Does anyone else yearn for the days…

[TheChosenTwo]

When you could just book a flight and turn up to the airport and check in?!
just had an hour of rage at the online check in fiasco that is wizz air (have flown with them before and don’t remember this drama!) and fondly recall the times where you would just turn up at the desk, present your passports and then toddle off to do some shopping.
Now I feel like you’re paying to do the check in work your bloody self and it’s never simple 😵‍💫
I will head off the following before it comes flying (boom boom) at me, yes I appreciate I’m lucky to have gone abroad for my holiday, yes I’m aware of my carbon footprint and that I shouldn’t have gone at all, yes I know if you want cheap flights there are consequences to that… and anything else I’ve forgotten. These weren’t the cheapest flights but they were the ones that suited us best, flew out with easy jet and it was a smooth process doing the online check in. It’s just this one which has caused me holiday rage.

It's not just the cheaper flights. It's expensive ones too. If I wanted to work in an airport I would. Scan this, put that on there, press that button, fingerprints there.

Oh god yeah exactly, admin is my bread and butter - I don’t want to have to do it when I’m on holiday too 😤

I’m as keen as the next person to rant about things but I’m afraid I haven’t found this at all. I’ve flown four times this year and each time I’ve checked in online before I’ve got to the airport, and then at the airport I’ve just strolled up, checked in my bag with no queue, gone through security and it’s been easy as pie.
I remember the bad old days of long slow moving queues and the “did you pack your bag yourself” pointless questions.

Whizz air is particularly onerous I found. easyJet was...well..easy

I’m afraid I haven’t found this at all. I’ve flown four times this year and each time I’ve checked in online before I’ve got to the airport,
OP and PPs are literally saying they dislike online checkin. That's the whole point of this thread. You've said you haven't found it (implying you haven't had to do online checkin) then gone on to say you've had to do online checkin each time on the 4 flights you've done. So you have found it after all. So... What point are you making? And what are you actually disagreeing with in this thread?

I find the initial flight booking and online checkin so tedious these days. Endless pages of up-selling ad ons.

Also, the farce once boarded of the Flight Attendants making sure only people who have paid for the overhead locker use the overhead locker!

It's not online flying, it's Wizz Air.

We only flew them once and never again. The app doesn't work, the flight was very delayed, they'd overbooked so forced random people off the plane after we'd been sitting on the runway for an hour.

It was horrific. Never again. They're cheaper but not worth it even for the cheaper prices. Voted Europe's worst airline. Make Ryanair look good!

So the OP said they found it hard, I said I had not found it hard.

It isn’t that it’s hard, it’s just tedious!!
wizz air weren’t the cheapest to come home with, easyJet were cheaper but we didn’t want to fly at the times they offered.
I have flown with Wizz before and don’t recall it being such an annoying process!
I also agree with the annoying upselling of things when you’re trying to book a holiday in general.
I do also miss proper travel agents 😂

And yes, I agree that it’s very smooth once you’re at the airport but I would like there to be a choice of either online check in or check in at the airport WITHOUT being charged extra - it’s all about the cost cutting, they don’t want to pay for staff now and try and get everyone to do it themselves. Next thing you know you’ll be asked to fly the bloody plane yourself if you pay less 😂

I don't really understand online check in to be honest. When you then check your badge in they still ask for your passport and I find it takes just as long?

When we came out you had to show your passports to get in a queue to weigh and label your bags (yourself of course) so yes there was still a queue. Although I do think it was quicker than people queuing up to check in at a desk.
But I’d prefer to just check in at a desk, someone else can make a mistake but I don’t want to and then risk being overcharged for an admin error at the airport. The whole thing just feels like a massive swizz!

The thing is we flew longhaul at the end of last year and it was the same process, online check in and weigh and tag your bags yourself so it’s not just the cheap Europe travel where this is happening.
Anyway I’m (kind of!!) over it now, we’ve checked in (and paid money for something I didn’t need because I thought it was to get them to check me in but turns out it wasn’t, no idea what the money was for in the end), I was going to call customer services about something else but the website says there’s a flat €15 fee for advice if it was something that could be found on the website so I didn’t bother, it was all just winding me up when I wanted to languish in paradise for the last full day! It’s all sorted and fine I was just momentarily pissed off with the world 🤣

I think you're talking about Manchester airport. Flew recently with TUI and couldn't believe had to queue up to weigh my own hold suitcase and do all the stuff the check-in desk used to do. It was very stressful, am not sure this is progress 🙄I preferred the return airport journey, much more relaxing until returning to Manchester airport and being snarled at passport control for scanning my passport upside down in those new scanner things. Awful place.

Manchester is fucking appalling it's true.

But, I also don't get the online check-in thing if you have bags.

You've still got to go to the desk and they still check your passport. So how is that not check-in? Only difference is that you do it twice - once yourself at home and then again in the airport.

Then you have to go through security. Where they check you again.

So why have online check-in at all? Except to fine you if you fail to do it?

It is all a load of crap.

Gatwick for me both times. It’s just the way the world is moving. I guess some would see it as progress, things becoming more automated and less ‘customer facing’ but it’s just a ball ache and I wish they’d just revert back to proper check in desks and staff.
Conversely I travelled on the Eurostar a few months back and found it to be so civilised (not at the St Pancras side! Although it still felt really stress free).

No but I do yearn for the days that people would pit what the thread is about in the title instead of trying to bait people into clicking it.