I had a very early 6am morning flight from ZRH which I was dreading given the trek from Basel. So anyway I tried to check in online the night before but was getting a consistent system error, so I called up the customer support line and was informed that the flight was overbooked in Economy and so I was on a standby list. I was flabbergasted given that the ticket was booked a month prior and here I was trying to check in 12 hours before my flight.
Her cheery recommendation was that I try get to the airport at least 2 hours before the flight to ensure I got my seat. You are aware that its a 6am flight and you can probably also see that I'm travelling from Basel I growled so she then suggested I stay at the Movenpick Kloten Airport - WTF
Miserable service and poor customer service IMHO. No doubt other airlines do this on a daily basis, but none so blatantly and idiotically as Swiss. I did make my flight, but not without considerable inconvenience and stress.
The Swiss online check-in system is poor. Their mobile app is even worse, when it actually bothers to work. Despite promises to the contrary it seems totally unable to store a boarding pass so you need to ensure you have wifi/3G continuously even as you get on the plane as otherwise attempts to show it on your phone show a Safari error.
Plus when you do try to check in using the app, despite being logged in and creating a link from the booking reference number,, it suddenly forgets everything about you and asks which airport your flight is departing from, who you are, what your passport details are etc.
The BA app is so much better, their website so much better, that I'll always try and fly with them if possible. Eve the comparison between a fresh chicken salad wrap, and some stale dried baguette (economy flights to London) don't put Swiss in a good light. If BA flew to LCY I wouldn't fly Swiss at all.
These are all simple non-core things. The actual flight (and crew) seem totally fine. You'd think they'd spend a little bit of money to get the small things right.
I used to work in aviation. Scheduled airlines will always oversell (if there is demand for the flight) as they expect no shows, generally business travellers. Most of the time it works and there are no shows. Occasionally it back fires and they have to offload people, pay compensation, put them on a later/earlier flight or reroute with other carriers.
You did not buy a standby ticket. Had you turned up at the airport 1 hour before the flight and tried to check-in, either they don't mention anything and you get to fly, or they have to inform you that they overbooked and therefore will give you compensation.
So what must have happened is their nightmare scenario.. 100% of passengers checked in online (before I did). Online check in opens 24 hours before the flight and I tried to check in 12 hours before the flight.
I was unequivocally told on the phone that I should get to the airport at least an hour earlier than usual to ensure I get a seat, and even then she couldn't guarantee that I would fly the following morning. Given that I was travelling with 4 others from my company and I was the lead presenter at a Health Authority meeting, it does put you in a bit of a stressful situation. Had they simply said we cannot assign you a seat number until you get to the airport, I would have been fine with that.
The last few flights that we have done with Swiss there was an option, when I booked the tickets, for automatic check-in and then they just send you an email telling you that you are checked in and with the boarding passes attached. You don't need to remember to do it yourself then, and I guess that as soon as the check-in opens everybody with automatic check-in is first in the queue!
I think the fact that you called and asked gave them the opportunity to talk you out of claiming your seat without offering you compensation.
If you didn't ask and simply turned up at the airport, you most probably would be put on the next flight, but you would get compensated. Or best of all, you could get upgraded.
To be honest, everytime my company makes me fly coach, I hope that the plane is overbooked because with my status, I would get upgraded.
I saw that automatic check-in thing. To be honest, I thought the whole purpose of check-in was so the airlines knew who had actually got to the airport. For a long time now, that hasn;t been the case as you checked in online. Now you don't even need to be alive as the check-in system is automatic. Why even bother; why not just allocate seats as you buy your ticket?
Plus I've not trusted the automatic system to allocate the best seats.
I was tempted to 'groan' you for this, because I've had a similar experience as Castro with Swiss, not because I had a very early flight, but because I'm old and worry about modern technology.
No, this wasn't in 1973, but just a few weeks ago.
I prefer BA and I don't care about sandwiches. With BA to Heathrow you either get savoury birdseed, or a miserable chocolate biscuit, but I'm used to that.
BA even refunded me a flight last week, because I'd made a typo and booked Gva/Gatwick instead of Gva/Heathrow. They simply refunded the money, although I had to spend about 20 minutes hanging on the phone.
I find it easier not to use the app at all and just have the boarding pass opened in email (with a screen shot as backup). Then it doesn't matter if you have an internet connection.
I'd also concur that it's vital to book in as soon as you get the email (24 hours before boarding).
Have never had a problem checking in online with my iPhone, either with Swiss or with Lufthansa.
As to the OP, if they were telling me the flight was overbooked and I absolutely had to get away on time I would have been yelling and screaming for them to rebook me, never mind turning up and playing Russian roulette!
I suspect airlines these days already do allocate seats at the point of making the booking rather than check-in. When I booked flights with Air Canada for my Christmas holiday I was certainly offered the opportunity to chose seats during the booking process. I'll wager Swiss allocate seats on booking, even if they don't tell you about it until you come to check in.
I suspect the reason "checking in" exists at all is because certain legislation and treaties governing international flights make reference to it, so it has to exist, although as an actual process, "check in" no longer meaningfully exists. It's the same with "tickets". I don't think I've seen an actual airline ticket as a physical object in over a decade, although airlines still have to issue "tickets", they are now just entries on a database, for which you get a reference number.
The procedures you mention, check-in and tickets, are asked for by national customs authorities and are required by the Warsaw Convention and the Den Haag Protocols, and so are basic. And imagine that Swiss International in Milano, at a time when Alitalia had stopped issuing "real" tickets in 2006, did NOT accept electronic tickets but insisted upon a "real" ticket. And this means less than a decade ago.
Back to check-in. The idea is that passengers do not carry their full luggage up to the gate but hand it over before. That the checked-in luggage goes through the automated luggage-control and the passengers with their hand-lugge through the smaller passenger-control procedures. You have to see that your luggage goes to the cargo-hold, the so-called "Belly"
In case you only get a reference-number, make a print-out yourself, as you otherwise will be lost in quite many countries
As someone who was involved in forming the Star Alliance and flies far too much, I will tell you this:
1) Some of this depends upon airline. Swiss and Lufthansa have slightly different internal electronic procedures than United and Air Canada.
2) Make _sure_ that your frequent flier status is properly in your seat allocation, as some of these will prevent you from being in the unhappy box of "ticket booked, seat unallocated". I have been in that box, and it is not a good box to be in. But it usually occurs on an airline where either: (a) I have no frequent flier account, or (b) low status on the airline.
3) My recent experience with Swiss was a case in point. I am a 1K with United (Gold Star Alliance), and the travel agent put in the wrong frequent flier number for me, which meant: (a) I nearly didn't get a seat; and (b) the seat I was given was next to the toilet in the last row on the 12 hour flight to Miami. I emailed Swiss in advance of my return to Switzerland from LA, explained what had happened, they corrected the information in the system and within 24 hours -- but 10 days before my flight back -- they issued me an economy seat that was in a respectable part of the plane. And apologized for the seating error previously.
I suppose I wouldn't have minded being in the last row of the plane, but: (a) I had a business meeting scheduled and needed to exit the plane as fast as possible; and (b) I was surrounded by about 40 drunk Swedes heading on a group holiday to Miami.