Check-In Deadlines for Your Flight - The Fact and Fiction
A reader contacted me about a flight he had taken with KLM and the rather bizarre information it provided about check-in.
According to the airline's website, check-in closes 30 minutes before departure.
However, it suggests you arrive 120 minutes ahead of departure to allow for queues.
When he checked in online for a departure from London Heathrow, the times had mysteriously changed.
Now, he was told to arrive 150 minutes before departure, despite the fact that he was on the 06.
30 flight to Amsterdam and the check-in desks do not open until 04.
30.
Once he was at the airport and in the queue to drop off his baggage, queue-marshals were "helpfully" handing out flyers to say that check-in closed 45 minutes prior to departure.
Understandably, he was somewhat confused.
KLM is never wrong so, obviously, this is my fault for not understanding its aim in all this.
The point is not to help the passenger but to ensure that the airline does not risk having to pay compensation for Denied Boarding.
The first thing to say is that the 30-minute figure is highly misleading.
Airlines aim to close aircraft doors at least ten minutes before departure and the gate will close a few minutes before this time.
You have to allow at least ten minutes to get through security at any airport.
Airport maps often show the time it takes to get from the entrance to a specific gate.
This could be anything between ten and twenty minutes.
In other words, you may be able to deposit your luggage 30 minutes before departure, but it is far from certain you will be able to get to the aircraft before the doors close.
KLM claims that check-in closes 30 minutes ahead of departure for short-haul flights within Europe but, while there are a few airports this will work at, it is far too short for bigger airports, such as Heathrow or Schiphol.
British Airways has a rather more sensible approach to check-in times, but it does rely on the passenger using some thought.
BA states that you must have your boarding card and have checked your luggage 45 minutes before departure at Heathrow and Gatwick.
You also must go through Security 35 minutes before departure.
If you do not arrive at the entrance to Security by that time, you will not be allowed to proceed.
Security is supposed to take no more than ten minutes, which, in theory, leaves you with a reasonable amount of time to get to the gate by the 20-minute deadline.
Lufthansa claims that it will take your baggage with just thirty minutes to go at Heathrow, but this is surely far too short and the airline does not make it clear that you cannot just expect to turn up with 35 minutes to go and stroll to an empty check-in desk.
The silliest check-in times seem to be reserved for London City.
The airport used to boast of its ten-minute check-in deadline but has grown considerably and security requirements have increased since those early days.
Most airlines have quietly increased the minimum time, but Air France/CityJet still claim they have a 15-minute check-in time, which seems ridiculous, since many airlines at the airport are actually boarding passengers at that time.
BA does have an entirely credible deadline of 15 minutes but only on its flight to New York, where ground staff offer a private security lane and a personal concierge service to passengers, so anyone arriving late would be escorted all the way to the gate.
It is all very well for airlines to tell you when their check-in desks close, but that is not really so important.
What a passenger needs to know is when they should arrive at the airport with a proper expectation of getting to the head of the queue by the final time, and then being able to clear security and reach the gate before the doors close.
KLM does at least make a stab at this by saying you should arrive either two hours or two and a half hours in advance but this is surely too conservative, even in view of the long queues at KLM check-in desks at Heathrow and Schiphol.
Genuine self-service check-in (where you deposit your bag, print the tag and dispatch it down the chute) is slowly being rolled out and it should cut queues once teething problems are out of the way.
In the meantime, passengers (unless they have been given advice by an airline like KLM) simply have to guess how long they will have to wait in line.
For what it's worth, our guess would be that a court might say that a wait of more than one hour was excessive and if you could prove that you had arrived at the end of the queue an hour before the cut-off time and not been allowed to check in you could claim Denied Boarding compensation.
The difficulty would be actually proving the time you joined the queue.
If an airline is overbooked, it must be very tempting to slow the check-in queue so the last few passengers can be quietly dismissed without having to pay compensation.
We doubt that it happens as often as passengers imagine, but it does happen on occasions.
You should note that airlines do not even mention the time you should allow for security.
We really do not know what KLM or Lufthansa would do if you checked in by their foolishly tight deadlines and then could not get through Security.
Only BA offers a tacit guarantee that you will be OK as long as you get to the entrance of Security by the deadline.
According to the airline's website, check-in closes 30 minutes before departure.
However, it suggests you arrive 120 minutes ahead of departure to allow for queues.
When he checked in online for a departure from London Heathrow, the times had mysteriously changed.
Now, he was told to arrive 150 minutes before departure, despite the fact that he was on the 06.
30 flight to Amsterdam and the check-in desks do not open until 04.
30.
Once he was at the airport and in the queue to drop off his baggage, queue-marshals were "helpfully" handing out flyers to say that check-in closed 45 minutes prior to departure.
Understandably, he was somewhat confused.
KLM is never wrong so, obviously, this is my fault for not understanding its aim in all this.
The point is not to help the passenger but to ensure that the airline does not risk having to pay compensation for Denied Boarding.
The first thing to say is that the 30-minute figure is highly misleading.
Airlines aim to close aircraft doors at least ten minutes before departure and the gate will close a few minutes before this time.
You have to allow at least ten minutes to get through security at any airport.
Airport maps often show the time it takes to get from the entrance to a specific gate.
This could be anything between ten and twenty minutes.
In other words, you may be able to deposit your luggage 30 minutes before departure, but it is far from certain you will be able to get to the aircraft before the doors close.
KLM claims that check-in closes 30 minutes ahead of departure for short-haul flights within Europe but, while there are a few airports this will work at, it is far too short for bigger airports, such as Heathrow or Schiphol.
British Airways has a rather more sensible approach to check-in times, but it does rely on the passenger using some thought.
BA states that you must have your boarding card and have checked your luggage 45 minutes before departure at Heathrow and Gatwick.
You also must go through Security 35 minutes before departure.
If you do not arrive at the entrance to Security by that time, you will not be allowed to proceed.
Security is supposed to take no more than ten minutes, which, in theory, leaves you with a reasonable amount of time to get to the gate by the 20-minute deadline.
Lufthansa claims that it will take your baggage with just thirty minutes to go at Heathrow, but this is surely far too short and the airline does not make it clear that you cannot just expect to turn up with 35 minutes to go and stroll to an empty check-in desk.
The silliest check-in times seem to be reserved for London City.
The airport used to boast of its ten-minute check-in deadline but has grown considerably and security requirements have increased since those early days.
Most airlines have quietly increased the minimum time, but Air France/CityJet still claim they have a 15-minute check-in time, which seems ridiculous, since many airlines at the airport are actually boarding passengers at that time.
BA does have an entirely credible deadline of 15 minutes but only on its flight to New York, where ground staff offer a private security lane and a personal concierge service to passengers, so anyone arriving late would be escorted all the way to the gate.
It is all very well for airlines to tell you when their check-in desks close, but that is not really so important.
What a passenger needs to know is when they should arrive at the airport with a proper expectation of getting to the head of the queue by the final time, and then being able to clear security and reach the gate before the doors close.
KLM does at least make a stab at this by saying you should arrive either two hours or two and a half hours in advance but this is surely too conservative, even in view of the long queues at KLM check-in desks at Heathrow and Schiphol.
Genuine self-service check-in (where you deposit your bag, print the tag and dispatch it down the chute) is slowly being rolled out and it should cut queues once teething problems are out of the way.
In the meantime, passengers (unless they have been given advice by an airline like KLM) simply have to guess how long they will have to wait in line.
For what it's worth, our guess would be that a court might say that a wait of more than one hour was excessive and if you could prove that you had arrived at the end of the queue an hour before the cut-off time and not been allowed to check in you could claim Denied Boarding compensation.
The difficulty would be actually proving the time you joined the queue.
If an airline is overbooked, it must be very tempting to slow the check-in queue so the last few passengers can be quietly dismissed without having to pay compensation.
We doubt that it happens as often as passengers imagine, but it does happen on occasions.
You should note that airlines do not even mention the time you should allow for security.
We really do not know what KLM or Lufthansa would do if you checked in by their foolishly tight deadlines and then could not get through Security.
Only BA offers a tacit guarantee that you will be OK as long as you get to the entrance of Security by the deadline.
Source...