Not being able to check in online

[probstimeforanewname]

I am going away for a few days tomorrow with the family (3 of us, ds is 16, so all adults as far as airlines are concerned), domestic flight from Gatwick with BA, so no passport/visa requirements.

I was invited to check in online and then told half way through the process that I couldn't.

I phoned BA and they said that airports randomly select people who must check in at the airport. They are not able to influence this. This would make sense if we were flying with hand luggage only, but we're not, so will have to check in bags in any case.

This could be really annoying if you wanted seats together.

Has anyone else encountered this?

Am worried flight is going to be cancelled or is full already, but BA says not.

Go online and try and book another ticket for the flight?

I have had this with Lufthansa several times.
We just checked in at the airport with no issues.

The only other time this has happened to me was a transatlantic flight which was overbooked, but got upgraded to business class on that occasion! Other than that it has been obvious it was either a change of plane or their system just wasn't working.

It was a good idea to see if you can still book for it, it says 4 tickets left. That could be at a particular price point as well I suppose so there may be even more. Feeling slightly reassured!

Happened to me on our way to the states. Had already booked seats but I had extra security checks.

It sometimes happens to me when I'm flying US to UK (I live in US)- usually, it's because I'm on a connecting flight but travelling on a British passport so they want to check my ID.

Only one of the many times it happened was there a seating issue due to overselling, so I think most likely this is just a random security check thing.

Apparently it was because our passport details had changed, but how they knew that I don't know, as my old one wasn't due to expire until December, although my son's had expired in June (but I thought you could use an old one for up to two years as photo ID).

We were at the airport 3 hours before departure, so were checked in without issue once the guy on check in had updated the passport details. I would have preferred not to have been there so early though! Coming back today was fine.