Because sometimes easy check in online offers me or more usually my wife the opportunity to buy an First Class or Biz upgrade when she is traveling on an economy award ticket that is not supposed to be upgradeable and I want to do it as soon as possible even if no printer

I don't bother with any of the print-to-file tools; I just click "continue to confirmation page" when the boarding passes come up on the screen.

I never hit the big print button at all, and it always works for me. Even today, my reprinted DM card showed my original checkin time from last night.

Isn't that also fairly obvious? United would rather have people using OLCI than checking in through an agent. United would also rather have people using OLCI than using a kiosk (which was the OP's original question). The marginal benefit to United of using OLCI over using a kiosk is minimal but positive. The marginal benefit to United of using an OLCI over an agent is huge. So advertise the hell out of it. The more uptake the better. Am I missing something?

Sounds right on to me.

I like having the actual boarding passes, which is why I always fax them to myself. I like cutting them exactly just-so. I like placing them in correct order in the front of my boarding jacket (and where, after boarding, I can move the the current one from front to back where it will reside in date and time order with my other boarding passes and hotel/car confirmations). I like then placing that boarding jacket with all the boarding passes and confirmations arranged just so in my left front shirt pocket. I like virtually always wearing the same shirt on the first day of an itinerary, where the boarding jacket with all the stubs can reside in that shirt's pockets.

I'm a little OCD.....

OoooooooK... good luck with all that! :)

Anyway, on my outbound flight, I print the boarding pass (and hald the time forget and leave it on the printer). On the way home, I'm generally in my hotel room with either no printer or too much work to hook up the printer. That's when I want to check in for DM list/late arrival purposes even though I can't print it.

Yes, definitely! :D :p ;)

Well, I'm not that bad, but I do save them in 1, 2, 3, 4 order per trip nd then keep them in chronological order all year even if the flights post on my summary. I even keep last year's pile on my desk so I can watch this year's stack catch up as the weeks go by. Sick!

OLCI save United money as you are doing the work of an agent. It actually helped me one time as I was late to check-in kiosk. (<45min)

The one time I didn't wear my special shirt with its special pocket I was a mess. But back on topic....

That's when a pdf writer and efax come in very handy.

It also helps United to know as early as possible how many people are checking in on the flight. For handling upgrades, standby pax, etc.

Obvious? Not to me. And reading your answer, I don't get the impression it was obvious to you either :)

Yes. The question was: why does UA want you to use OLCI (even) without a printer. Or in other words, what do THEY gain if you check in on your computer first and THEN use their checkin kiosk to reprint your boarding pass. That's different from "what does UA gain from you using either OLCI or the kiosk (and yes, the answer to that is blatantly obvious).

The only difference to UA I can see is that they know earlier that you're more likely to actually show up, than if you waited to actually do the checkin (instead of just the "reprint") at the airport. So maybe that helps them plan better for oversell situations or price remaining seats or whatnot.

Ah, sorry, I was responding to your quoted portion. Jeez, this is a rather nitpicky question (If A doesn't care about B or C and D doesn't care about E or F or G, why would A require D to H?). [Edited to add: But I guess that's what this forum is all about.] But there's still one obvious if trivial answer: It's a little bit faster at the kiosk. Less trivial: they want to build a habit of checking in online for every single flight. Maybe they think that if they encourage you use OLCI every time, you'll remember to use OLCI better when you do have a printer.

The same issue arises when you have to check bags. Check in online, you still have to go to the kiosk. But you save a few seconds, and every second counts.

It's obvious that OLCI is a win-win for the passenger and United, for all the good reasons mentioned above.

So I wonder why United doesn't encourage even more OLCI, the way that CO does with the option of FAXING you the boarding pass. This works quite well, and the form allows you to specify room numbers at hotels, etc. With the cost of Internet telephony approaching "free" ... it wouldn't cost UA much at all to provide this benefit ... save on time and use of the airport EZCI booths, and encourage even more use of OLCI.

AF creates a PDF of your BP when you OLCI That makes it easier to have it faxed to yourself.

Finally on the subject of OLCI, I had a brainstorm. On eBay, I use a "snipe" service to place bids 5 seconds before the auctions close (basically, it's like a keyboard macro with a timer on it that goes through the bidding process on your behalf, automatically.

I am surprised that nobody has created a similar OLCI program that basically checks you in 23 hours and 59 seconds (or 47 hours 59 seconds on airlines such as SQ) before the flight. That way, you're more likely to be first in line for upgrades, OpUps, etc.

Always a smart thing to do if you are on a wait list. The sooner you check-in the higher you will be on the DM list (vs others with the same status and fare class).