AKICOLJ: Airport check-in

[philmophlegm]

Question: When you 'check in' to a flight, what are you actually doing?

I mean, you can now check in remotely and 24 hours in advance of your flight, so it's not about saying "I'm here and I will definitely be needing the seat on the plane that I've already booked". Neither is it about showing your passport since you still need to do that (probably several times) at the airport. And you still need to go and drop off your luggage when you arrive at the airport.

If you travel by train, you don't have to 'check in', and 'checking-in' to a hotel is all about them giving you the room key and pre-approving your credit card.

Comments

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

But that doesn't explain why they allow you to check in so far in advance when you're not even at the airport. While it's probably safe to assume that someone prepared to endure the typical modern airport wants to get away from that airport as quickly as possible, there must still be lots of people who change their mind in the space of 24 hours.

[purplecat]

I'm assuming, I suppose, that there is less statistical variation in the ratio of people who check in but don't turn up, than there is in the ratio of people who book but don't turn up. Therefore it gives the airline more concrete information about the likely actual numbers than they can get from the booking information alone.