 Poster: A snowHead
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Anyone have some experience of this. Does it save any time, as you've got to check your luggage in anyway.
Ta all.
UPDATE
Flight was Saturday afternoon from East Midlands airport and there were just about no queues. The bag drop was the normal check-in desks. No DIY machines as at Birmingham. I think it does help speed things up a little, as your data is already on the system. Worked the same way on the return from Salzburg.
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Sun 20-01-19 20:11; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I tried it last weekend. Jumped the entire Q. Was even through security 15mins after taxi dropped me off, saved an hour of shuffling through the Q.
On second thoughts: no don’t bother, really not worth it at all. Obviously I’ll keep doing it, but best if no one else does 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@kerb, that'll be just me and you doing it then  How does handing over your luggage work?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Can’t help you with the online check in but can say we did the day before check in twice (once last Feb at Manchester and just recently at Birmingham) and that works really well (minor glitch at Brum as check in person was MIA for a bit).
Basically if your flight is in the morning , you can go to the airport the evening before and check in your bags and get boarding passes.
The two times we did it , we were the only people doing it. No queues or stress.
Worked well for us as we usually stay in a nearby premier inn the night before an early flight and it means we can get up , drive to airport parking and go straight to security without luggage.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Which airport was it?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I always use online check in for all flights, it means you only queue for bag drop and not for check in so is usually faster than checking in at the airport. At Manchester anyway. Then you’ve got more time to stand in the security queue instead 
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At gatwick with TUI flights through Crystal I've alwas been told I have to check in at the airport. Do TUI offer online checkin for flights sold in Crystal ski holiday packages?
I've usually checked in and dropped the bags off at twilight checkin the night before which saves a fair bit of queueing in the morning, but if i can check in online and just need to drop the bag instead it would be a lot simpler
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I was at BHX. Although I may have cheated the system slightly.
They had a row of automatic checkin screens next to the usual monster queue. I’d checked in online so gave it a go. It refused and said to ask for assistance - turned out because my flight had been rerouted from Salzburg to Linz my online check in was void.
Lady said I’d have to join the big Q, I looked unhappy, she said just go to desk 3 then. Felt rather guilty striding in front of the massive line, but wasn’t going to say “no” was I?
Anyway, by the look of things there were some desks just for dropping bags once you’d done the automated computer thing - and there no queues there at all.
Of course it will change when everyone does it, but make hay while the sun shines.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| paul.71 wrote: |
At gatwick with TUI flights through Crystal I've alwas been told I have to check in at the airport. Do TUI offer online checkin for flights sold in Crystal ski holiday packages?
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I think it’s new, certainly the first time I’ve been offered it.
So new in fact the first email invite looked like spam and had a broken URL!
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I flew to Iceland (not skiing) with TUI from LGW in December and I still had to join the check-in queue to drop the bags. Same on the return flight. So it might not always work.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I just got an e mail for my next trip with Crystal and it's offering me online seat chooser, online buy extra luggage weight, online check in and API, online print boarding passes, etc etc. Flying from MCR, will give it a go, but still allow the same time.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Yep new for this season. Seems to be working well though.
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Surprised it's taken this long for them to start offering it? Considering online check in has been around for a fair while now?
I think the first time you do it, you are bit paranoid that you are doing everything right (I was anyway) but now I always check in online if available. Especially with the prevalence of smart phones meaning that probably most people in your travelling group have one, meaning having an electronic boarding pass.
If you just have carry on, then it's a no brainer. Walk straight through to security. Even with hold luggage, I have found the automated bag drop kiosk thing easy and simple to use and never had more than maybe a 2 minute wait for a kiosk to become free. Plus if you get stuck, there is usually a member of staff around to help (or then blame when you bags end up in a different country  )
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You know it makes sense.
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| paul.71 wrote: |
At gatwick with TUI flights through Crystal I've alwas been told I have to check in at the airport. Do TUI offer online checkin for flights sold in Crystal ski holiday packages?
I've usually checked in and dropped the bags off at twilight checkin the night before which saves a fair bit of queueing in the morning, but if i can check in online and just need to drop the bag instead it would be a lot simpler |
We are currently in Avorias with Crystal, did on-line check when they sent out an email to us and we went straight through the bag drop at Gatwick no problems. Customs were busy on Saturday morning.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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I have the TUI online check in option, flying newcastle to salzburg in march. Do I need to print anything off or will details on my phone suffice?
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Poster: A snowHead
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| skitech wrote: |
| I have the TUI online check in option, flying newcastle to salzburg in march. Do I need to print anything off or will details on my phone suffice? |
Boarding pass with barcode on phone does the job. But I always print a paper copy and stick in a pocket just in case something goes wrong with phone - holidays are important!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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How does this work if you are carrying Skis ? (still need to take them to 'oversize?)
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| skitech wrote: |
| I have the TUI online check in option, flying newcastle to salzburg in march. Do I need to print anything off or will details on my phone suffice? |
I don't know, as it will shortly be the first time that I've done it, too: but the e-mail link takes me to a page that distinctly says "print boarding card", so I shall be printing (and taking a USB stick back up and print additional copies if they let me).
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Just used it for my trip at the weekend. Have the e boarding passes and pdf ones. Will probably take both to be in the safe side
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Just check everyting twice when you do the online check in and print boarding passes!!!
After my debacle with the extra ski carriage, which I thought that I'd finally sorted yesterday, I printed off the boarding cards late this morning, only to find it had given me only the standard weight allowance (20+15=35 kg) not the 20+23 kg which I'd negotiated and paid for, despite the invoice and flight details documents (you don't seem to get a ticket any more) having been updated to show it.
A long wait and eventually, thankfully, a competent Crystal phone person sorted it out for me with the "Aviation" department who (after 2 attempts) finally got it right by manually changing it, and I could reprint my boarding pass.
Aaaasagh...
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Did this from Birmingham on a Crystal trip over Christmas, they have machines where you weigh your own bags (including the ski bags) it prints off the sticky label thing, and then you drop your bag off. If you have skis you still need to take them to the oversized at BHX like normal. Problem was that the staff directing people weren't very efficient so it would have been quicker just to go through the check-in queue. Having said that the process was easy and looks like it will work well in the future. I did everthing on my phone and didnt print any boarding passes out, and all was fine.
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@m_colebrook,
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they have machines where you weigh your own bags
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Those to the right the queue that nobody used last year and we wondered what they were for?
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| Quote: |
Those to the right the queue that nobody used last year and we wondered what they were for?
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They were to the left of the queue but i think TUI might have changed the position of their check in recently.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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So do or can they actually distinguish between a "ski carriage" bag and 'normal' hold bags when you check and weigh them in, or is it just total combined weight per passenger or people in the same booking?
After all the stupid hassle of my carriage booking, and all their supposed rules, the boarding pass thing - which I assume is all you now need to check in - just states a total weight allowance. Do they know or care how that is broken down?
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The machine asked you which bag it is when you weigh them in, so it knows the number and type of bags you are checking through. When you get to the machine we scanned just the bording pass on our phones. Someone else was there checking passports. For info there was no such thing the other end on return (Innsbruck), so normal chaos was resumed!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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UPDATE
Flight was Saturday afternoon from East Midlands airport and there were just about no queues. The bag drop was the normal check-in desks. No DIY machines as at Birmingham. I think it does help speed things up a little, as your data is already on the system. Worked the same way on the return from Salzburg.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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I went through MAN this weekend. They have TUI machine bag drop desks alongside the normal ones, but noone was using them (wasn't a busy time, to be fair). We had checked in online so had boarding passes already; went to the Bag Drop desk and did the bag labelling, weighing and passports in the normal way with a human.
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Gatwick Out on 12 th jan. mid day flight and worked like a dream / on line check in, self service bag drop, with skis
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