Assigned Seats so why Check-in early?
 

My wife and I are flying Sunday Morning. Our seats have already been assigned to us when we bought tickets. On the "Virtually There" web site we can Web Check-in 24 hours in advance. Can someone please explain this to me. Does checking in 24 hours prior to a flight make any sense if my seats have been assigned? Thanks for your help.:D

The primary reason would be for an oversell situation, as your assigned seat is just an assignment, not a guarantee. Not that you can't be bumped at the airport, but I'd bet the person checked in is bumped after he who is not checked in (absent some high status, etc. at still ample time prior to departure).

check in online can avoid check in line at airport...

The biggest reason is that when it comes to involuntary denied boarding some airlines policies are in reverse order of check in, so the earlier you check in, the less likely to be denied boarding.

I'm afraid it is erroneous to assume that the "assigned seat" you bought and paid for is the one you will actually sit in. Airlines don't work that way.

Checking in early reduces, but does not eliminate the risk that you will sit somewhere else, or not sit at all, on the flight you thought you had purchased.

Assigned Seats so why Check-in early?
 

UA will use check-in time as a tiebreaker for upgrades. Other airlines may do the same.

It all depends.

AA uses check in time as consideration for SWU upgrades, but not domestic sticker upgrades. So if my domestic upgrade hasn't cleared in advance, I won't check in, because if I check in at T-24 and my upgrade clears after that, the system won't let me change my seat anymore. It seems that AA has now added this functionality with the latest update in its app, so it shouldn't be an issue anymore.

Checking in early may reduce the chances of being bumped off your seat or your flight involuntarily, but that's really not something that happens often and it's not something that I concern myself with at all.

If I get no benefit from check in time (if I am already confirmed in F, etc), then I will just check in whenever I feel like it.

Check in early will also make sure in case you are running late and the counter is closed, since you are already checked in, It will give you those extra 15-20 min which can make a difference between actually getting on the flight or missing it

Well, I definitely always check in online if I can. Since I rarely check bags, I can almost always bypass the counter. I just don't always check in 24 hours in advance.

Just because you can do something doesn't mean you have to do it.

They offer check in up to 24 hours before a flight because they have to have some limit to it, and they picked 24 hours, and most airlines use that. It could have been 48 or it could have been 12, they picked 24.

As mentioned in the previous posts, it may come into play for upgrades and other things, but if you don't want to check in at 24 hours you don't have to, if you don't want to check in online and prefer to stand in line at the airport you can do that too.

He who checks in first gets IDBd last.

Is IDB actually a concern for you guys though? For an airline to IDB, they must first have asked for volunteers for VDBs and gotten no volunteers. That alone is unlikely. For IDBs, they are also likely to choose no status passengers over those with status, which many of us have. And even then, it is extremely rare for a flight to need several IDBs. So yes, don't check in 30 min before departure (or whatever the cutoff is), but I don't see a need to check in right when the window opens, if IDB is your only consideration.

OP didnt differentiate between checking in as far ahead as possible, and any time

it doesnt matter when you do it if you just want to avoid check in line at airport

If its on southwest, check in time determines your boarding order, so the earlier you check in, the earlier you get to board.

IDB is one of my big reasons, but the second one would be that unforeseen time savings. Never plan to cut it that close, but sometimes things happen and saving 5 or10 minutes is clutch.