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A new British Airways check-in service launches later this month which will allow those living within the M25 to check-in their bags at home. No more wrestling with heavy cases, waiting at bag drop or turning up at the airport two hours in advance.
This service will take one of the key hassles out of your travels, making it easier to travel to the airport by public transport.
The British Airways check-in service
Only passengers within the M25 are eligible and they must be flying from Gatwick, Heathrow or City airport. That rules me out then!
To book, at least seven hours before departure, you log on to the AirPortr app and pay a fee of between £20 and £40. This will secure your collection time, and an AirPortr team will arrive at your home address during the allotted time window. They will weigh your bags, attach a tracking bar code, pop them in an “anti-tamper” bag before taking it to the airport for the required time.
The whole process is estimated to take no more than five minutes and is a very positive development. They just need to extend this service to regional airports and I will be a very happy bunny.
Please note the rates quoted are one way but discounts apply for return journeys and when more than one bag is to be picked up.
At the airport
At the airport, staff removed the luggage from the bags, scan them and load them onto the aircraft. Meanwhile you can be at home enjoying a cup of tea or still cramming in some last-minute sightseeing in London.
You will retrieve your bag as usual from the luggage carousel when you arrive at your end destination.
What about other airlines?
You can also use Airportr with other airlines although you will need to collect your bags from the Airportr desk within the airport. If you go ahead and sign up, use the code ASLATER-BROOKS1 to secure £10 off your first booking,
A welcome development
I personally think this is a very welcome development. I have too many memories of dragging cases on to the tube or carousel to want to remember. On the other hand, I remember fondly the Virgin Atlantic check-in at our hotel in Grenada. It meant so much less hassle at the airport.
What do you think?
Would you use this British Airways check-in service? Be happy to pay to check-in remotely or be too worried about where your bags might end up? Let me know below.
Um can I just say this sounds amazing. I’m not in the UK, but I would love a service like that! It’s so cool how some airlines really are trying to make things more convenient for us! Thanks for sharing this info! 🙂
I love the idea of this – getting the hassle of your bags out of the way before getting to the airport. This is especially useful for some of us not-so-light packers :p. Too bad I live so far from England – I’d like to see this expand globally (and maybe for a lower cost too).
This is such a great service! We have this service in Japan as well and it is used by many. My family members use the service and sometimes the bags arrive before you do 🙂
Now that would be cool (albeit possibly a little inconvenient)
Well, that’s just the coolest thing ever, and not even too expensive. Totally worth it if it means not having to lug you bags to the airport.
DAWW I wish we had British Airways as our national airline giant. What they do for their customers is amazing and I love flying with them. On the contrary I hate how we Canadians are stuck with Westjet and Air Canada lol, just the absolute worst.
I’ve only flown one Canadian airline which was Transat. they were OK. Are the others really so bad?
That’s a great service! I think it’s great especially if you are travelling with children. The last thing you need is to deal with kids and ton of bags (the two go hand in hand) and public transport to the airport.
I almost never check a bag, but I would absolutely love to use this when I do. I recently flew my imac from my real office in New York to my home office in Toronto and it wasn’t the greatest experience ever, even though nothing went wrong.
Having tried to navigate rush hour traffic on the tube whilst carrying a large backpack on both my front and my back, I can see that this would be amazing for those with loads of luggage. However, the fact that I carry all my stuff in a backpack indicates that I’m probably unlikely to pay £40 to have somebody else carry it for me. I suspect that I am not the target audience although, and that this will be a very popular service.
If I lived in the area, I might be tempted to use the service. I know during the holidays, I’ve often shipped my luggage ahead of me to avoid the hassles of flying with bags on flights I assumed would be overcrowded. This service would be much cheaper than that option! I like that they put the tracker on right away, too.
Promising service, but I am far from Uk anyways. I am a bit old-fashioned and rather show up two hours before the departure.