Thomas Cook Online Check In

iloveshopping93

Hello,

I fly to Turkey on Wednesday and the online check in option is available from 6pm tomorrow night. Could anybody explain what online check in actually is?
Do you get to skip the line at the airport?
Do you get a better seat allocation if not already prepaid and are your seats given via the online check in?

Thanks very much.

jaybeetoo

I went from Birmingham to Turkey with Thomas Cook. I did online check in and we got to wait in a different queue to drop off our bags. Our queue seemed shorter and faster than the ones for people who hadn't done online check in. YMMV!

Online check in wasn't available for the return journey.

I'd already selected seats before check in so can't comment on seat allocation.

stephb34

You can't do online check in if you haven't paid to pick your seats. Unless its an easy jet flight cause you have to check in online for them.

tight_scotsman

We fly out of glasgow on thursday with jet2 going to majorca and checked in on line 2 weeks ago we didnt pre book our seats. We didnt get our seats together but a quick call to jet2 and it was changed to have us all sitting together with no extra charge.

tricia180

Yes you can policy recently changed for TC, as long as you've submitted API you can check in 48 hours before free, queue will be quicker unless everyone is already aware of the change. Can't choose your seats though they are randomly selected unless you pay for them. Just means you can print your boarding pass beforehand there's a separate queue and you know where you will be sitting,

sillygoose

tricia180 wrote: »

Yes you can policy recently changed for TC, as long as you've submitted API you can check in 48 hours before free, queue will be quicker unless everyone is already aware of the change. Can't choose your seats though they are randomly selected unless you pay for them. Just means you can print your boarding pass beforehand there's a separate queue and you know where you will be sitting,

Thanks that is really useful as I have just booked with TC for next year, not flown with them before. I won't pay extra to select seats on principle - I wonder how it will work for a family travelling with 2 kids?

On other airlines we tend just to check in early'ish and have always been automatically seated together. If lots of people do this online thing and get random allocations I guess we could get split up but I have not heard of an airlines system allowing a child not to be seated with a parent (I wish, anyone want to mind my son? )

stephb34

tricia180 wrote: »

Yes you can policy recently changed for TC, as long as you've submitted API you can check in 48 hours before free, queue will be quicker unless everyone is already aware of the change. Can't choose your seats though they are randomly selected unless you pay for them. Just means you can print your boarding pass beforehand there's a separate queue and you know where you will be sitting,

Wouldn't fancy checking in and not knowing what seats they were going to put my family in until the boarding passes were printed off with the seat numbers on, then what do you do if you're split up, that's worse than being in the queue at the airport at least you can ask to sit together.

ThemeOne

I think online check-in only really comes into its own if you have hand luggage only.

I've found if you have to check-in bags, the process is seldom much faster than checking yourself in as well as the bags.

In a sense the whole thing is a bit ridiculous as you can't be truly regarded as checked-in until you're actually at the airport!

miamoo

We flew from Manchester to Jamaica and there was one huge queue for online check-in and bag drop (same queue). This queue was also covering 3 or 4 other Thomas Cook flights. We ended up having to be called to the front and rushed through security along with 100 other people as even after queuing for 2.5hrs we were nowhere near the front. As others have said, online check-in with Thomas Cook is a waste of time unless you have hand luggage only.

sillygoose

miamoo wrote: »

We flew from Manchester to Jamaica and there was one huge queue for online check-in and bag drop (same queue). This queue was also covering 3 or 4 other Thomas Cook flights. We ended up having to be called to the front and rushed through security along with 100 other people as even after queuing for 2.5hrs we were nowhere near the front. As others have said, online check-in with Thomas Cook is a waste of time unless you have hand luggage only.

That is the one thing I am not looking forward to but I can't afford my usual 'luxuries' at the moment so having to go Thomas Cook instead of usual Monarch.
At Corfu's tiny airport in the heat of August I have seen TC bus in several plane loads of people, they have to queue for ages outside in the blazing heat.

Flying Monarch we always just bypassed all that and went straight to their desk behind maybe 20 people then got to sit in comfort inside.

tricia180

Checked in last night for flight on Wednesday there are only two of us and we are sitting together. Option to change seats if not happy but you have to pay. Checked in as soon as we could, perhaps its a bit like checking in at the airport the sooner you do it the more chance of sitting together. Know that Easy Jet try and have people that book together sit together, maybe they are the same.