Benefits of OLCI

[OATEK]

Just one thing from me on this OLCI, esp for travel where I have done OLCI, and printed a BP for an int flight, and I just need to show my passport to be dipped into the reader, it seems that some check in staff look at it with disdain, and they will as a rule of thumb, print out a "proper" BP and practically tear up your home printed BP.
Watch it the next time you show your home printed BP, and just need your passport dipped/or to ask for an Expresspath card.
Maybe the best thing is not to hand over the A4 sheet of paper!
While not with QF, this happened with (Air) NZ, J flight SYD - AKL, followed all the procedures, had completed all and sundry, printed BP (had it with me), all I needed was the passport dip, and the Expresspath card. The lady printed me out a proper BP for the temp lounge, maybe they needed that proper BP, then tore up and threw my torn to bits home printed paper BP into her covert bin.
Ouch.

Had exactly the opposite with CX - they specifically said that we need to retain and use the one printed at home (it was for an AY codeshare flight).

I always do OLCI since I heard about pax getting bumped at the airport. For domestic always print a BP at the kiosk, as have had trouble with the machine reading the one on my phone. For international flights, generally have no trouble printing the BPs at the Hotel the day before flying.

 

[DC3]

Always have checked-in online. Never been off-loaded/down-graded.

I see no reason to discontinue this practice.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

OLCI came in before you could pre-allocate seats on domestic QF flights so people used to try and get in right on the T-24 mark in order to snaffle the best seat they could as it was their first opportunity to do so. If you are using Qtags it allows you to proceed directly to the bag drop without seeing a CSA or using a kiosk. Same for mobile checkin or tapping the Qcard reader at the airport.

You can always use your frequent flyer card as a boarding pass at the gate regardless of what method you used to check in, but note that scanning at the card won't check you in so make sure you've checked in prior to boarding your flight.

Even with status you may not be able to select exit row seats (without a fee). Once OLCI opens then these seats generally become available if not already selected by others.

You should be able to pre-select any exit row free of charge on B738 operated flights if you are WP or SG. If PS or below you may still be able to within T-80 if you haven't been able to prior to this. If you know ahead of time you're in an exit row then just checkin at the kiosk which will print a boarding pass after you acknowledge the exit row eligibility questions or checkin with a CSA at the counter.

Don't bother using OLCI if seated in an exit. Ditto for the Qcard reader. Mobile checkin has worked for exit rows if you acknowledge the questions but there have been reports of some ppl experiencing issues so needing a CSA to reprint a boarding pass as they would have had the pax done OLCI in an exit row.

Sorry for the slightly off-topic tangent, butI really like getting a proper boarding pass. If you do OLCI, can you re-print a boarding pass from a kiosk at the airport? Once you choose to print your own, or use your phone, is there any way to get a printed boarding pass?

You can always reprint a boarding pass from the SSK at the airport or ask a CSA or lounge angel to reprint one for you no matter how you've initially checked in.

re domestic OLCI etc - where does this auto-check-in "feature" come into play? It seems to be rolling out through the nwtrok, though I don't know I've had it applied to me yet personally, but I've seen the blurbs about it. Seems to mitigate the "if you didn't check in you could be downgraded/booted off"(I do realise that stuff was international) thing.

Auto-checkin is a bit like a reminder whether they send you the link then once you click on that it checks you in and you get a QR code which you scan at the boarding gate then grab the receipt that prints out.

Of course you can still use your card to board instead of scanning the barcode. If you have a qtag then just scan the QR code on your phone at the auto bag drop or hold your ff card against the Q symbol on the auto bag drop before putting the bag on the belt.

If need a paper bag tag then scan the bar code at a SSK which should display the pax name saying 'already checked-in' & then select continue then tick the 'print bag tag' option from the list.

BP there days tend to fade though. Unless you make paper copies or scan to app or computer memory usb. Me? I love OLCI and my beloved QCC. And am HLO only too.

AP if you do OLCI then just save the pdf copy of your boarding pass to your computer for a permanent record.

A related question is, if you OLCI, does that reduce your chances of an upgrade?

No, it makes no difference.

 

[NM]

I (and my daughter) have found that if traveling with checked luggage it can be quicker to check-in at a kiosk at the airpport and tag your own bag and send it away on the bag drop belt/chute, than to OLCI and then have to queue at the OLCI bag-drop counter to get bag tags printed and attached.

 

[jimmylikesitwet]

I (and my daughter) have found that if traveling with checked luggage it can be quicker to check-in at a kiosk at the airpport and tag your own bag and send it away on the bag drop belt/chute, than to OLCI and then have to queue at the OLCI bag-drop counter to get bag tags printed and attached.

Why not OLCI and then use the self bag drop. Best of both worlds.

 

[BD1959]

I (and my daughter) have found that if traveling with checked luggage it can be quicker to check-in at a kiosk at the airpport and tag your own bag and send it away on the bag drop belt/chute, than to OLCI and then have to queue at the OLCI bag-drop counter to get bag tags printed and attached.

IME: quickest is to check-in using auto-check on the way to airport and bag drop using Q-tag.

Regards,

BD

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I (and my daughter) have found that if traveling with checked luggage it can be quicker to check-in at a kiosk at the airpport and tag your own bag and send it away on the bag drop belt/chute, than to OLCI and then have to queue at the OLCI bag-drop counter to get bag tags printed and attached.

There are no specific OLCI bag drop counters for domestic flights (at BNE at least) just go immediately to a SSK scanning the barcode on your OLCI boarding pass then printing out a paper bag tag before proceeding to the auto bagdrop.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

I don't bother with OCLI as I see no benefit.
After initially selecting seats online much earlier, I prefer to use the self serve kiosk so I can see the seat allocation as late as possible and potentially change seats, especially if I find I have no shadow.
If I already know I want to change seats I will use the business check in counter and see what charm can coax from the ground crew.
If I only have carry on I will go through security and check in at the lounge, delaying final seat allocation as late as possible, hopefully until everyone else has checked in.
For international flights, as you need to front up to the counter for passport checks anyway I can't see the point.
I am aware of the very (overly) long thread about an unfortunate downgrade experience.
However I'm far from convinced that OLCI would be a panacea for such a situation.
Further, it seems to be fairly rare and I'm happy to take my chances.

One comment on the following among ozbeachbabe's excellent advice:

You should be able to pre-select any exit row free of charge on B738 operated flights if you are WP or SG. If PS or below you may still be able to within T-80 if you haven't been able to prior to this. If you know ahead of time you're in an exit row then just checkin at the kiosk which will print a boarding pass after you acknowledge the exit row eligibility questions or checkin with a CSA at the counter.

Don't bother using OLCI if seated in an exit. Ditto for the Qcard reader. Mobile checkin has worked for exit rows if you acknowledge the questions but there have been reports of some ppl experiencing issues so needing a CSA to reprint a boarding pass as they would have had the pax done OLCI in an exit row.

I have found the situation with exit row seating varies. Generally the self-serve kiosks in ADL and PER refuse to process my check in and refer me to the check in desk.
In SYD, MEL and BNE I have been able to use the self-serve kiosk even when allocated an exit row seat.

 

[Awesom Andy]

I was in MEL catching JQ7 a few weeks ago. The normal queue was reported to be at least 40 mins wait, while the OLCI queue was virtually empty. I used neither as I was HLO, and eligible for straight-to-gate. There's nothing like sipping champagne airside while my travelling companions were stuck in the check-in counter queue.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I
I have found the situation with exit row seating varies. Generally the self-serve kiosks in ADL and PER refuse to process my check in and refer me to the check in desk. In SYD, MEL and BNE I have been able to use the self-serve kiosk even when allocated an exit row seat.

It should only do that if you already attempted OLCI when you're seated in an exit & you get that A4 bit of paper that says "this is not a boarding pass see customer service staff at the airport."

If you arrive at the airport with a clean slate (ie haven't first attempted OLCI at home) when you go to the airport kiosks & checkin you should see a pop-up with questions about your suitability for the exit and you must click on the "yes" button if you meet all the criteria to receive your boarding pass.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

As I said, I don't use (nor, for the avoidance of doubt, do I attempt to use) OLCI.
I've still been sent to the check-in counter, where staff have acknowledged the inconsistency and shared my exasperation.
It's only happened at PER & ADL though. Unfortunately they have been my two most frequent points of departure.

 

[medhead]

This is the auto check in SMS. (Except the number is fake)

Medhead, check-in for your flight Sydney to Adelaide. https://www.qantas.com.au/c/999999999xx_xx_xx_

There are no specific OLCI bag drop counters for domestic flights (at BNE at least) just go immediately to a SSK scanning the barcode on your OLCI boarding pass then printing out a paper bag tag before proceeding to the auto bagdrop.

If you use your qtags, and have checked in, just walk up to the bag chute, scan the barcode on your QFF card and collect the bag receipt.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I don't bother with OCLI as I see no benefit. After initially selecting seats online much earlier, I prefer to use the self serve kiosk so I can see the seat allocation as late as possible and potentially change seats, especially if I find I have no shadow.

I have found the situation with exit row seating varies. Generally the self-serve kiosks in ADL and PER refuse to process my check in and refer me to the check in desk. In SYD, MEL and BNE I have been able to use the self-serve kiosk even when allocated an exit row seat.

As I said, I don't use (nor, for the avoidance of doubt, do I attempt to use) OLCI. I've still been sent to the check-in counter, where staff have acknowledged the inconsistency and shared my exasperation. It's only happened at PER & ADL though. Unfortunately they have been my two most frequent points of departure.

When I've checked in using the kiosks in PER & ADL I've noticed no difference in functionality from SSK's elsewhere in the network, however I haven't been seated in the exit row on those flights. I don't believe there's in inconsistency in how the kiosks check people in so there must be other factors at play.

What is different about your ex ADL & PER flights as opposed to flights ex SYD, MEL & BNE? Did you have an incarriage flight from another port on another airline in the same booking that day or the night before eg on XR, TL or JQ?

What method do you use to retrieve your booking at the SSK at the airport eg QF booking reference, by scanning the barcode on your itinerary (if booked through the QF website) or by inserting your QF freq flyer card into the kiosk?

I hope you don't do it by name as you would need to enter your name exactly how it's booked & if a company is doing the booking they can often do it differently each time eg use first & middle name plus surname or first name, middle initial plus surname.

What can happen when checked in by the other airline on a preceding flight is that action can generate an IATCI attempt to check you in on the following QF flight then because you're in an exit row, the other airline can't verify that you're suitable so by the time you use the QF SSK's due to the attempt to check you in already (that you're unaware of) you're referred to a CSA.

eg flying DPS JQ BNE QF ADL you will only get a JQ boarding pass in DPS however the CSA in DPS would be unaware that you're checked in downline for the QF flight BNE/ADL so if someone was in an exit row the kiosk would not print out the boarding pass as a checkin attempt has already been made from another source.

Besides acknowledging the apparent inconsistencies with PER & ADL checkin did the staff do anything to trouble shoot or offer any explanation as to why you experience difficulties at those ports?

 

[$CJ]

It goes both ways.

I checked in at the airport a few months ago 29 minutes before departure only to find that I (SG) had already been bumped out of 4C and sent down the back. Not even an apology. Since then I use OLCI.

But it creates a PITA if you need to change schedule via a travel agent after already checking in. Also a PITA for everyone if you are unavoidably a no-show.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

When I've checked in using the kiosks in PER & ADL I've noticed no difference in functionality from SSK's elsewhere in the network, however I haven't been seated in the exit row on those flights. I don't believe there's in inconsistency in how the kiosks check people in so there must be other factors at play.

What is different about your ex ADL & PER flights as opposed to flights ex SYD, MEL & BNE? Did you have an incarriage flight from another port on another airline in the same booking that day or the night before eg on XR, TL or JQ?

No, single sector or return QF flights, the east coast departures might tend to be single sectors not return, but I'm not aware of any other difference.

What method do you use to retrieve your booking at the SSK at the airport eg QF booking reference, by scanning the barcode on your itinerary (if booked through the QF website) or by inserting your QF freq flyer card into the kiosk?

QFFF card - although occasionally the kiosks can't read it and I revert to name.

I hope you don't do it by name as you would need to enter your name exactly how it's booked & if a company is doing the booking they can often do it differently each time eg use first & middle name plus surname or first name, middle initial plus surname.

What can happen when checked in by the other airline on a preceding flight is that action can generate an IATCI attempt to check you in on the following QF flight then because you're in an exit row, the other airline can't verify that you're suitable so by the time you use the QF SSK's due to the attempt to check you in already (that you're unaware of) you're referred to a CSA.

eg flying DPS JQ BNE QF ADL you will only get a JQ boarding pass in DPS however the CSA in DPS would be unaware that you're checked in downline for the QF flight BNE/ADL so if someone was in an exit row the kiosk would not print out the boarding pass as a checkin attempt has already been made from another source.

Besides acknowledging the apparent inconsistencies with PER & ADL checkin did the staff do anything to trouble shoot or offer any explanation as to why you experience difficulties at those ports?

No, they just said they were aware of the inconsistency and it was annoying.


The only possible factor in my procedure which I can think of which might be different from the default is that even when I have preselected an exit row seat I usually go into seat selection within the kiosk process to look at the seats, see if I have a shadow and if not, whether I want to change seats. Even if I don't change the original seat selection the kiosk dialogues are written as if it is saving a new seat selection when I exit the seat selection process and attempt to continue with the check in.

 

[eminere]

Had exactly the opposite with CX - they specifically said that we need to retain and use the one printed at home (it was for an AY codeshare flight).

I experienced the same thing during my recent SYD-HKG-ICN flights - the agent at the check-in desk refused to reprint my boarding passes on card stock as I had already selected the print boarding pass function at home and had to use those. Which I find a little hard to believe. What if your printer fails and you couldn't successfully print out your boarding passes? Would you be denied boarding? I couldn't be bothered to argue with her so just left it.

No such problem on the return ICN-HKG-SYD flights - the agent happily printed out the boarding passes for me even though I had the mobile passes saved to Passbook.

 

[marki]

Strange thing happened today !! When using my Bar code on the iPhone to scan in at Whyalla today ( on Safari) it kept on bringing up my apple pay credit card requesting a fingerprint scan? WTF? I could not switch it off. Had to step out of line and get the code into Apple Wallet, then it scanned. Anybody else have this hiccup Red Roo did you u know about this peculiar behaviour?

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Strange thing happened today !! When using my Bar code on the iPhone to scan in at Whyalla today ( on Safari) it kept on bringing up my apple pay credit card requesting a fingerprint scan? WTF? I could not switch it off. Had to step out of line and get the code into Apple Wallet, then it scanned. Anybody else have this hiccup Red Roo did you u know about this peculiar behaviour?

Haven't heard of that one before. Don't worry about scanning the QR code on your phone just use your WP card which will work no matter what method you used to checkin.

 

[Quickstatus]

What method do people use to retrieve the reservation at the Self Service Kiosks?

 

[serfty]

WP card ..