British Airways trialling automatic check-in at 6 hours before departure

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British Airways started trialling a new service last week.

If your flight is taking part, you will be automatically checked in six hours before departure.

Your boarding pass will be generated and sent to you to by email – whether you like it or not.

British Airways BA A380 flying

This will not, for many people, go down very well.

Many travellers like to check in at the airport because it allows them to change their seat. If you have BA status and have picked your seat in advance, there is no benefit to checking in early if you would prefer a better seat. A lot of passengers on flexible tickets will cancel close to departure which means that good seats can become free.

If you don’t have BA status, it is also possible that the BA computer will select a bad seat for you. It is not possible for BA to know your preference from what may be a poor selection – a middle seat near the front or an aisle seat next to the toilet?

Checking you in will also make it more complicated to get a refund for your ticket if it is flexible and you later choose to take a different flight.

This is just a trial of course. It is possible that a majority of customers appreciate the service. I get a feeling that it is a solution to a problem which did not really exist, however ….

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This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

EM says:

24 Jan24 January 06:46

What happens if you don’t have email access at that time? Not all of us carry tech. It assumes an awful lot.
- Alan Mock says:
  
  24 Jan24 January 08:27
  
  I agree. We always have to leave home more than 6 hours before, so how is that going to work? Just arrive at check in and get them to sort it, and cause further delays!
  - Callum says:
    
    24 Jan24 January 09:32
    
    Further delays? You go to check in, or a machine, and say you couldn’t print your boarding pass. They print it for you. Where does the delay come in?
Alasdair Wylie says:

24 Jan24 January 06:59

I wonder if they’ve actually asked any of us? I suspect most would say better to do as Easyjet does and allow advance checkin more or less any time after buying the ticket…
- Nick says:
  
  24 Jan24 January 07:11
  
  …..Probably some pointless focus group again! 😉
- Alan says:
  
  24 Jan24 January 08:04
  
  Agree, if you have status and have picked a seat you like why allow checkin?
- Tim Millea says:
  
  24 Jan24 January 08:16
  
  EasyJet allow online check-in from 30 days before departure. Who books an easyJet ticket within 30 days????? Whoever they are they pay dearly for it.
  - Stu R says:
    
    24 Jan24 January 08:37
    
    I have! I’ve booked a flight with EZY 3 weeks beforehand to travel from GLA to LTN and paid £140 return for 2 people – BA to LHR was £350 by comparison – go figure ….
  - Jen T says:
    
    24 Jan24 January 08:51
    
    Also just booked to Madrid within 30 days with Easyjet. £35 with them one-way, £150 with BA. Generally I find Easyjet keep their prices lower for longer than BA – good for short notice trips.
  - Simon says:
    
    24 Jan24 January 10:38
    
    I’m sure a lot of people travelling on business often book Easyjet at short notice. I seldom know my schedule more than a couple of weeks in advance but, heading into London, I can generally get an OK fare to at least 1 of the airports Easyjet serve.
  - Ian says:
    
    24 Jan24 January 11:19
    
    Erm, loads of people!
    
    I just found out i need to travel next week for work. Easyjet flight booked for £64 return.
    
    Strange comment.
    - Aeronaut says:
      
      25 Jan25 January 09:41
      
      Yep, strange comment indeed!
      
      Anyway, must dash, I need to pick up my pre-booked cappuccino… it’s keenly priced if you order at least a month ahead…
  - Martin says:
    
    25 Jan25 January 13:37
    
    Me for one! Booked ABZ-LGW three hours before flying yesterday for only £60, BA to LHR was £210. I’m sorry but the extra fees which BA pay for LHR access and a packet of crisps & a G&T still don’t make it worth an extra £150 for me. It wasn’t as if the easyJet flight was half empty – it was about 90% full.
Pat Best says:

24 Jan24 January 07:35

Yet another silly idea that is totally unnecessary & will cause more holdups at desk checkin while people request to change the seats they have been alloted for various reasons. Is this just a way to force people to pay for a specific seat rather than take a chance at whats available at 24hr checkin!
If it aint broke leave it alone BA
Stu R says:

24 Jan24 January 07:40

As I’ve said before, and I’ll say again, BA seems to be in a race to the bottom right now.

I agree with what ‘EM’ says re EasyJet and allowing check in from 30 days before the flight. How BA can justify £10 to reserve a seat on a flight from Glasgow to London, when EasyJet charge £4.07, is beyond me.

Being forced to check in smacks of Ryanair of old – BA is becoming an almost budget airline, without the £ budget bit!

I’m afraid the reasons for flying with BA are becoming less on almost a daily basis ….
oyster says:

24 Jan24 January 07:47

Sounds like a ruse to get even less people using the manual check in desks.

There’ll be a lot of people turning up at the airport wondering if they’ve been hacked.
- Danksy says:
  
  24 Jan24 January 07:51
  
  Oyster I agree. ..However the difference between the time taken to drop bags and and check in is marginal so they won’t save much time I’m sure ! I think it’s more about maximising revenue by charging no shows post check in!
NickM says:

24 Jan24 January 08:13

Is BA’s objective here to become as bad as Iberia used to be? Crew don’t Like them as an employer, passengers don’t like them as a service provider. They are fast approaching rock bottom.
@mkcol says:

24 Jan24 January 08:15

I can’t see how this will benefit anyone – customer or company.
sam wardill says:

24 Jan24 January 08:34

I guess the idea is to reduce expensive check in staff. That was the vision of T5 that has never really materialised. I could see how it could work in an age where the majority of passengers had epassports that can be read easily and passengers were forced by the majority of governments to provide advance passenger info. For a company like BA their IT moves like an oil tanker so I guess a trial now might make sense to allow them to get something that works in 5 years time.
- Stu R says:
  
  24 Jan24 January 08:41
  
  “BA their IT moves like an oil tanker” ….
  
  Certainly does, their app only just being optimised for iPhone 6’s which’ve been out since Sept 2014, where IB’s app isn’t even optimised for iPhone 5 and is still in 4″ screen mode!
  
  (To be fair, I’m currently trialling the beta of the iPhone 6 optimised BA app and it looks vastly superior to the current version and should be out in weeks)
  - Jason says:
    
    25 Jan25 January 18:45
    
    How do I get this beta? Am flying BA in two weeks and would love to try it. To be honest BA already has one of the better airline apps out there, compared to AA for instance, which requires internet to work…
    - Stu R says:
      
      26 Jan26 January 05:34
      
      I was offered it because I’ve been waging my own personal twitter campaign at BA re their tardiness in responding to the ‘latest’ (read 16 months old) iPhone models.
      
      One of their tech guys picked up on my tweets and offered me a chance to try out the app – apparently it will go live in weeks, not months.
      
      FYI, it looks much better (less Lego Duple if you get my meaning!), but there is absolutely no improved functionality or redesign, just smaller and crisper content.