FlyerTalk Forums - Why is checking in for a flight required?

Quote:

Originally Posted by pinniped (Post 35127455)

That's been my experience on the KC to/from Chicago route. You had to check in in the station, then get in a queue, and then walk single-file to the platform.

Boggles my mind why it has to be done this way. Why can't we have assigned seats, go directly to them with no queueing, and show a QR code to the conductor?

Assigned seats don’t work as well for multiple stops. Let’s say that a train has 3 seats and goes from NYC to Philly to Baltimore to DC. If seat 1 is empty between NY and Philly and seat 2 is empty between Baltimore and DC and seat 3 is empty between Philly and Baltimore, the train could be technically “sold out” between NY and DC even though there’s a seat available for the entire journey. When seats are unassigned, they can sell as many tickets as there are available seats without having to figure which seats are available.
With planes, everyone gets off when it lands. So even if you are going on the next flight of the same plane, you have to get off the plane.