You should be able to do it fine online as long as you are within 24 hours of your return flight too, if web is not offering it to you any UA check-in agent can do it for you at your origin airport.

+1

OP, look for some text at the top of the page that says "View Additional Flights". I have this happen every time I do a run, and have no problems with getting all of the BPs...

Yes I can do the inbound check-in in this case at 24 hours before my outbound departs. I've just run into some airline systems requiring me to actually arrive at my outbound destination before checking in on the return - that would potentially be a big problem if that were the case here.

I wonder if it's straightforward for checking in to the return flight if your boarding pass has been scanned as having boarded the plane. Do you have a smart phone? If so, you might be able to get a mobile boarding pass once you're on the plane. You could certainly do it once the plane has landed. I did this from the hotel shuttle on the way to the airport a few weeks ago, and it worked like a charm.

Unlike Delta, UA has a somewhat good system. You won't run into the problems on UA, that you get with DL..

The good news is that once you are at the airport, any UA gate agent should be able to check you in and print your boarding pass; I do this all the time on multi-segment mileage runs.

i had a trip where i was still had one outbound leg to travel, but wanted to check in online for my next day flight out. OLCI couldn't do it. only my last leg of the outbound flight was showing, even though i was already within the 24hour period. the united service counter can take care of the check-in and print out the boarding passes.

Just did a same-day SFO-LAX trip and had the experience that I was not able to do OLCI for my return leg.

On top of that, I got an error message when do OLCI after I received a message for upgrade clear and I wanted to get a new BP. Not sure if it was because I was already checked-in and the upgrade clear message came after that. The Kiosk machine at the airport also gave a message said to see an agnet.

All these were taken care at the gate by a very nice GA.

Since I had some trouble finding this on the page (and wouldn't have known what to look for without your help!) let me quote the exact verbage I am finding:

This is in very small print near the top of the page. It worked perfectly for me, just as FriendlySkies said.

IME, if you have cleared an upgrade after checking in, you have to see an agent. I guess you could call and get them to undo check-in, then check in again online or at a kiosk, but I know that neither will OLCI allow you to undo check-in nor will a Mr. Chicken kiosk work otherwise.

The problem I run into these days is that there are no agents around to help. (At IAD, 75% of the counter staff at check-in are AirServ employees who can only stick luggage tags on your bags and put them on the conveyor.)


Indeed--I did just that last weekend, and it saved my bacon as I had BP in hand and was checked-in for my return flight LAX-IAD... after MX had me arriving 10 minutes before my return's departure. Having spoken to an agent at IAD to get my return BP saved me at least 12 hours of travel hassles!