Automatic check-in removes a process that adds no value whatsoever

[Inquirer]

Today, the majority of short haul passengers do not need the traditional full check-in process as they largerly fly without hold luggage of use the bagage drop off tools if they do; as such check-in is very much a “1960s process”, regardless whether it is dne online or not.

If you think about it for a second:
you don’t check-in when you go to a movie theatre or the opera,
nor do you check-in when you have bought tickets to a soccer game;
so why do you have to check-in when you fly then?

When you book a ticket you’re planning on showing up.
If you don’t show up there are penalties associated with that (loss of booking, the loss of the value of the ticket sometimes even, etc), so why still ask passengers to check in?
Instead, check passengers in automatically and proactively send their boarding pass via SMS or email.
Of course, manual check-in will have to remain available in some guise for certain passengers who require special assistance, but on the whole, even the online check-in process as we know it has in fact become obsolete.

Auto check-in is largely unknown, but it is not an untapped concept at all.
Air France introduced it back in 2012 and the likes of Finnair, Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa, Swiss, Estonian Air, ANA and Flybe also offer the service, while IATA is very much in favour of it too.

Now, when is this going to become the industry standard?

http://www.futuretravelexperience.com/2 ... dds-value/

[sean1982]

In some countries the check-in proces is actually an security requirement which is required by the country's aviation authority .. Uk and Ireland being 2 of them.

[tsx]

In some countries the check-in proces is actually an security requirement which is required by the country's aviation authority .. Uk and Ireland being 2 of them.

Are you sure ?

It looks like flybe does it, Finnair mentions london as well, it was trialed by British Airways,...

Not to say it's not a requirement in certain countries, but it may be practical for certain companies to claim such regulations exists just to enforce their own policies.

And, I'm not talking about ryanair, but rather about Easyjet quite agressive ID checking on intra-schengen flights, which is also useless and unnecessary. At least from a security and regulation perspective.

I'm also quite skeptical of the security improvement brought by an online check-in process over an automated check-in process...

[teach]

In some countries the check-in proces is actually an security requirement which is required by the country's aviation authority .. Uk and Ireland being 2 of them.

Then please explain to me how the last several times I flew to London (both with BA and with easyJet) I simply checked in online and walked up to the security screening, on both the inbound and outbound legs.

[Inquirer]

In some countries the check-in proces is actually an security requirement which is required by the country's aviation authority .. Uk and Ireland being 2 of them.

Yet as others have pointed out in the mean time, it is being used in and even by airlines from those countries too, so clearly there is no security problem with it at all, since you are obviously still correctly checked in by this innovative automatic method, you know?

See it as sort of a comfort solution which performs the check in for you and sends out the required boarding pass for the flight, all WITHOUT ever having to remember to first go to the airlines' website and click on a 'check in' button: that's the only difference there is to it really.

Brilliant improvement, IMHO, and one that should be extremely easy to implement by all airlines, too.
Whenever I fly on Lufthansa, Swiss or Brussels for instance, I now always get checked in by them thanks to a one time subscription to this tool, so no more need to ever think about checking in myself, it gets done for me automatically.

Flying can't be made any simpler than that, can it?

[sean1982]

Armchair CEO's going to argue with an IAA appointed security instructor?

Checking in online is still checking in. You need to physically enter your passport details and your passport is being checked before boarding. This is an IAA and CAA requirement!

[b720]

Not really, at least not within some Schengen countries.. One can actually purchase a ticket online on one s name.. Get automatically checked in or online check in with an option of mobile boarding pass... Whoever has that smart phone can actually fly! Not necessarily the owner of the phone..Provided no luggage is being checked in of course. Security is not breached as long as the holder of that smartphone walks through security screening..

[Inquirer]

Checking in online can in fact be done by the person flying, by his secretary, or by a robot even; there's no way to tell who (or what) actually did the online check in.
The later method (i.e. a robot) is exactly what the automatic check in process is all about.
And as you can see from the links provided by others above, even airlines from the countries you say do not allow it, offer it to their passengers, so clearly there's no legal issue with it after all then?
Unless the authorities from those countries do not know how to correctly enforce their own security rules, something doesn't correctly add up here, does it?

[sean1982]

Yes, what doesnt add up is your stuborness. I dont knox what the booking process of flybe concists off, but if you enter your passport details somewhere then that is basically the same as checking in online. Who enters these details doesnt really matter, you still need to present proper identification at the airport.

But dont take my word for it, I've probably been teaching this wrong for 9 years allready while being checked by the IAA 4 times in the process

[White Light]

Before Schengen came into force, airlines did not check your ID when checking in passengers, because they knew your ID would be checked against your boarding when "crossing the boarder" (+entering the air side terminal).
Suddenly, when Schengen was introduced, all airlines started to check your ID at check in, inter alia, for insurance purposes, they wanted to be sure that the traveller checking in was the traveller in which name the ticket had been issued and was actually going to travel.
Today, long after Schengen came into force, economic considerations (= saving money) have suddenly convinced airlines that ID checks within Schengen are no longer necessary and may/must take precedence over security considerations...until we have the first casualties of such a policy !

[Flanker2]

I think that there are no benefits to a check-in process if it doesn't allow pax identification at some stage before boarding. Then you might as well check-in everybody at the same time as issuing the ticket and then count how many people show up at the gate.

What they do at BRU for Shenghen flights is just idiotic. Anybody can board a plane under any name and even with a fake id.
There's a journalist who proved this recently by flying to Spain under a fake name:
http://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20150208_01517183

If they blow up a plane or hi-jack it, there's no way of knowing who it was. It's not by chance that criminals choose the BRU tarmac for their multi-million dollar diamond heists.
All we need to make BRU the laughing stock of the world, is another DB Cooper.

Sean1982, FR checks ID's at the gate all the time.
But there are airlines who don't...

One more issue that you can have is that unidentified people can enter, seize control of the airport including airside terminals and hold hundreds, if not thousands of people hostage. It's a bit obvious no? Who's the idiot in charge of airport security?

[sean1982]

Because its an IAA requirement

[teach]

Armchair CEO's going to argue with an IAA appointed security instructor?

Checking in online is still checking in. You need to physically enter your passport details and your passport is being checked before boarding. This is an IAA and CAA requirement!

Oh get off your high horse. The fact that ALL three people reacting to your initial post interpreted that post as referring to the physical check-in process as opposed to the online one (not exactly surprising as that is the exact subject of this thread) should be an indication to you that the reason for that is not that everyone else is an 'armchair CEO' who doesn't know what they're talking about, but that your post was badly written, and could very easily be misinterpreted.

[Inquirer]

Yes, what doesnt add up is your stuborness. I dont knox what the booking process of flybe concists off, but if you enter your passport details somewhere then that is basically the same as checking in online. Who enters these details doesnt really matter, you still need to present proper identification at the airport.

Euh, are you deliberately trying to misunderstand what this is about, maybe?

Once more:
Automatic online check-in is exactly what is says it is: it's a tool which checks you in online AUTOMATICALLY, without need to do so yourself and thus without risk of forgetting it, or doing it too late.
It will send you the required boarding pass straight to your mobile or computer AUTOMATICALLY a couple of hours before the schedules departure time of the flight on which you are booked all without asking for it, after which you can then proceed exactly as before, including all the customeray airport security and ID checks (should they be needed).
Definitely a nice product improvement, don't you agree?

[teach]

What they do at BRU for Shenghen flights is just idiotic. Anybody can board a plane under any name and even with a fake id.
There's a journalist who proved this recently by flying to Spain under a fake name:
http://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20150208_01517183

If they blow up a plane or hi-jack it, there's no way of knowing who it was. It's not by chance that criminals choose the BRU tarmac for their multi-million dollar diamond heists.
All we need to make BRU the laughing stock of the world, is another DB Cooper.

You're acting as if this is BRU-specific. It isn't. I was in OSL and HEL just a few weeks ago. Never, at any point did I need to show any kind of ID to anyone. The journalist could've gone to most airports within Schengen for an intra-Schengen flight and done that.

[Flanker2]

The problem with automatic check-in for all pax is that even no-shows and people who are not supposed to fly will be checked-in, causing delays at the gate (load sheet LMC's, final calls, luggage loading, pregnant women or drunk men refused boarding, people realising that their passports are expired, etc... etc...).

@teach. Add OSL and HEL to the list of idiots, together with the EU idiots who allow this to happen.
I do remember vaguely that gate staff checked my passport at the gate at HEL when boarding HEL-BRU last year. I'm not sure though.

[sean1982]

No, cause you still need to enter your passport details somewhere. If you forget to do that you still wont get a boarding card.

Btw teach, every airline can decide in their own security program if they want ID checks to be done regardless if itsa aviation authority requirement. SN has obviously chosen not to do so

[Inquirer]

Flying within the Schengen zone is just like taking the train or the bus: no ID check required.
Makes sense somehow, but it has nothing to do with this topic in fact, as you can combine an automatic check-in process with an ID check at the gate, there's nothing preventing that.

The only drawback with automatic check-in is that it makes it impossible for people to forget to do it themselves a couple of hours before their flight and subsequently ask a fee for it as an airline, which may be the main reason why some airlines are reluctant to embrace an obvious product simplification.

As flanker rightfully says, the whole online check-in process can in fact be done away with completely and here it finally is: you simply get your boarding pass for your booked flight issued automatically and at the right time, based on previously stored data: brilliant improvement, IMHO.

[sean1982]

If it is not for the fact that it is an IAA and CAA requirement once again.

Oh ..: btw .. Latest figure in FR I think was 2% of all pax who had to pay the fine. Hardly a pot of gold

[Inquirer]

The problem with automatic check-in for all pax is that even no-shows and people who are not supposed to fly will be checked-in, causing delays at the gate (load sheet LMC's, final calls, luggage loading, pregnant women or drunk men refused boarding, people realising that their passports are expired, etc... etc...).

Yet, that isn't any different to a routine self-check-in done online?

You can check in to any flight from any place in the world already now; you (or someone else) just have to somehow do it still , whereas here it gets done for you, that's the ONLY difference.

Excuse me saying, but I see a whole bunch of people who traditionally defend all sort of product simplifications and procedural modernisations suddenly defending a very oldfashioned and completely useless way of working on fairly ridiculous grounds really.

If it is not for the fact that it is an IAA and CAA requirement once again.

What is?
That a physical person clicks on the 'check in' button from his home PC?
That a physical person types in the ID data each time he flies?
Travel agencies have all that data stored from many FF even today, you know, or do you honnestly think that each time they issue a ticket for me, they call me to ask for my details? of course not!
It's in a database, and here 2 databases are linked, making a great new tool.