Check-in a non-flying passenger?

[Vertigo]

Ok so this is perhaps a bit of a weird one.

Scenario is a non-refundable flight booking but one of the passengers will no longer be going.
Ok so you can't get your money back, that's fine, but still want the vacant seat next to you as it's nice to have and you've paid for it!

Question then is, when online check-in opens, should you check-in that passenger or not?

My thinking was that, if you didn't check them in then the airline might see their (reserved) seat is free and let someone else have it which isn't on.
On the other hand, if you check them in so the airline can't reallocate the seat, is that then going to cause problems when they don't actually show up for the flight?

 

[Jokester]

They’ll be called for the flight and since they don’t have hold baggage they’ll just be removed without any major delay I would think.

Edit: Assuming this is the UK, if it’s the likes of the US they would likely get still get somebody if they have anyone waiting at the gate for the off chance.

 

[Trifid]

I flew out last year where my companion was rushed to a and e instead of going to the airport after check in. I had a free seat next to me there and back.

 

[Vertigo]

They’ll be called for the flight and since they don’t have hold baggage they’ll just be removed without any major delay I would think.

Edit: Assuming this is the UK, if it’s the likes of the US they would likely get still get somebody if they have anyone waiting at the gate for the off chance.

Multiple legs, starting in UK but nowhere in US. I guess that, with multiple legs, even if you checked them in at the start, for the subsequent legs they'd know they weren't boarding and it's actually the second leg that's the most important.

I flew out last year where my companion was rushed to a and e instead of going to the airport after check in. I had a free seat next to me there and back.

Eek, hope they were ok!

That's kind of what I was thinking, go through all the motions but they just don't show on the day.

As above though, it's actually the second leg that's long-haul and the most important to retain the empty seat and, by the time we get to the second leg, they'd know that passenger is missing.

If we've paid for the seat and also paid extra to reserve a specific seat then they shouldn't be able to reallocate it to someone else really, even if that person doesn't show as we still paid for the damn thing! I appreciate airlines are a law unto themselves however.

 

[Jokester]

As above though, it's actually the second leg that's long-haul and the most important to retain the empty seat and, by the time we get to the second leg, they'd know that passenger is missing.

It'll come down to whether they have any last second bookings (unlikely I suspect), or more likely some rebooking from somebody that missed their flight.

 

[Vertigo]

It'll come down to whether they have any last second bookings (unlikely I suspect), or more likely some rebooking from somebody that missed their flight.

Yeah most likely. Basically their attitude will be that, if you don't show up then you forfeit your seat and they can re-sell or re-allocate it. Personally I don't think that should be allowed and, if you've paid for the seat then it's yours, regardless of whether you actually sit in it.

I remember a similar thing with a hotel booking years ago which was non-refundable but which I could not longer make. I called anyway to see if they'd bend the rules but they refused and said there'd be no refunds. Then they had the cheek to ask if I wanted to cancel the booking and I told them to get lost, that if I was going to be forced to pay for the room anyway then they weren't going to sell it again to someone else and it could sit vacant.

 

[EGuitarStar]

I've purposely missed a flight as I extended my holiday and forgot to notify the airline, I did not check in and the flight departed on time.

This was back in 2008 when flight prices were less than £100 if you booked early.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

They are fairly unlikely to reallocate it, but its possible.
Especially if long haul where the closure for checking in is a decent time before the plane takes off.

You have no guarantees on anything with flying, they can not allow you on, they can reallocate your seats etc as they feel free, to meet operational/safety needs etc

Typically if someone is on standby for an emergency flight thats full then they will be told to only bring hand luggage and be ready for a sprint basically to get to the gate.

Someone not checking in won't delay a flight at all as they wont be expected at the gate and hence no luggage is on board.
What delays planes is having checked luggage loaded and the person not boarding as they cannot fly with luggage from someone who isn't on the plane, for obvious terrorism reasons.
Its why they annoying tend to give these selfish ***** more time to turn up before they go through the hastle of finding and removing the hold luggage.

They know once you approach security if you are really there or not as thats when you scan your boarding pass. So if you have pre checked in and downloaded an E pass thats the point they know you are actually at the airport intending to fly.

 

[arknor]

they sell more seats than there are seats on a plane knowing some passengers won;t turn up, so someone could still sit there.

no one is holding up a plane btw... because of one passenger who checked in but never appears... they still didnt go to the actual departures check in desk in time before the gate closed.

people must check in all the time and never make the flight. it'd be crazy to delay... also they are paying for the time slots they cant afford to go over and sit on the tarmac

 

[Raymond Lin]

Flights take off without checked in passengers all the time.

I had a flight from Rabat in Morocco to London with a connection in Paris CDG, the flight from Rabat was delayed and the Paris flight didn’t wait for me at all. Not even 10mins, I got to the gate at 8:45 and the door was already shut, it was scheduled to depart at 9pm.

It was 1 ticket btw

 

[And]

Flights take off without checked in passengers all the time.

I had a flight from Rabat in Morocco to London with a connection in Paris CDG, the flight from Rabat was delayed and the Paris flight didn’t wait for me at all. Not even 10mins, I got to the gate at 8:45 and the door was already shut, it was scheduled to depart at 9pm.

It was 1 ticket btw

Air France? I had 'fun' travelling with them connecting via CDG, suffice to say out of four flights none left on time.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

they sell more seats than there are seats on a plane knowing some passengers won;t turn up, so someone could still sit there.

no one is holding up a plane btw... because of one passenger who checked in but never appears... they still didnt go to the actual departures check in desk in time before the gate closed.

people must check in all the time and never make the flight. it'd be crazy to delay... also they are paying for the time slots they cant afford to go over and sit on the tarmac

Flights take off without checked in passengers all the time.

I had a flight from Rabat in Morocco to London with a connection in Paris CDG, the flight from Rabat was delayed and the Paris flight didn’t wait for me at all. Not even 10mins, I got to the gate at 8:45 and the door was already shut, it was scheduled to depart at 9pm.

It was 1 ticket btw

Nope, sorry both wrong

I have literally been in a plane where a passenger didn't board and after about 30 mins (they already missed the take off slot) they called for the airport guys to locate and offload the bag.


"Positive Passenger Bag Match (PPBM) is a crucial airline security protocol ensuring every checked bag loaded onto an aircraft has a corresponding, physically present passenger, preventing unaccompanied baggage from flying and enhancing safety, especially on international flights, by matching bag tags to passenger boarding passes before takeoff.
How it Works

1. Check-In: When you check your bags, they get tagged and scanned.
2. Boarding: You board the plane, and your boarding pass is scanned.
3. Matching: Before departure, airline staff verify that the scanned bag tags match the passengers who have boarded the flight.
4. Loading: Only bags belonging to present passengers are loaded onto the plane.

Why it's Important

• Security: Prevents potential bombs or dangerous items from being loaded without the owner.
• Compliance: Required by aviation security regulations (like those from the TSA/EASA) for most international travel.
• Efficiency: Helps manage unclaimed bags and ensures all luggage is accounted for. "

 

[sigma]

Nope, sorry both wrong

I have literally been in a plane where a passenger didn't board and after about 30 mins (they already missed the take off slot) they called for the airport guys to locate and offload the bag.


"Positive Passenger Bag Match (PPBM) is a crucial airline security protocol ensuring every checked bag loaded onto an aircraft has a corresponding, physically present passenger, preventing unaccompanied baggage from flying and enhancing safety, especially on international flights, by matching bag tags to passenger boarding passes before takeoff.
How it Works

1. Check-In: When you check your bags, they get tagged and scanned.
2. Boarding: You board the plane, and your boarding pass is scanned.
3. Matching: Before departure, airline staff verify that the scanned bag tags match the passengers who have boarded the flight.
4. Loading: Only bags belonging to present passengers are loaded onto the plane.

Why it's Important

• Security: Prevents potential bombs or dangerous items from being loaded without the owner.
• Compliance: Required by aviation security regulations (like those from the TSA/EASA) for most international travel.
• Efficiency: Helps manage unclaimed bags and ensures all luggage is accounted for. "

Are you telling Raymond that he didn't miss his flight?

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Are you telling Raymond that he didn't miss his flight?

No

 

[Vertigo]

Nope, sorry both wrong

I have literally been in a plane where a passenger didn't board and after about 30 mins (they already missed the take off slot) they called for the airport guys to locate and offload the bag.

There's a difference between "checking in" and "checking a bag". If a passenger has checked in but has no checked in luggage, then they can just leave without them.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Nope, sorry both wrong

I have literally been in a plane where a passenger didn't board and after about 30 mins (they already missed the take off slot) they called for the airport guys to locate and offload the bag.


"Positive Passenger Bag Match (PPBM) is a crucial airline security protocol ensuring every checked bag loaded onto an aircraft has a corresponding, physically present passenger, preventing unaccompanied baggage from flying and enhancing safety, especially on international flights, by matching bag tags to passenger boarding passes before takeoff.
How it Works

1. Check-In: When you check your bags, they get tagged and scanned.
2. Boarding: You board the plane, and your boarding pass is scanned.
3. Matching: Before departure, airline staff verify that the scanned bag tags match the passengers who have boarded the flight.
4. Loading: Only bags belonging to present passengers are loaded onto the plane.

Why it's Important

• Security: Prevents potential bombs or dangerous items from being loaded without the owner.
• Compliance: Required by aviation security regulations (like those from the TSA/EASA) for most international travel.
• Efficiency: Helps manage unclaimed bags and ensures all luggage is accounted for. "

are you calling me a liar?

Would you like to see that crappy hotel they put me in?

Or want to see the claim I put in which I got paid under EU law?

I got screenshots of when I got the text “your flight to London is closing boarding” when I was on the plane from Rabat when I was on the tarmac after just landed.

I also took a photo when I got to the gate (time stamped).

I can prove every bit of it, you weren’t there. You are talking out of a very large back side.

I didn’t had a check in bag btw, why are you talking about bags? I never had a check bag going through CDG…I don’t trust them. 3 weeks in Morocco I only took carry on.

 

[Charlie Bravo]

Many moons ago now I spent a couple of years working on check in for a certain Irish budget airline. It was before online check in existed.
Their aircraft at the time (737-800's) had 189 seats and they would routinely sell 210 tickets per flight due to passengers simply not turning up.
There were numerous occasions I had to tell people there weren't any seats left on the flight they had a ticket for. I particularly remember a family of 3 travelling and we had 1 boarding card remaining. Not great.

In later years I was an Aircraft Dispatcher, managing the turnaround and calculating the weight and balance of the aircraft.
If a passenger has checked in (you don't know if they are in the airport or not - security is a separate system) but has no bags and fails to present themselves to the gate by the closure time then they are simply offloaded and the loadsheet is produced.

If the passenger has checked luggage and fails to show then it was usually a race between finding the bag in the hold and the passenger arriving at the gate. If the bag was found first, the passenger was offloaded.
That however varied depending on the airlines own rules.
I've worked for airlines where the race was on and I've worked for an airline where you were not allowed to reopen the flight after closure so even if the passenger arrived 1 minute after gate closure and it took the loaders 10 minutes to locate the bag in the hold, then you would wait 10 minutes and the passenger was offloaded regardless.

I must admit I've held flights open at the gate waiting for the last remaining person only for them to pitch up with shopping or a coffee and then just offloaded them anyway. Shopping or coffee wasn't a good enough reason to be late for me!

As for this PPBM thing, we never referred to it as that and I was never taught that.
Triple A is the standard or The Accounting and Authorisation of Hold Baggage for carriage by Air if you prefer the full title.
A bag cannot travel without its owner unless it has the required paperwork ie a bag that didn't make it onto a flight for whatever reason and now the airline is getting it to where it should have been.

As for the steps that Mr Warrior posted, they aren't correct either. All bags are loaded onto the aircraft regardless of whether the owner is present. If said owner fails to show prior to gate closure it is at that point that the bag is located and removed.

Going back to the OP, you won't cause any issues. However, if the airline has standby passengers and the flight is fully booked, once the gate closes and the number through the gate is less than the number of seats available, your now spare seat will indeed be taken by somebody else regardless of you having paid for it.

 

[Usel]

I flew to Mexico in September with BA. My daughter was already in America participating in Camp America and she was going to fly from New York to Cancun.

When we booked our package holiday it was cheaper to book my daughters flights in the package than to book her a one way flight back to UK from Mexico.

So when we left the UK we wanted the extra seat next to us on the middle row of 4 to give us more room so online checked in her flight. When at the airport we had to explain what we wanted when checking in our baggage. There was a little bit of faff but we got what we wanted. The flight was almost full and we ended up getting a row of 4 just for the 2 of us.

Before we boarded the plane, waiting to leave the UK, we were instructed to phone BA and explain how we needed the flight back for my daughter even though she didn't use her seat leaving the UK. All was okay but what they didn't inform us was she now had a new booking number.

When leaving Mexico, 24hrs before, we tried to online book our seats but couldn't for our daughter. Had to phone BA in the UK to resolve it. By luck we actually spoke to the same call handler and they apologised and said they forgot to tell us she had a new flight number. We manged to online book her in and we ended up with a row of 4 for the 3 of us on the way back.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

As for the steps that Mr Warrior posted, they aren't correct either. All bags are loaded onto the aircraft regardless of whether the owner is present. If said owner fails to show prior to gate closure it is at that point that the bag is located and removed.

Good write up

Your wrong in regards loaded though at least in respect of what that step means. (because its talking of the whole process up until take off, I didn't write it)

You need to understand the dictionary definition of the word loaded : "carrying or bearing a load, especially a large one"
Your definition I suspect is "physically put on the plane" which isn't what loaded means
An often misused word in English

I had previously said that people with hold luggage who fail to present will have it removed.
Which was my issue with people saying they will not hold a flight for checked in no shows as your write up agrees it depends on if the person is a carry only or with checked in luggage.

I bet the percentages of carry on vs checked in vary highly by carrier and destinations.

 

[Efour]

It's different if you check in with hold luggage then don't show up. (Kaboom risk)

But check in and don't show up to the gate after the final call then your hurry the f up call. That's "ok" bags off or no bags bag. No worries.