If I know a flight is delayed can I turn up late for check-in at the airport?
This is the scenario:
I have tickets booked for a 13:40 scheduled flight with Emirates. I need to check bags in so plan to be at the airport at the advised 2 hours before flight departure (11:40) but I look ahead and see my plane is delayed and not scheduled for departure until 16:40.
Can I arrive at the airport at 14:40 to check-in or should I knowingly arrive at the airport a full 5 hours before the revised departure time?
Footnote: The reason of the delay is that the inbound flight which will become be my outbound flight after turnaround is delayed in arriving at my departure airport.
Best Answer
The check-in time has no relation to the flight being delayed. The counter will close on time, even if the flight never departs on time.
This is because there are other things that need to happen for the flight to leave that are dependent on the check-in desk:
- Passenger manifest.
- Seat reservations/upgrades/changes.
- Luggage has to be tagged, the tags have to be entered in the system.
- Luggage has to be scanned and transported to the loading bay.
- Luggage may need to be loaded onto freight containers.
- Passengers may have to pass through immigration.
- There might be travel time (walking time) to the gate.
All that needs to happen; irrespective of the length of the delay.
There are other considerations too. At most airports; check-in desks are manned by rotating third-party (ie, non airline employee) staff. So the airline has a limited period in which to check-in passengers, before another set of crew sets up on the same station.
At some locations, the physical counters are restricted as well.
Granted, this isn't a problem if you are departing from Dubai and are on Emirates since they have a dedicated terminal (so all counters are checking in Emirates flights), but the flight itself may not be open (or be closed) for booking (in the reservation systems).
In short, do not gamble with timing.
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Answer 2
In your particular case you might know when the flight leaves because it's unlikely another plane materializes but in general you need to be quite vigilant: it happened to me that the delay was decreased! Say, you show up for a flight to leave at 1pm, the flight now shows at 3pm but then it boards at 2pm and leaves at 2:30pm. You need to be vigilant with these things.
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