Online Checkin Problem

Just trying to check in my Dad and myself for 2moros flight (UC) to Vegas and I get up to the final page where I click to complete Checkin on the Passenger Details page and it then goes to interstitial and then to a message saying:

"Unfortunately we are unable to check you into this flight at this time. Please go to the airport to check in at least two hours before your scheduled departure."

Very frustrating... any ideas why this would be?

Many reasons.
A few I can remember are:

There is the slightest difference in information you have entered and what's on the booking.

By law airlines have to physically check in a certain percentage of people at the airport, so will stop some people from doing online check in.

It's simply not working or had a blip when you tried.

The data is exactly the same as its all the same as last time I travelled with VS and no different - so I dont believe this to be the issue.

Just a pain, why give the function especially on a premium ticket and then not allow it to function and worse give me a poor generic error message that tells me nothing as to the actual problem. So I now have to turn up even earlier for my flight than originally planned.

You could phone the UC line and query it or just give it another try (that sometimes works)

You said your info was the same but what about your Dads? I'm assuning you've done APIS and your ESTAs are all valid too.

Have you tried again? It can be a little mistake like a letter out of place, or an extra space.

ISTBC but I believe that UC will keep seat requests till you check in, unlike Econ and PE. (Though I can't find where it used to say this on the Virgin website)

Scrap that, that's only on LHR flights. Sorry!

It could be that someone else on the flight has a very similar name - both have to be checked at check-in.
More likely, as above, someone/thing has random "selected" you.
Assuming you are not on a watch list ......

What I used to do, in that situation, was check-in the party that could - that reserves both seats!

Thanks all for the info! Much appreciated.

Eitherway... looking fwd to Vegas in the morning so its not all bad!

Just spoke to the UC line and they were at a loss too but confirmed everything looked okay.

Many reasons.
By law airlines have to physically check in a certain percentage of people at the airport, so will stop some people from doing online check in.

Really? What do the likes of Ryanair do now that they're all online?

Many reasons.
By law airlines have to physically check in a certain percentage of people at the airport, so will stop some people from doing online check in.

Really? What do the likes of Ryanair do now that they're all online?

This is not something I've heard of. Like you say airlines like Ryanair insist on 100% online checkin.

A friend of mine who works checkin for a large airline have said that they are instructed to audit a % of online checkin. All they do is double check all details then continue, takes a few minutes. Still allows online checkin though!

One suggestion, have you tried the mobile checkin? Last year I had issues checking in online and tried mobile, worked 1st time!

Many reasons.
By law airlines have to physically check in a certain percentage of people at the airport, so will stop some people from doing online check in.

Really? What do the likes of Ryanair do now that they're all online?

I assume there are different ways of doing the checks. I do believe this is the way Virgin do it at least. (What I have been told in the past)

Well am sat in LGW Clubhouse now after checking in... the problem was that because I upgraded using miles to UC from PE there was an unpaid tax amount of £19pp - so I had to go over to the ticket desk and pay that then back to check in. Bit of a pain really expecially considering they took my card details to upgrade with when I did it on the phone months ago! Anyway, paid the bill and got a receipt and will check everything when I am back - not going to let it bother me now!

Clayts,

With regards to the additional tax collection - I agree, bit of a pain to have to go to tkt desk, but the reason is that Virgin no longer store credit card CSC in the booking for security - so can't simply charge your card automatically anymore for additional payments.

Hope you have a good flight.

All ended well then.

Does sound a bit poor that they didn't take the payment over the phone, or even tell you you had an outstanding balance on your booking...

Anyway, have a good flight and enjoy the lights of Vegas.

the reason is that Virgin no longer store credit card CSC in the booking for security - so can't simply charge your card automatically anymore for additional payments.

But clayts provided the details at the time he upgraded? Why can't they charge it then?

I suspect that the agent that processed the upgrade calculated the tax wrong, or didn't quote any at all - as a result, the tkt would have been out of sync (meaning it had an outstanding balance) that needed to be paid before Clayts could check in.

Happens all the time unfortunately...particularly if the auto-fare calculation system isn't working and it has to be done manually :s