– Why do airlines let passengers check-in online 24 hours beforehand? By checking in, shouldn’t they confirm a passenger is actually at the airport?
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Check is mostly for the benefit of the airlines. It’s to upsell you services and to give them more data. Real life examples how they use that data include:
1. Delta now will suggest checking in your carry on before you hit security because the flight will be full. If people bring their carry-ons all the way to the gate, they are more reluctant to check their carry on.
2. Standby passengers (non-rev, etc). Internal systems at most airlines, as well as some apps let employees and passengers flying standby to estimate how many free seats there are, and how many people are checked in on standby who may be ahead of you.
3. Request to bids for taking another flight if this flight is full.
There are many more benefits, but checking in is relatively completely unnecessary. It was a byproduct of what you had to do before we had online check in systems. The easiest way to prove this is the existence of auto checkin systems that some airlines provide.
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