Remote check-in returns for flights from Heathrow

By Joe Brancatelli

INTERNATIONAL ITINERARY

Back to the future of airline check-in in London: When Heathrow Express trains launched in 1998, the Paddington Station terminus offered airline check-in and checked-bag desks for major carriers serving London’s Heathrow Airport. Those desks disappeared after 9/11, but now some check-in services are resuming at Paddington. This time it’s in the form of automated, common-use check-in kiosks that will spit out your boarding pass and allow you to drop checked bags at fast-bag-drop stations at Heathrow. The machines currently offer boarding passes for Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Finnair and Iberia flights, but other carriers, including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, are expected to eventually permit check-in and boarding-pass services, too.

The train station now even has flight boards so you know where your flight is departing from at Heathrow and whether it’s on-time. The check-in kiosks and the info boards are located on the platform between tracks 6 and 7, the tracks used by the non-stop, fast-train service to Heathrow Airport. By the way, there’s no reason why you can’t use the check-in services if you’re traveling on the much cheaper and slightly slower Heathrow Connect trains between Paddington and Heathrow. Those trains usually use Track 12.

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Joe Brancatelli is editor and publisher of JoeSentMe.com, a non-commercial Web site for business travelers. Copyright 2009 by Joe Brancatelli. Licensed by contract for Orbitz use.

Tagged: Europe