Time on Your Side: Not Just Advance Purchase, but Advance Check in...

Although the role of eXpert insights is to provide market information and best practice advice to procurement and travel management program professionals, frequently we get asked to provide tips to business travelers on how to get the most out of their business trips themselves.

Here is one I learned first hand last week: check in online. En route to a meeting at 2 pm in Atlanta last Wednesday, I was not even rushing when I parked at the airport shortly after 9 am for a 9:45 am flight. As luck would have it, Boston Logan central parking was not even full (pray tell what ARE they going to do when unemployment is not 9%??) so I sauntered through the shiny escalator tunnels into the terminal and swiped my card at the kiosk.

Now as I drank my latte as I watched the kiosk scrolling "Please Wait.... Searching, Searching, Searching..." I did think it odd it was taking so long but simply chalked it up to the likely ancient airline technology mainframes on the back end. I won't be able to confirm what it was that took the kiosk so long to come back to me, but it was the bad news it delivered that was the issue: sorry you can not check in for this flight at this kiosk.

So getting a little nervous I waited in line to get a check in agent: sorry honey, it is 9:18, it is too late to check in for this flight. When she called the gate they said tough luck. I seriously though she was joking.

While she took another 10 minutes to find an alternative flight, and waitlist me for another, I asked if I could simply get a boarding pass and throw myself on the mercy of the gate agents. "They don't want to see you," she said. "It's a security risk."

Perplexed by this experience, I shared it with colleagues that evening at our meeting. One had a simple explanation: she was on a 7 am flight that was cancelled and there were dozens of people waiting to get on my plane. Including lots of senior frequent fliers, and we all know how airlines feel about those customers.

So while I will never know what made the kiosk hold me up until it was too late to use it to secure my seat, I do know this: if I had done online check in, I would have been fine. Now I just have to upgrade to iPhone 4 to get the airline's online app to work...