Counter closed policy?
 

I was reading this complaint about Tiger airways' policy of closing their check-in counters 45 mins prior to departure...

https://www.uvent.com.au/Vents/Details/70

Is this the norm? What if you reach the queue with 90 mins to spare and it takes 46 mins to reach the counter as the queue is moving at a snail's pace? It seems quite ridiculous.

I can understand closing off the queue itself but not refusing to check in passengers already queued up from a long time before the 45 minute window...

I assume that 45 minutes is their required minimum time before the flight to check in and check a bag. This usually means the time to actually have checked in, not just to be in line at the airport by them. Once it is too late for customers to check in for the flight, there is no point in having the counter remain open unless those agents are helping to rebook customers who have missed the plane.

so what happens if you come to the queue with 90 mins to spare (which is a HUGE amount of time) and it is their fault (for not processing queued up passengers within a reasonable amount of time)? Do they rebook at their cost?

Most likely you will be responsible. This is how it works with all LCCs. They limit the number of ground staff to save on costs and advise you to show up extra early.

It doesn't matter what time you get to the airport, it matters what time you get to the counter.

If you are not at the counter 45 minutes before, they don't have to service you.

As very clearly stated in the linked article.

You were not there in time, they don't have to rebook you (though they may choose to do so).

On a trip last week, the person checking me in had to leave and go load the luggage on the plane - thankfully it was the flight prior to mine. At small airports especially, for many airlines, the choice is get the flight out on time or continue checking people in. That's why you have to look at those cut-off times as definite - with no leeway for delays, even if the delay is caused by the airline.

If you arrived the recommended time in advance and didn't unduly delay, I think you might get IDB compensation if the lines were too long for you didn't meet check-in time. But the recommended time in advance these days is often two or three hours, and who here meets that?

It happened to me several years ago on a United flight out of IAD. I arrived 90 minutes early and discovered that for some reason they had Christmas level crowds in August. After a very long time in the check in queue, I arrived at the counter something like 4 minutes after the cutoff time and they refused to check me in. No compensation and they also treated me like I was a poor planner who'd just waltzed in expecting to get on the plane on a minute's notice. Even the call center (the desk agent's only help was to point at the phone handset that direct-dials the call center) would not budge.

I had to rebook for the next day's flight and showed up at my client's site a day late. That didn't impress my boss at all. Ever since then I check in online the day before.

I admittedly didn't read the article but other than vacationers with luggage, what people are NOT checking in online?

Return trips when the hotel doesn't have a printer. Happens to me a lot. Also international when they are insisting on checking passports/visas prior to giving you the boarding pass.

People flying Tiger Airways who when they go to check in get this message?

Web check-in

WEB CHECK-IN IS TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE
"This service is currently unavailable; please check-in at the Airport. Check-in opens 2 hours prior to your flight and closes strictly 45 minutes before departure. Please allow enough time to check-in at the Airport"


http://www.tigerairways.com/au/en/webcheckin_guide.php

You can check in online with luggage, it makes even that process a bit faster.

beware vueling 30 min closed counter
 

i got stuck in bcn for 10hrs as from counter person say flight was closed...the flight was 25 mins from take off....soo just to be aware of airlines rules i paid 250 euros out of pocket...because tickets were seperate....if one has two ticket they should leave 2 hrs between just for reason of loosing flight 30 mins before take off....not sure if all europe airlines or just vueling....

On the same note, how is Tiger airways checkin at Changi? Anyone experienced this? I have a tightish connection between 2 Tiger airways flights (2.5 hrs between flights which I thought was adequate)... both flights are from Terminal 2 since they are in mid October.

Tiger airways online checkin is perpetually busted since August of last year I believe. What airline does not have web checkin...it's ridiculous! I think web checkin would be especially important for LCC as this would free up staff to do other things.

I have flown many LCCs in the past and never had any issues - Air Asia, Easyjet etc. I did not know that Tiger airways had such a bad rep. otherwise I would have avoided them.

Sorry to be a jerk, but I did read your link, and it seems I have a little less sympathy for you. You knew about the 45-minute policy, but only got into line at 60 minutes ahead - giving yourself only 15 minutes of queue time before you would be blocked. So you waited in line for 20 minutes (which doesn't sound excessively long) and missed the cutoff. I think you own most of this, not Tiger.

Dude, the posted link is not my experience...it's a random link from the internet. This story is from some other guy, it's not my complaint...i'm confused about your response :confused:

I found the link while researching more about connection times about Tiger in Changi. I'm trying to figure out if I can make my connection or not. I did not know about the 45 min policy when I booked the ticket, it was NOT indicated anywhere.

In any case optimistically I am thinking I should have over an hour of queue time in Changi, hopefully they will not take an HOUR to check people in....

I think Tiger airways sucks...their web checkin is broken and there is no indication of all this when you buy the ticket, I had to research it on the net that it has been broken for ages and they have no intention of fixing it. I had initially intended to do a web checkin in Taipei itself and do a bag drop in Changi...the website had VERIFIED that I could do this. In reality, the functionality is unavailable because web checkin is broken and has been broken for a while YET the message says "WEB CHECKIN IS TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE" which one can infer that it is a temporary downtime, which is a lie.

In my opinion it is definitely a deceptive practice to not clearly display these limitations on the screen which you are booking your flight so that people can make an informed choice.

SIN-BLR is a $160 flight so although I will lose quite a bit of money if I miss the flight it's just a risk I have to take, thankfully there are loads of same day rather inexpensive flights out of SIN a few hrs later to BLR so I have a Plan B. I am counting on the efficiency of Changi to make the connection within the two and a half hours :)