Question for anyone who travelled through Manchester Airport recently
Do Swiss still do old-school style check-in at a desk for economy passengers in Manchester and not just baggage drop?
Just NickAtBaselJnr and MrsNickAtBasel will be travelling with checked-in luggage from Manchester to Zurich in a couple of weeks, and for genuine reasons (Dad’s printer likely worn out print head and I’m too mean to buy a new one), printing boarding cards / luggage labels prior to going to the airport will be difficult. Also, using the app is not an option here.
I’ve already checked here - https://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/…erators/swiss/ - and on the Swiss Airlines website - and could not see something definitive…and the last mention of Manchester Airport per the EF search was some years ago…
Yes, they do. I was there in summer and, although I just did baggage drop, I saw they did the full check in with labels at the desks.
Top tip - allow extra time to get through. Check-in was fairly quick but security was a 45 minute story. Also heard of other people breezing through in 10 mins but I wasn't going to take the chance.
I traveled recently (not with Swiss) and got the option to download the boarding pass as PDF by email or get it as an image(PNG if I remember well) via whatsapp. For sure, Swiss gives the option to download the PDF and open with your phone. The image can be easily shared with family, so you don't worry about phone battery. No need to download just another stupid app.
Luggage labels are quick. Anyway, you have to make a line and spend a couple minutes checking the baggage/weight verification. 1 more min to print the label there is not much.
Check-in on the app 24 hours before. Boarding card will be on phone and they will print the bag tag at the airport (you never print bag tags at home, they'd be torn off the bag in seconds).
They do still have a desk for check in at the airport if you need it (well they did in august and I doubt things have changed in the meantime) but I would do as the others suggest and download the boarding cards to their phone.
The print at home ones only seem to be used in Swiss airports. Everywhere else I’ve been since they launched them has the old style, print at airport ones.
Swiss also still have free check-in at the airport (I wonder how much longer though). Just show your passport/ID and they take care of it.
You cannot print your luggage label at home for Manchester. You can check in online and get a pdf emailed to you. When I bag drop they always print out an old style boarding card (which is funny - life how it used to be) even though I never ask for one. So for sure they will get one if they want one.
Yes, I come through MCR most weeks and Swiss still have a check in desk.
It's not in the main hall, but round the side of the security entrance - from memory it's desk 60/63?
Best thing is to check in online and get the boarding pass via email. No app necessary. Then get the desk staff to print you a nice paper one (well, not nice, it's usually super thin thermal paper style now). The reason for checking in online in advance is to avoid getting bumped off the flight when they overbooked. There are so few flights from MCR that it is often full.
Top tip - book the fast track for security online now. It's a fiver each. MCR can often be a shambles. You *might* not need it, but if you do... it will save you half an hour or more. Or if you're tight... allow another half hour in your usual timings for airport arrival.
I was there last week flying into Terminal 3. What a disaster! Had to wait 90 minutes to get a bag off a BA shuttle from London.
Going back the other way, the waiting area for the shuttle back was far too small for a full flight. They had half of us board via the tarmac and the back stairs. The problem was that some people boarding from the back had seats at the front of the plane, and some boarding at the front had seats at the back. This resulted in a blockage somewhere around row 16...
Off topic I know, but definitely an airport to avoid if at all possible. A local colleague told me I would have been better off flying only as far as London and getting the train up to Manchester.
Honestly Swiss still do their whole 'Covid' thing which involved you going up to the gate and showing your passport and digital boarding pass after which (I shit you not) they give you a paper boarding pass with a stamp on as proof of showing your docs.
Then they have someone at the gate taking the stamped paper pass from you and then allowing you (usually via a single gate which slows boarding no end and usually means the flight boards later) to then scan the digital boarding pass via the usual turnstile and board the plane.
Its like they still think they need to check vaccine passports and the other shit they checked during Covid (when they first started this practice).
Sadly, that's not Swiss's fault. This stupid system is a result of the post Brexshite UK requirement that the airline check the passport of all passengers to ensure they have right to enter the UK (or Swiss gets fined and has to pay to take them back.)
Only applies on leaving Z though. They don't do it at Manchester or London coming here.
I always use a paper pass anyway, so that just gets stamped.
Not just the UK. Departures for just about any non-Schengen destination the airline will want to check you are the person mentioned on your ticket and that you can enter that country.
Within Schengen the Lufthansa group are very laid back. If you’ve got a boarding pass, welcome aboard.
The so-called Low Cost airlines want you to prove who you are, within our without Schengen. That is because they allow, but charge for, name changes. They want their money.
This has nothing to do with Brexit: I've been travelling to and from the UK for more than 25 years, it's always been this way. Anyone entering or leaving the UK has to:
A. have proof of the ability to enter or leave (which depending on nationality and residence status may be a passport/ID, residence permit, or visa), and
B. if you are exiting the UK and travelling to a country in which you don't normally have a right to stay indefinitely, the airline will check that any residence permit or visa you have is valid for a certain amount of time. I was once nearly denied boarding a London-Geneva flight because my B-permit was due to expire in less than 3 months, but they let me on in the end. I think it helped that I have a friendly nationality that doesn't require a visa for travel in Europe for up to 90 days (Canada) and I had residence in Switzerland. But I could imagine that people in a similar situation who come from countries that normally require a visa for travelling in Europe might have had more of a problem.
It’s UK law that airlines have to make sure that the person that checks in is the person that boards the aircraft, hence the passport check at checkin and at the gate. I used to work at MAN and it has been like that since the 90s at least!
Before Covid and Brexit the checks were more lax, you simply showed your PP and boarding card together when boarding.
With the "new" Swiss system they scan your passport with an ipad which then does "something"... (I assume either confirms against some kind of database OR saves it to a flight manifest database?) before stamping it.
This is because the UK post Brexit requires more formalised proof that the docs are checked. (I got that info from the person doing the checking when I asked why we still had to do it now Covid passes are a thing of the past).