UPDATE: United has sent out a memo to airport staff concerning this change.
As previously communicated by United, no changes to check-in cutoff times are currently in effect.
“No changes have been made to our current minimum check-in times. The minimum check-in times are 30 minutes for customers without checked bags and 45 minutes for customers with checked bags before departure for domestic flights and 60 minutes before departure for international flights. Some airports have different check-in times.”
However, the purpose of the change is to “test new parameters’ for future “flexibility” in adjusting check-in cutoffs:
“The Contract of Carriage was updated to increase the minimum check-in time so that our internal teams can test new time parameters and allow us more flexibility to explore adjusting our check-in cut-off times in the future.”
I don’t think the recent decision to allow basic economy passengers to check-in online is a coincidence. One of the biggest concerns to the policy change above is how it would further negatively impact basic economy customers, who previously could not check in online. As of August 5, 2024, basic economy passengers can now check-in online as long as they provide credit card information preauthorizing a $65 baggage charge at the boarding gate if they try to sneak a larger-sized carry-on item onboard.
I’m not convinced United ever will adjust check-in time, but it has laid the goundwork for doing so.
My original story, from July 5, 2024, is below.
United Airlines has not changed its check-in cutoffs at this time, but a recent update to its contract of carriage suggests the carrier is preparing to tighten its domestic and international check-in cutoffs in 2025.
New Check-In Cutoffs In United Airlines Contract Of Carriage: A Hint For 2025?
Current Check-In Requirements:
- Domestic check-in without bags at least 30 minutes before departure
- Domestic check-in with bags at least 45 minutes before departure
- International check-in (with or without bags) at least 60 minutes before departure
Exceptions markets requiring more time do exist.
But on June 28, 2024, United updated its contract of carriage. (hat tip: Flyertalk)
New Check-In Requirements Per Contract Of Carriage:
- Domestic check-in (with or without bags) at least 60 minutes before departure
- International check-in (with or without bags) at least 75 minutes before departure
Once again, exceptions markets requiring more time do exist.
United’s websites, outside of the contract of carriage, have not been updated to reflect these new check-in cutoffs. Rather, United told Live And Let’s Fly:
“We’ve updated our Contract of Carriage to allow for possible future changes. However, at this time there has been no change to the check-in times on united.com. Any changes in check-in times will be posted there before they go into effect at the airport.”
Keep in mind United sells tickets up to 335 days in advance, so technically this update cannot affect tickets for at least 11 months (since folks bought in under the old time limits). If there is a change, we will likely not see it go into effect until June 2025.
If it did go into effect, Basic Economy passengers would be hit hard, since no online check-in is permitted on these tickets (without elite status) even if you are not checking in any bags.
CONCLUSION
United Airlines has updated the check-in cutoffs for domestic and international travel but they have not gone into effect (i.e. will not be enforced) for current travel. With passengers able to book 11 months in advance, I expect if these changes do end up taking effect, it will not be until June 2025.
Would these stricter check-in cutoffs change the way you travel on United?
Earlier this summer I had a delay coming into the North American gateway airport for my TATL flight on a separate ticket. I had checked in for the flights without an issue and had all boarding passes but there was the issue of checked-in baggage to claim and then check-in. Because of the incoming delay and with the baggage check-in cut-off time for the TATL flight being 60 minutes before scheduled departure, I was looking at making a choice between ditching the bag and risk losing it, ditching the bag and making back up plans to have it recovered, or paying for new tickets. Fortunately the European carrier allowed me to check in my bag even as I showed up at the check-in desk with less than 60 minutes to go to scheduled departure. For what it’s worth, the bag made it easily onto the flight and I had enough time to pick up food and drop into a lounge and still end up waiting to board the flight. I say this hoping that the US airlines don’t become as inflexible about the cut-off times as they are inclined to for their own cost-control reasons.
Everyone ought to show up 2 hours ( 120 minutes ) before domestic , and 3 hours ( 180 minutes ) before international . This is common sense , which I possess in abundance .
Everyone? ROTFLOL
As with other things in life, not everyone has the same priorities in common and/or the same demands on their time. A uniform standard for all seems rather communist and customer-unfriendly.
Yes, that’s ideal, turning up at check in three hours before your international flight only to discover that check in only opens at T-120 and end up having to kill an hour in a place with nowhere to sit!
Matthew-
Your poor proofing and editing is now just leading to downright errors in your posts:
“Domestic check-in (with or without bags) at least 60 minutes before departure
Domestic check-in (with or without bags) at least 75 minutes before departure”
Which is it for domestic check-ins? I shouldn’t have to zoom into your screenshot to get that info. Please, please, please higher a copy editor or proof your posts before posting. You’ve gotten more and more sloppy over the years and your writing quality has diminished significantly.
Before criticizing Matthew, you probably should check your own posting. Higher instead of hire…
People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones
Neal- I apologize for my brief typo but don’t deflect that Matthew’s writing errors are a problem. You were still able to understand my point even with my grammatical error. Matthew’s mistake clearly changes the outcome of the article and the information he’s trying to convey- there is no denying that. His writing is getting worse and worse and every article has typos/errors that minimize the information he’s trying to convey.
It’s a problem.
If you check in online, as you should be doing, this is irrelevant. For complicated int’l trips you’re probably going to show up more than 75 minutes early anyway. This is an easy way for UA to offload maybe 1 extra pax per flight, cutting down on denied boarding compensation they have to pay. I actually think it’s a pretty smart idea. I just hope agents are given leeway to make exceptions in cases of long lines where people did, in fact, show up at a reasonable time.
At US airports the major US airlines generally have those self check-in kiosks kicking out boarding passes and checked bag tags. [Doesn’t work as reliably for international flights; it’s even worse for those hit by haraSSSSment flags.] And once the boarding passes and checked-bag tags are printed out by the kiosks, the airlines may have to consider the passengers to be “on time” even if the bag drop-off line for those already printed-out tag bags is long/slow.
Your comment made me think this may be the issue. They’re not thinking they need your bag 60 minutes before the flight, they’re thinking that they want you to finish at the kiosk 60 minutes before, so they get it on the belt 45 minutes before when the queue is backed up.
My experience at RNO last weekend suggests they may be enforcing the current cutoffs more stringently. I got to the check in counter to check my bag 43 minutes before scheduled departure. I received and “error message” at the bag drop kiosk and was directed to an agent. The agent put a big yellow “URGENT” flag on my tag, and I noticed “LATE” was printed on my bag tag. I was told if my bag did not make it on the flight, then I would be deboarded. Perhaps this is how it has always been, but I felt they made a much bigger deal of being a couple of minutes late than they had in the past. My bag made it onto the plane in the end and fortunately I was not delayed.
I miss the days living in Singapore where there was never any problem showing up to check in 60 min before departure and still having 20 min or so to visit the lounge. My home airport is now DPS. Not as good as Changi but nowhere near as bad and slow as many North American airports.