luggage is last off the plane.

These days I check-in either online or at an airport kiosk then do the bag drop AFTER a nice cuppa

The question was about online check-in 24 hours before the flight.

The first bags dropped off are often the first into the plane and therefore the last out, but check-in and baggage drop-off are separate topics. Check-in time as such has no impact on where your baggage goes.

I think the answer to this question will vary greatly by airline.

For example, on AA, check-in time doesn't matter for upgrades (they use request time), but does matter in the case of standby lists and irrops accomodation. The biggie for me is when unexpected traffic or delays get you to the airport later than the checkin cutoff. If you're not checked in, then you're out of luck, but if you've done an online checkin, even w/o printing, then they can still do a boarding pass "reprint". But that's AA: there was a recent long thread on the DL forum indicating that DL would not reprint an never-printed after check-in cutoff time.

As far as downside, on AA, once you check in online, you are no longer able to change seats until you get to the airport. If a better seat opens after you check-in, you're stuck where you are. And if you check in for coach and then your upgrade clears, you can't select your F seat either, until the airport.

I always check in at T-24 to the extent it's practical- if the flight leaves at 6 AM I may wait till 7 AM the previous day. As others have said, it's one more thing off the list, you're less likely to be bumped, and it may get you into an earlier boarding group even if you have no status with the airline.

I once flew out of HPN (Westchester) on a day when their check-in computers were down. HPN is really too small anyway for the number of people who use it, and that day it was an absolute madhouse. I was never so happy to be able to bypass the check-in chaos (also had a bag small enough to be gate-checked). It was enough to motivate me to make sure that I was always checked in with a BP before getting to the airport. Even if I can't print the BP or use one sent to my iPod Touch, I'll check in anyway and print the BP from the kiosk when I get there.

Similarly, I checked in at T-24 on a AA award ticket then got the idea I'd like to extend my trip. Called the AAdvantage Desk and although there was availability, they could not make the change because I had already checked in. Had to wait until my outbound was complete, with the chance the availability would not be the same at that time. Fortunately, it was. Since then, I still check in early, but not *that* early.

At least with Jetblue I once read that they try to fill in the middle seats first so the earlier you check in the worse your ability to get a window or aisle...which is really contrary to anything I've heard...but it did happen to me, I once checked in for a JetBlue flight 3 hrs in advance and there were "no window or aisle seats available" (they did try to sell me a window seat for $40 which I refused), then another person who checked in just 20 mins before got a window on request...suddently they had become available!

Even when I don't have a printer, I print it to a pdf file. In the days before pdf writer, I just hit Print anyway and got an error message. It still registered with the airline. You still need to get to a kiosk to print it before the flight, but at least you know you're on the list and have a seat.

I always checkin T-24
 

I try and time it to the exact minute to checkin at T-24. On some occassions I was the first one to check in. I even pay the bag fees online so I can basically drop my bag at the curbside or Web Bag Dropoff at the airport. Fortunately I have never been bumped as I checkin online. I still arrive at the airport earlier and it allows me to get to the security lines that much quicker.

I hate being stuck behind a family of 4 with their kitchen sinks all packed waiting to pay the oversize fees and reorganize their luggage. On many occassions I wanted to blurt out"But I only have one bag that is not oversized" Its not my fault that I have to wait for you when you very well know the airlines policy.

I pride myself looking online to find out the policies before I travel and I weigh my bag at home if I have a doubt. I have trained my family how to follow the regulations and the only time we had to reorganize our luggage was when AA bumped my mother and brother at Cabo due to a missed connection and they needed to be home the next day.

One of my pet peeves is standing behind a passenger who does not know how the kiosk works. I mean how stupid do you have to be to use it? Even a five year old can run it. Unless you don't understand English(:

I wish they had a line for oversize bags, multiple passengers checking in and a separate line for expert Flyertalkers who are ready to go and do not have excess baggage and are in the Y cabin just need to drop the bag off and get the boarding pass. Not all airlines offer the Web Bag Dropoff desk. I hate waiting in line to check in for an international flight behind a family bringing every damn gift home in 4 bags having to weigh it in and pay the fees. Can't the airline see that I'm ready to go with my small Rick Steves Bag?

It'd have to be rigidly enforced by someone, and practically could cause a lot more stress. Even people with oversized bags hate waiting behind other people with oversized bags. :)

Checked in early on my last DL flight even though I had a dreaded RJ window seat. Dismayed to find I could no longer access seat selection via my BlackBerry. Finally snagged an aisle seat via my desktop, but it was a serious hassle to keep logging back on over and over again. I won't do that again.