It happened this morning, it happens at least once a week. An administrative assistant at a company my client was visiting needed his record locator or e-ticket number so she could check him in for a flight tomorrow while he was in a meeting. In this case I know the client well, and I know he is definitely traveling.
But this woman also informed me she was checking in a number of people who were all attending a meeting at her company. In fact, I have heard assistants complain about needing to do check in for “dozens” of people in a day. Some of whom they have never met. And that includes some international flights where there are security questions about baggage.
I have been also told, by people who shall remain nameless, that for a very difficult or busy person, they might check a traveler in on two different flights, booked separately with different airlines, and sort it out later.
Plus, more commonly, travelers who know they may not make a flight will check themselves in, or ask someone to do it for them. Sometimes they are just running late, sometimes their expectation is that the flight time was unrealistic and they should have booked something later. But the boarding pass will save time if they do make it to the airport.
In fact, as many travelers who change their plan and regularly standby for alternate flights now, airlines regularly do get no-shows with checked-in passengers, which can free up last-minute seats. (For that reason, never a good idea to leave the gate area as a standby until the door is actually closed, even if the agents tell you at first that the flight has “checked in full.”)
In general, the biggest problem with these speculative check-ins is just the time wasted, the potential rudeness to other passengers, and potential airline revenue loss from seats that could end up unused.
But in a time of heightened security, I also have to wonder, is it a good thing that it is so easy to check someone else in online? All you need is a name and confirmation number. A passport number is required for international flights, but no identification for domestic itinerary. In fact, you need much more personal information to check a frequent flier mileage balance than to checkin for a flight.
Admittedly the traveler will be checked again at the airport, but in this case only by TSA or even a curbside baggage agent. An airline employee may never verify the traveler’s identification. Which is of course the point of the ease of online checkin. It saves the airlines money.
(Photo by daniel incandela/flick.com/creative commons)
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Easy Cowboy. No need to raise yet another alarm for the fidgety public, more than is already out there. One still needs photo ID to go through airport security, and they, TSA, seem to be more thorough in recent days than a year ago. I see no problem here.
If I’m traveling with friends on one itinerary, I check them in (at least on BA out of London) so what’s the difference, technically?
At JAX before getting to the “Put your bag on the belt, take your shoes off, etc”, the TSA here checks a photo ID with the boarding pass. I rather think this is true throughout!
Most airlines allow on-line check in 24 hours in advance. When someone checks in early, and then they need to change their flight it is sometimes nearly impossible. What hapens if the admin checks someone in by mistake? It can’t be undone on line and it can’t be undone easily even by an airline. Think of the security ramifications if you can “uncheck in” on a flight – someone checks in, gets a boarding pass, “unchecks in”, but they have their boarding pass. This gets them access to boarding gates without actually being a passenger on a plane.
My recommendation for many business travelers is to wait to check in at the airport (especially if they are checking baggage) or to at least wait until they are ready to leave for the airport.
You state a very valid and timely question, Janice. As a travel professional, I am all in favor of procedures that improve the travel experience and speed up checkin. But the easy online checkin procedure you mention is not the only thing we should be worried about. Even the TSA airport screening process leaves openings for those who wish to hide their whereabouts or do the traveling public harm. I know of at least one airport where IDs are not required to be shown to or checked by gate agents when passengers board planes for domestic flights. In these locations, there is nothing–other than a suspicious gate agent–to stop a traveler from passing through the security checkpoint with a boarding pass (printed online or at the airport), switching their boarding pass with another individual within the terminal, and disappearing “off the radar.” As in your article above where you mention “for a very difficult or busy person, they might check a traveler in on two different flights, booked separately with different airlines”, a traveler with intent to deceive could theoretically have multiple boarding passes and flights to choose from. How many times have we heard announcements like this: “your ID will not be needed for boarding. Just have your boarding card available”… etc? I know gate agents and other airline employees are overworked and I wish I could make their jobs less stressful, but the airlines need to wake up and realize that they are not doing the traveling public or their employees a favor by making checkin easier. The war against terrorism is like a chess match, but one side is playing without rules. By eliminating many of the checks and cross-checks that are required for safe air travel, the airlines are essentially taking our pawns and defensive pieces out of play without the other side having to do a thing.
My airline gives me the choice to have automatic check-in on the return flight, once I have checked in online for the outbound. All I have to do is print the boarding pass at an airport kiosk or on any printer. The gate agents rely on TSA to look at my ID photo and make sure I should be flying.