Nice Tip for Checking In Online

I love the idea of checking in online--the ability to make sure that you have the seat you really want and then bypass all counters at the airport is wonderful. Unfortunately, if you want to check in online while you're actually on a trip (and don't have access to a printer so that you can print out your boarding pass), you might think that you can't use online check in. WRONG!

I have discovered that you can actually go through the process of checking in online, and then just "pretend" to print your boarding pass. Depending on the carrier, you can either just breeze through the print option, or if it forces you to print, download and install a free PDF writer (like PDF Creator)--this will give the browser the impression that it actually printed something.


Next, go to the airport check in kiosks, enter your confirmation number (or other identification), and you should be presented with the option to reprint your boarding documents. Wha-la! You are now set to go through security, and you haven't had to deal with a single human (yet!). I have used this tip many times with United and Frontier, and I'd imagine that it would work for virtually any US carrier. International travel is an entirely different animal, of course--most carriers still won't let you check in online at all for these trips.