Why does it take so long to check-in at the airport

[Stephy1886]

Most of the time the self checkin isn’t working so everyone has to wait in line to check on hold luggage

I’m always surprised how long it takes groups / individuals to checkin

when it’s finally my turn it’s hand over the passports then put each suitcase on to check the weight,
get the boarding passes & see you later.

the amount of times you see folk giving staff long winded stories, standing up there for ages. Why do some folk take so long to hand over a passport & weigh a case?

Because of people like my DH who thinks that 'surely they won't mind if my bag is just a couple of kilogrammes over the weight limit'.

It’ll be the same folk who seem to do their weekly banking at the ATM

It’s so much worse than pre-Covid.

It often seems to take us 90mins + now to get through to departures.

I often have a car seat or similar to check in and they won’t let me do that at bag drop.

It feels like in the same time frame they’ve improved the security process, they’ve made check in dysfunctional.

I think this is, in part, due to check in being full of ‘problem’ customers ie those who can’t do an online check in - those with complicated baggage, assistance, checking in too late, needing to be moved flight etc.

Why don't you ask them? Go up to them when they've finished and simply say 'what the fuck took you so long? I'm so fucking brilliant, I can check in within 3 minutes. Watch me next time"
You'll get your answer

A lot of the airlines only open check in 2 hours before the flight departs now.

On a number of occasions recently I’ve been there queuing ready for this and still it’s been a bit of a rush to get through the airport.

Generally, yes. Until you get stuck behind someone taking forever and the agent managing the economy desks refuses to allow you to use one of those desks. Because there are fewer desks (usually at least), one or two problematic people/families can make a bigger impact.

Don’t most people check in online? We have done that for years. There’s no need to go to a desk.

Because the law of Sod dictates that whenever you join a queue, even a very short one, the person in front of you MUST have several questions, not quite know what they want, not be able to work a machine or take an unfeasibly long time to get something out of their bag.
Also agree with @HauntedBungalow that sometimes we just think they're taking longer than we would.

If we are flying to the Med for a week we will have hold luggage and we still have to queue for dropping off the cases.

If travelling with children / infants they sometimes won’t let you check in online.

They either want to check the passports, or because of checking in extra luggage.

It was many, many years since I’d checked in at the desk - but since I’ve had children I always seem to be directed there!

And take forever in a public toilet when there's a queue.

Yes, I know that many people have legitimate reasons, but the number is likely exceeded many times over by faffers with no self awareness.

I had a colleague like this. She took 10 minutes to get out of the car wherever she went (we went out on site visits together) and 'a quick coffee' in McDonalds took her about half an hour to drink.

I learned to allow loads of extra time to get places on time after the time she said 'shall we go for a quick coffee' when we were passing the McDonalds round the corner from where we were going and we were about half an hour early.

We ended up being late for the site visit because she took 10 minutes to get out of the car at McDonalds, nearly half an hour to drink her 'quick coffee' despite me trying to hurry her up and making her take it with us to drink in the car, and another 5 minutes to get out of the car at the site. Short of physically dragging her along, it was impossible to get her to move at a normal pace (and no she didn't have any physical disabilities, she had all sorts of active hobbies and holidays).

Cash machines are the same!

I'm always amazed at how many people faff at the desk/check in terminal and turn what should be a relatively easy process into a time consuming drama. Seriously what the fuck are you doing there??

Because so many more people are trying to travel now and the capacity just isn’t there to deal with the sheer numbers.
Gone are the days when you could rock up a hour before your flight, go through all the check in and scant security and still have time for a drink at the bar before leisurely boarding the plane.

We have a disabled child and there are always lots of questions about his needs/requirements. I’m sure people behind get frustrated but 🤷🏻‍♀️

I'm sure there are some slow people who don't have their documents ready, or have some questions.

But mostly this is just your perspective. It's why a car journey feels quicker to the driver than it does to the passenger. You know you are going as quick as you can but underestimate your time. Other people seem slower because you are a passive observer.

I am not sure how it could be improved as bags do have to be weighed, documents do have to be checked, security checks do need to be done. I guess more staff would move it along quicker but then prices would increase too.

Until you get stuck behind someone taking forever and the agent managing the economy desks refuses to allow you to use one of those desks

Problem is (where this set up applies) if economy Check-in start diverting their overload onto the often less busy Premium business desks you can start getting the situation where those passengers (who often put a lot of money the airlines way) start seeing their check-in process delayed.

The premium passengers have often paid to enjoy a relatively straight forward quick process so complaints can flow..

The airline I use most frequently do divert economy pax -to the business check in at our local airport at times but do it very carefully.

We got held up recently at check in desk when flying from Tokyo to N Zealand connecting in Fiji. Family of 4 checked in online but only 7 out of 8 boarding cards issued and there was a note for us to go to check in desk. We had a feeling it was going to be tricky and turned up early as soon as the checkout opened. We had all the necessary paperwork including tickets NZeTA printed and had even completed the customs declarations online. All documents had names spelt correctly and were consistent. For some reason the system would not produce the final boarding card. We were at the desk for 20mins, a supervisor called, all our paperwork inspected and eventually asked to stand to the side to let the check in desk deal with other people whilst the supervisor phoned NZ immigration to find out why they wouldn't issue a boarding card. DH is a nervous traveller (it was one of his missing) and thought he was going to be bumped off the flight and was getting stressed.
Eventually the issue was sorted and it seemed that there had been a problem with linking all the documents for DH and it had to be completed by NZ immigration manually. Apparently something had been input incorrectly somewhere (not by us).

So it is not always because travellers are unprepared but a number of systems have to connect bits of information from all over the place. Most of the time the connections work and you move on but not always.

My son spent one hour at check in because the airline could not process a card payment for extra baggage, eventually they gave up and waved him though.

Airports are just baffling and noisy and horrible and you're being ordered about by people who look like they would rather be somewhere else and seem to dodge anyone with a problem or an actual query. The e gates seem to fail the minute I'm near one and the whole process is soul destroying and lots of waiting and not enough staff anywhere.
avoiding all that this year and going over on the Chunnel , at least you can sit in your own car listening to the radio whilst you're queueing up, but it's all faff going on any holiday abroad whatever you do.

Check-in staff do the 'Did you pack this yourself? Do you have anything with a battery, Do you have any of these items' Have you left your bags unattended? questionnaire.

People aren't chatting, they're doing their jobs. Just wait your turn and let them get on with it.

We would never have hold luggage for a week in the Med. We never take hold luggage ever.

I remember being with a family member checking in. They were making a (semi) permanent move for work and had loads of extra baggage. Family member expected extra and was happy to pay (as company would reimburse and was essentially part of relocation) but the airline check in agent was horrified as the cost was more than the ticket. It was a while ago so not sure if you could book extra bags. It took about 45 minutes of to-ing and fro-ing with managers and they did kindly reduce it. Anyway, everyone’s story is different, not everyone has a straight “check in and bag drop”.

😁

Becuase you're so much better at it than everyone else OP.