[Anonymous]

[Cedric_Statherby]

What is the point of checking in these days?

In the old days – the very old days, when I started flying – most tickets were open tickets and the reason one checked in was to turn a ticket (ie the right to fly on some indeterminate flight) into a seat (ie the right to fly on a particular flight). Seats were not allocated until check-in, and no doubt older travellers can remember the question “Would you like a window or an aisle seat?”. Indeed I can still remember the printed sheets and sticky labels some airlines used to allocate seats and stick your seat number on your boarding card.

Then when most tickets became flight-specific, the main purpose of checking in was to prove you were at the airport and waiting to fly – and to allocate seats to those who had not booked them in advance.

But now, when almost all tickets are flight-specific, seats are almost always pre-allocated (or simply not allocated at all), and check-in can be done several days in advance, what exactly does check-in achieve?

It does not confirm your seat on the plane – your ticket does that.
It does not allocate you a seat – either your ticket can do that or the airline simply does not offer allocated seats.
It does not prove you are at the airport and ready to fly.

In fact the main purpose of checking in seems to be to give airlines a reason to charge you if you forget to do so before you reach the airport!

Trains don’t need check-in – even Eurostar doesn’t, and they are most like an airline in their operation. So why do airlines stick to this annoying and pointless anachronism?

[AMcWhirter]

Cedic –

You make an interesting observation. But from the airlines’ viewpoint, then isn’t the need for a reservation a method in which they can achieve higher load factors and yield manage the number of seats on the plane.

In the old days there were few price options per flight, capacity was strictly controlled (do you remember the days when BA/AF were allowed to share revenue and capacity between LHR and Paris ?) and there was no such thing as yield management.

In fact, the only true air service where everyone travelled with open tickets (and with a seat guarantee) was the famous BEA Shuttle from the mid-1970s which plied between LHR and BFS/EDI/GLA/MAN. (On BA Super Shuttle, which appeared years later, reservations were required for some of the cheaper promo fares).

By the way, although UK trains don’t need check-in the system can be different in mainland Europe.

In France, reservations are compulsory for SNCF’s TGV services and also for Eurostar (which is essentially an SNCF product).

Indeed Eurostar has a small number of “tip down” seats in the vestibules. These are offered to those passengers who buy tickets on departure and when the train’s normal seating is fully booked.

[FDOS_UK]

Just out of interest, Eurostar does require check-in, it occurs when you insert your ticket into the automatic entry gate.

[AMcWhirter]

Quite correct, FDOS_UK

Perhaps Cedric meant the situation where a passenger could just turn up at the station and buy a ticket subject to space.

But as you say, a Eurostar ticket would not let you proceed through the ticket barriers unless you had a reservation for a specific train.

[FDOS_UK]

AMcWhirter – 24/09/2015 10:32 BST

Yes, perhaps Cedric did mean that. On the other hand, the Eurostar check-in process doesn’t really feel like an airline check-in, as it is akin to the ticket barriers found on many UK stations, where there is no check in and it is just a check of the ticket validity for the date/time.

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