Another new idea from Virgin

[steph_goodrum]

This was in my I-Fly update for this month, we'll try it out when we go in September as it beats having to be at the airport 4 hours before as we've been advised by travel agent now.
You can check in between 24 and 2 hours before travel online and then just go to collect boarding cards and drop off bags no less than an hour before departure.
NEW DIY CHECK IN SERVICE

Check in online and save time with our new DIY Check In service on the Virgin Atlantic site at http://www.virgin.com/DIY

Flights are now available for online check in from our departure airports in the UK, US, South Africa, Tokyo and Shanghai from 24 hours to 2 hours prior to scheduled departure.

Check in formalities, including boarding card collection, baggage drop and security screening, will still be completed at the airport. You should arrive no less than 1 hour before your departure and look for the DIY Bag Drop sign.

[KevinTHFC]

BA have something similar except you can't use it if you have children in your party[msnmad]

kevin

[steph_goodrum]

That seems a bit strange Kevin I wonder why?

[adh619]

seems a good idea

[Y]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by steph_goodrum
That seems a bit strange Kevin I wonder why?
[/quote]
Steph, we tried to check in online with BA last year to Faro and couldn't use it for our 15 year old daughter as she was under 16
We rang BA to check why and the lady on the phone didn,t know the answer. She wasn't even aware that children couldn't check in online!
When we did fly out we were caught in traffic and therefore a bit later checking in than planned and were all totally split up on the plane.We joked we should have checked ourseves in online and left her to it[msnsmile2]

[Matt]

As far as I'm aware this new feature on the Virgin website is currently having teething problems, so don't rely on it too much at the moment.

Matt

[steph_goodrum]

They will always have teething problems but at least we can try before we leave in a couple of weeks as we'll be staying overnight and we'll know how long we need to be at the airport for.
Be much better when they get twilight checkin at Heathrow.

[honeybee]

Reason you cannot check in with children is that they want to see the children as you could say the child is under 12 and they are older. The same with the automatic check ins with BA only avialable to adult only parties

[steph_goodrum]

They have the date of birth on the passport which you still have to show when you collect your boarding card though so they can check on the childrens ages at the airport in the same way they do at present.

[ravtino]

This sounds like agood idea, we have just returned from Florida on Fri morning and we were told that from Sept it will be a 5 hour check in on US flights, this was because Us imigration wanted a complete flight list 2 hours before take off? Has anyone else heard of this????