BudBrain

Hi,

We're flying out to Perth soon with Singapore Airlines and to reserve our seats we need to check-in 'online'.

I've never done this before so I've not got a clue how it works.

Where do we checkin our bags etc?
Do we still go to the Singapore desk with our passports etc?
Where do we get our bag stickers/weighed etc?
What happens with the seat tickets/cards that you hand over when you board?

Help!

freebo

Varies a little by airline but basically you select your seats and a boarding pass is emailed to you, which you print. At the airport you still go to the airline desk (often separate "baggage drop" queue), they check your pass, take your luggage & away you go to security.

HTH

xzibit

If you booked your flight online, you can choose your seats at any time with Singapore.

Anyway, when you check in online you choose/confirm our seats and passports numbers are correct. Then you print out your boarding passes.
When you get to the airport you take your bags up to the Singapore counters and they put the labels on them. To be honest, I've never found it any quicker to check in online.

BudBrain

We didn't book through the Singapore Airlines 'website' so you can only check-in 48 hours before the flight. The main reason we're doing it is to reserve our seats, not too worried about the time etc.

Anyone have any experience of booking 48 hours before? Were there many seats left to reserve? I guess most will have booked through their website directly.

xzibit

Look at it this way - we booked our flights today for March, and we just about managed to find seats together on the LHR-SIN leg. Although I'm not sure if some seats are kept reserved for check-in or not.

Last time I flew I checked in 48 hours before but already had my seat assigned so didn't get to see how many were left.

Hope you get the seats you want!!

BudBrain

Well there's 4 of us, two parents + two children - really hope we sit together now!

freebo

Most people will be checking in no earlier than 48 hours before, regardless of where they booked, no guarantees but you should be fine if you do it as early as possible, at least thats always been my experience.

Dorothy

If you're not then you go to the customer service desk at the airport and ask them to change your seating. Easy peasy.

When I flew Perth to London it wasn't until my stopover in Singapore that I realised they had given me 2 bording passes for PER-SIN but no boarding pass for the SIN-LHR leg. Went to the customer sevice desk, asked for the correct pass and had it along with a better seat assignment in no time.

jad n rich

Did the 48 hour check in from bris, singers and UK, each time the airline had sat us 3 together and there was a very small choice of other seats.

Really easy to do.

elice_in_oz

Depending on the age of your children, you might not be able to check-in online/choose your seats anyway. If the children are small (not sure up to what age though), they often don't let people choose their seats as they tend to put families towards the back of the aircraft to facilitate boarding. We always end up near the tail as we usually get to board before anybody else.

It's only happened once that my OH and I weren't seated together, but we soon got somebody to give up their seat to allow us to be together. It was that or they would have had to endure the flight next to a frazzled parent, an infant and a toddler. I know which I'd choose myself

Red_V_Roger

Also, if you are travelling with an infant only certain rows of an aircraft are equiped with oxygen masks (the ones that come down from the panel above you in emergency) suitable for the infant. So they need to seat these people in these rows. That's the main reason for stopping online check-in for this age of traveller.

Don't forget to look at www.seatguru.com for advice on the best & worst seats.

lynetteh

As you are travelling with children the airline should have temporarily assigned you seats together but I would not hold out much hope of being able to change those if there are particular seats you are after. If you do go to check in online and find that you have not got 4 seats together DO NOT complete the online check in. Call the airline customer service immediately and ask them to reserve you seats together. They should be able to do this and will then tell you to either go online again and check in, or to check in before the flight.
When we travelled with Singapore we saw several instances of people who could not get seats together at the online check in, but did they check in anyway with hopes of changing their seats at the airport. By the time they got to the airport most people had printed their boarding passes etc and the airline could not change their seats. Having said this none of the examples where we saw this happening had children travelling with them so that is why I think you might have some seats preassigned.
Hope this is helpful.
By the way if for some reason you are unable to print your boarding pass when you are checking in online (assuming your seats are OK) it does not matter. You can still check in online and they will print your boarding pass when you drop off your bags