Online check-in is silly

Someone once explained to me that the reason airlines have online check-in is that other airlines have it.

Actually, I think it was slightly more complicated than that, but what it boiled down to was: “it’s a convenience feature, other airlines have it, and it doesn’t exactly hurt us…we’ve got our money whether they fly or not.”*

But while that makes some sense from a business standpoint, it makes absolutely no sense from a practical standpoint. The process for flying has always been to purchase a ticket to reserve your spot on the plane, and then once you get to the airport, you check in to say you’ve actually made it.

So, logically, checking in before you even leave your house makes sense, right? That’s like marking the attendance sheet before class starts.

Imagine this: You’ve purchased a plane ticket, but the airline has overbooked the flight (which is standard practice). When you get to the airport, however, you find that the entire flight is in fact full, despite the fact that several seats on the plane are empty. Why? Because several people have checked in from home, and then not arrived at the airport in time for the flight. Sorry, you’re out of luck. Would you like to go stand-by on the next flight?

It makes no sense.
------
* This is like carry-on luggage. You have to try to take a fucking sail barge through the gate before they’ll make you check luggage because each airline is worried that if they actually enforce the size limit, people will fly with someone else. But I hate when people carry on shit that really, really should be checked, so I wish they’d start enforcing it.