Air India, the national carrier of India, has taken rapid strides towards modernization which not only includes the fleet renewals but also providing web-based interface to passengers for a range of air travel services. These include the online booking, cancellation, refunds processing, check in and customer grievance redressal among other initiatives. The most convenient of these facilities for the passengers is with respect to the online booking of tickets and check in as it saves them a lot of time and is extremely convenient to use.
Air India check in can be used in six different ways. Airport check in is the usual medium wherein passengers walk in to the airport and check in at the counter of the airline. However, one must be prepared for the long queues and reach there well in time so as not to miss the boarding. This was the only medium of checking in not so long back but due to improvement in technology, other methods have now been devised for passengers.
Passengers can even proceed to the self-service kiosk kept at the airport instead of waiting in the queue at the counter. These kiosks would enable you to check in up to 9 passengers of a group, select seats of choice and get the boarding passes printed.
Web check in is the most popular method of getting the boarding passes nowadays. This is allowed for all passengers and for all airports except at Bahrain, Sydney, Melbourne, Dhaka, Dubai and Muscat. At the same time, this can be used even by those passengers who have check in baggage. Earlier, its use was restricted to domestic flights and only for those passengers who did not have the check in baggage. But, now it can be used even by these passengers and drop the luggage at the airport drop-off boxes. It shall be remembered that only confirmation slips are provided for international flights instead of the boarding pass by the carrier.
Passengers can also use their mobiles for this purpose as well. But, this is available only for 6 airports of the country- Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai and for domestic flights only.
Using the telephone is another medium in which seats can be selected and boarding pass is printed. This can be done by those who have confirmed booking and do not have check in luggage. Passengers can simply call the customer service of the carrier and check in.
Another method which can be used is that of city check in. This is available only for those who have to board from Delhi airport. You can move into the Safdarjung based office of the carrier within 24 hours of your flight and get the check in done. Only hand luggage carrying passengers can use this method.
Nguyen An Tra My
Martin Wynn
