Check in codeshare flight online or at the airport?

If its on one ticket, once you check-in on the first leg, you are checked in all the way.

Check in was problematic for my last two trips. The entire ticket was through Delta . Coming back from Kauai, Hawaiian charged for a bag when I am a Delta AMEX cardholder. The difference was that Hawaiian is a partner but not Codeshare with Delta. We may have changed what we did had we known we were paying for bags.

We just returned from Sicily. We were on a Delta ticket. First two legs with ITA (like AirFrance ITA codeshares) Was able to select seat for Rome to Boston but not Catania to Rome. Also, we got notified to check in and then we were redirected to ITA and no matter how I approached it, I was unable to check in online. So we got super crappy seats well apart from each other but the flight was just over an hour so whatever. My bigger concern was that I was unable to check in for the subsequent flights so that caused a little worry. All turned out fine.

I’m not saying this will happen to you with Airfrance, but it may help knowing these scenarios.

In the US, I generally find that you cannot get the board pass on an international flight until you have checked in at the desk and produced a valid passport. The airlines are charged with the responsibility that everyone on the plane has valid passport. I am guessing you probably will need to check in with Air France in Seattle unless your first leg checked your passport.

Thank you all for your kind response; I really appreciate it!

@Frank:
My question is more specifically about checking in a 'codeshare' flight; and not necessary has to do with an international flight. But I think you're likely right that international flight might require checking in at the airport b/c of passport.

I came across this article online: https://www.smartertravel.com/ups-downs-online-check/ ; and in it the author claimed that one might be forced to check in at the airport instead of online for this scenario:

Blockquote
Your first flight is operated not by the airline with which you’re trying to check in, but by a codeshare partner

It sounds to me that I will have to physically check in at the Seattle airport.

Most of my flights with codeshare partners, usually AirFrance or KLM, allowed me to check in online 24 hours in advance so I would say it’s not a given either way. I haven’t had an issue leaving, it seems to happen at the end of a trip. If I couldn’t check in at the beginning of a trip, I’d call or drive to the airport ( I do live close to our airport)

@jules m:
That's probably what I will be doing: try to check in online first. And if it refuses then I'll just have to go to the airport earlier to check in; and have my late lunch there :)

Note that I rarely fly Delta internationally (not convenient) - but if I am booked all the way through on one ticket, I have always received all my boarding passes when checking in for my first flight. Occasionally my codeshare is not American or United metal (although booked through them) and I check in with whomever is operating that first leg. There has been previous discussion about successfully checking in online with Delta, though. (Or anyone, actually). I am pretty sure that I have not successfully fully checked in online for any of my 5 international trips over the past year.

Travelling to Portugal back in Sept 2019 on United/Star Alliance I was able to scan my passport on the United app and was able to check in online. In making my booking to Italy this September I also scanned in my passport.

I think the current issue with online check in for international revolves around checking for the required Covid documentation, which has to be done in person, regardless of the airlines' apps.

A lot of people on the forum have reported problems with online check in. I would plan to arrive at the airport even earlier than for previous international travel.

There is a way it might work and it has to do with the Record Locater.

When you booked your tickets with Delta, you got a record locater for the trip. That's Delta's locater and you use it to look at your itinerary, make changes, etc via the Delta website or app. But even if it's "codeshare" all Delta can do with Air France is make the reservation. It's really an Air France flight.

More than likely, Air France has assigned your reservation, with them, a different locater. If you ask Delta, they will give you the locater number for the Air France flight. With that, you can log into the Air France flight through the Air France website, not Delta's, and check in for your flight.

This is what I do so I get my boarding pass and can directly to security. My passport is checked at the gate.

Is it a perfect science? No. But it's works for me.

My very recent experience with my outgoing KLM flight and incoming Air France flight was that we were able to check in online, both directions, but were unable to see and print out boarding passes. Our destination was Portugal and we were required to show a negative covid test, and that's the rule to get back to the US, too. To get our boarding pass, we had to present our medical paperwork at the check in counter. If you're checking a bag you have to visit the check in counter anyway. I've never found online check in to be that much of a time-saver, but I still do it.

I don't remember the airlines involved but on one international codeshare flight I was able to use the actual ticket number to check-in online. It's kind of like what Frank II described. I used the ticket number to get the other airline's confirmation number then used that airline's confirm number to check in and print boarding passes.

I would think it'd be in the airlines best interest to know "who is going to show up". I have had times where I was able to checkin but needed to get a actual boarding pass at the airport. That would make sense to me. At that point, the airlines could check documents.

I had the same situation - Delta flight from MSP to CDG and Air France from CDG to BER. I checked in with Delta but then also checked in online with Air France.

I usually fly the same airlines for the whole itinerary; this is the first time I have a codeshare flight. I read quite a few comments in other threads that online checkin for international flight seems to be an issue for many; I'm guessing it might have to do with difficulty of uploading vaccination record and other documents. But this could happen to a regular or codeshare flight; so I'm not overly concern about it.

And yes I'm aware of the different confirmation number for the codeshare flight by Air France; I noticed it when I first logged in to AF website to select seat :) As I mentioned earlier my plan now is to simply try online checkin first; if it doesn't work then checkin at the airport.

Thanks everyone for your inputs!

P.S.
I know Delta has implemented their biometric digital identity program at Atlanta and Detroit for passengers who opt in. Participant simply stores their TSA or Global Entry Known Traveler Number and passport number with Delta; and with their identify verified by facial recognition. This means no more paper boarding pass or a physical government ID at security checkpoint, check bag and boarding. I hope they will introduce this in other major airports in the US. With the current pandemic I like the idea of contact free flying experience.

I wish the airlines would recognize that whom to check in with, on codeshare tickets, is not intuitively obvious to the casual traveler, and provide some information with the ticket.

We did a trip that was ticketed United, with codeshare, Chicago to Frankfurt on Lufthansa. Our return was Vienna to Dulles on Austrian. Neither United or Austrian allowed us to check in for the return flight (with either a United or an Austrian confirmation number). Just a wild late-night guess, but I was able to check-in for the Austrian flight via Lufthansa website, with a Lufthansa confirmation number. Luckily I had held on to the Lufthansa boarding pass with that confirmation number.

@Stan,
I couldn't agree more about airlines needing to keep passengers informed about the detail of codeshare check in. I do find it strange that you'd to check in your Austrian flight through the Lufthansa website. I'm guessing that maybe if you have two codeshare flights in the same ticket (your ticket was issued by Unite; codeshare flights by Lufthansa and Austrian); the airline that provides the first codeshare flight will take over as the airline in charge of the remaining codeshare flight. Just a guess.

Thanks for sharing your experience.