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?

I flew recently from Gatwick. I haven't flown in over 6 years, and the check-in / bag drop-off was all new. But I'd printed everything out and organised all documents in use order. We were through quite quickly, but I did have to read all the instructions several times!

It's sod's law that you ALWAYS get stuck behind the ditherers who haven't a clue, and to whom everything comes as a shock. Did you pack your bags yourself? Oh, I don't know! Let me think.... Are you carrying any of these banned items? Oh let me think! Well there's a deodorant can, that doesn't count does it... Betty did you put phone chargers in the bag? Brian, did you leave the hand grenades at home this time? Anything else? Now let's talk about seat allocation seeing as none of this party of 8 has booked and we all want to sit together...

Then they get to security and it's another total shock that you have to have your liquid in a plastic bag and that yes, your sealed bottle of suncream/wine does indeed count, and that yes, you are included in the rule about taking your belt off, and your jacket, etc etc etc

Some people are just incompetent, others are total faffers.

Bully for you.
I am happy to add on another £50 to the cost of my holiday to be able to pack what I like - take my preferred toiletries and sun creams etc.

DH has medical equipment and would have far too much hand luggage if he didn't have hold luggage.

However, it never ceases to amaze me how much "stuff" people take on holiday. My cases never weighs more than 16 kilos, yet I see people take huge cases for just a week.

DH has medical equipment and would have far too much hand luggage if he didn't have hold luggage

You can take smaller medical equipment (eg CPAP machines) into the cabin in addition to the normal cabin allowance for free. DP has done this with Ryanair, Easyjet and Jet2 - you just need to look under special assistance to see whether you need special approval, or just take it on. No-one has ever said anything when he arrives on the plane with the extra bag.

It's probably best to take it in the cabin with you anyway, so there's no risk of loss or damage in the hold.

I take hold luggage because I like to take hold luggage.

Luckily you can still do this at Southampton Airport, long may it continue!

Some people don't fly very often. Maybe not for years. I guess rules change and catch them out. My grandma recently flew with me and seemed to think it was still 1970s, expecting friendly staff to genuinely want to help and indulge her every whim to ensure she had a fabulous holiday. She also takes a bit longer to process things, questions and requests, and a bit longer to gather her things and move out of your way. I guess she was one of the people holding you up.

Probably people like my friend who's case is overweight because she has brought so much unnecessary ( just in case) stuff with her. Then has to remove some and try and squeeze it into her already packed carry on, and ends up having to pay excess.

Also Liverpool. I've flown from there a few times over the last couple of years and at all times, security was virtually empty. You can reliably go from arriving at the car park to the departure lounge in about 15 minutes.

Likewise Rome Ciampino airport, the small one that Ryanair use, which unusually for them, is closer to the destination than the main airport serving the city. I was having a bit of a panic because the train and bus journey took longer from the city to the airport than I'd planned and it was about 90 mins before take off when I got to the airport.

I needn't have worried because there was no security queue and it took under 5 minutes from getting off the bus to through security. The whole airport is tiny, there was about 12 departure gates, but only 3 flights scheduled in the time I was there.

Often it's nothing to do with the flier. The airlines cock things up all the time. They realise they have seated someone in the wrong place. They can't find one person on the booking. The aircraft has been changed and the pre booked seats are now messed up. A dozen reasons. You really can't have flown much if you haven't experienced this and thought it was just annoying customers.

Seats. Either people who’ve checked in online and don’t like they seats they got / want to ask if there are any together on row 1 where they’d ideally like to sit. Or people who couldn’t check in online who now are asked “you are in seats 27 A through F, would that be okay with you” and they proceed to say no, and lean over the counter encroaching on the poor staff’s space trying to reach the screen so that they can see with their own two eyes where row 27 exactly is.

Visas. Many times you can’t check in online to travel to eg the US, or if you’re going from A to B but have a passport from country C and two or more of those countries aren’t visa-free or in Schengen.

Overweight luggage. No need to explain this.

Connecting flights or rather, lack of knowledge of what to do with them. Often staff need to explain step by step if you need to collect bags or not, passport checks, amend layover time.

Don’t underestimate the amount of people affected by delayed or cancelled flights on any average day at an airport. I’m often sent to the airline help desk only for them to redirect me to the check in desks where it can take a while to get rebooked.

I think it is in part because the level of desks and staffing is too low. A secondary reason for my opposition to any further expansion of Heathrow is that it is already inadequately staffed and there are only so many people in the area who will want to work there, even if salaries were increased.

There will always be those who don't know processes, are slow, forget things, in part because many people don't fly regularly, and in part because many people are very anxious about flying. Also worth remembering that for many people it is the only thing they have to be on time for, other things there is only mild inconvenience if you are late.

Just like in the supermarkets, some people stand in line for ages and only when they get to the desk do they actually starts looking for their documentation.

We fly from Gatwick once a year to visit family in Central Europe. In the last 3 years, we have also been travelling with our 3 year old son. Each time we go, the time gets more and more squeezed. This year we allowed just under 2.5 hours from getting off our train at Gatwick before take off. The airport was absolute bedlam (although I appreciate it’s a busy time of year). We only had enough time to gulp back one pint in the spoons after security (😁), before legging it down to our gate. My husband was saying oh we don’t need to take the pushchair this year for our son…boy, am I glad we did as running through a packed airport with a tired and cranky 3 year old, without the benefit of being able to push him, would have added to what was an already stressful experience! Ironically, once we had all bundled through the gate and onto the flight, we then sat for 45 mins while the pilot negotiated our place in the take off queue..😬

No, i don't think so, waiting at Plymouth Ferry port, some cars with just 2 people in them (like us) were taking ages, outbound and inbound, maybe the computer systems need a break now n then???

What on earth it'll be like when the new checks come in is anyones guess.

We flew to South Africa from Heathrow last week, we had checked in online and I'd printed boarding passes. We were 20 mins from arriving at the Central bus station to walking into duty free having walked through, bag dropped and cleared security. I was amazed how quick it was.

Coming back there didn't seem to be a bag drop, the check in queue wasn't that bad but the security one was very long.

Sometimes it's a delay that's nothing to do with the passenger. We went away recently, family of 5, 4 suitcases, checked in online, had already checked weights of luggage however as the check in assistant was dealing with us a supervisor came along and told her the belt needed to be cleared before they could put our suitcases through, my DH then was having a little chat with the assistant while we waited. The family behind us might have realised what was happening but certainly further up the queue you would think it was us causing the problem.

I'm sure that happens a few times an hour so if you're right at the back of a long queue you would probably think a few families are causing a hold up rather than it just being the airline getting a grip of the luggage drop. Rather that than speed through the luggage and lose a case.

I heard some one say that as I was checking on the three large cases, plus have three cabin suitcases , for me and two small children (3&4 at the time)... why so much stuff for a week in the Med?

It wasn't for a week... we lived on the island, and stuff like childrens books in English, school uniform, clothes on general, toys etc was extremely expensive there (€20 for one school gingham dress for example!). We used to stock up on the UK.

Yes, until the airline won't let you. We had it last year. I think it was because they wanted to check the hand luggage and check everything in that was bigger than a handbag!

Sometimes it's random as well, they just decide they want you to check in at the airport. And sometimes it's because they have overbooked. We always get there as early as we can when we can't check in online in the hope that we won't get bumped. We haven't been so far.

I think some people are just attention seekers and like to take as long as they can. It could be visas etc but that won't be the case when you are eg checking in for a flight to Scotland from London :)

Yes it's often very efficient. I think there was one time when there was a strike on and we thought it was going to be hell, I think it took 9 minutes from taxi drop off to being the other side of security! We didn't have to check in a case though, we only had small cabin cases.

I think I've just been lucky. I have had the odd problem, but never had to spend hours sorting things out at the check-in desk. I've got to say when I see people taking a long time it's usually a big family with loads of cases, so I don't think it's the airline!

Totally agree with this as well. It's like pharmacies and post offices. They are not happy unless there's a massive queue!

Well good for you. If you're a family with young children then having one large suitcase is often much easier to deal with than expecting each child to maneuver hand luggage through an airport and on and off a plane.

I feel a lot of this is down to staffing and these companies trying to do it all on a shoestring to maximize their profits.

We’re staying with family in Spain for a month with 3 young kids, one of whom is disabled. We need hold luggage!