Anyone ever checked in online with BA?

[TheRealMrsJohnSimm]

We are off to Greece next week flying with BA. We can check in online up to 24 hours beforehand which means apparently we just have to go to the Fast Bag Drop at Gatwick before going through security.

Has anyone had any experience of this service? Just wondering how much time i need to allow for queuing at the Bag Drop place.

TIA!

Yes frequently. Lots of people now use the Fast Bag Drop facility. It is still quicker than full blown checking in but not that quick ime. I've queued up to 30 mins before now.

Yes, lots. You still need to allow at least 30 minutes, plus 30 minutes for security as everyone goes through bag drop now

You can also start the baggage process online by telling them how many bags you are checking in.

Yes I have used it lots too - it's great being able to choose the seats online, although do it as early as possible to get the optimum choice, as many people do online check-in now. Fast Bag Drop times do vary, but yes if you allow 30 mins you should be ok.

When we were in Singapore recently the bag drop queue was about five times longer than the standard check in....

I did it with the DCs when they were small (2 and 3 months). Queue was 45mins and initially they said tough. Then I said, well I will just have to get my boobs out in the queue. Immediate success - she took the bags from me !!!

since then (2 years ago) whenever DH has done it, I think it has been more efficient.

Yes. It's great if you're travelling with hand luggage only. If you've got bags to check in, don't believe them when they call if Fast bag drop.

We went to Marseilles a couple of years ago and nearly missed our flight because the queue was so long. In fact, we ended up having to do that very un-British thing of pushing in to the front of the queue, otherwise we would definitely have missed it

Security queues are also very long sometimes, and you can't do anything about that.

It is well worth doing (with BA or anyone else who offers it) because you can choose seats. However, you do need to get on-line as soon as check in opens.

However, some airports aren't set up for on-line check in (they need appropriate bar code readers wherever they normally check your boarding pass) so you may not be able to check in on line coming back!

Thanks everyone

Kind of what I expected really regarding the queuing times. Will be ready, online poised to check in at 8.29am on Monday morning . BA apparently allocate seats 3 days in advance to those travelling with children but would be good to have an opportunity to change those seats if we needed to.

Two more questions:

If you have already checked in, do we all need to wait in the Bag Drop queue or could just either me or DH do the honours whilst the other entertains DCs/takes them through security etc?

If queue for check in at airport is shorter than bag drop queue, can we just use the regular check in anyway to drop our bags off (even if we have already checked in online, iyswim?) ?

Thanks again

I think you would both need to be there, as they check your passport to ensure that the person bringing the bag is actually the person travelling iyswim.

They get a bit sniffy if you try and use the regular checkin when you have already checked in - in fact most of the time they make you use the kiosk to check in if you haven't been online, and there is only one regular checkin for awkward cases