Online check-in is (still) bullshit

Ah, the holidays. That time of year when everyone flies everywhere else. I’m actually secretly convinced that everyone plays a giant game of musical chairs, and if you could see a big map of the world and all the people moving around, it would be pretty funny.

But I digress: Online check-in is bullshit.

As I’ve said before, the purpose of checking in at the airport is to say “OK, I’m here.” The reason you do that is because airlines overbook their flights, and they need to know who makes it to the airport, so that they can make sure that the people who actually SHOW UP are the people who get on the flight.

So why would you let people check in without showing up?

In any case, the argument I usually hear is that “Oh they release the seats about 30 minutes before the flight leaves, so it’s OK it doesn’t hurt anything really.” Well, let me present a counter-example:

My family arrived at the airport for their flight TWO AND A HALF HOURS EARLY, like you’re supposed to. However, they could not get boarding passes because the flight was ENTIRELY CEHCKED IN via Online Check-In.

So my family sat around for two and a half hours to fly standby on a flight they booked months ago and and got to the airport for in more than plenty of time. They sat at the gate and watched people show up more than an hour later than them and get seats, no problem.

Then my Mom watches some woman walk onto the plane without getting her ticket scanned. Seriously, this woman just walked down the ramp when the attendant wasn’t looking. (Not entirely the airline’s fault, but, this plays later…)

The airline was supposed to release the seats 30 minutes prior to departure, but they didn’t actually release the seats until 10 minutes prior to departure. My family was granted the last seats on the plane.

However, that woman that got on to the plane earlier? In my Mom’s seat. And she refused to get up.

Long story short, several mechanical malfunctoins, annoying travelers, and hours later, my family missed their connecting flight by 15 minutes and had to drive the second leg of the trip (+4 hours to an already long day).

Now I might not be able to blame the delays on Online check-in, but you can damn sure bet it doesn’t make sense for someone to show up to an airport 2 1/2 hours early and have to fly standby on a flight they booked months ago.

That’s called screwing the customer over because you can, and I’ll be damnded if that shouldn’t be the motto of airlines and the TSA.