WestJet Nails the Mobile Check-In Service

I was recently traveling with my wife on vacation. We flew with WestJet, a Canadian “discount” airline. More and more planes have TV’s in the back of the seat in front of you, allowing you to watch something of your own liking and not being forced to watch the same movie as everyone else on board. When we boarded the plane there was an advertisement on the screen informing people that they can use the mobile check-in service before their next flight. I thought - cool, but once the flight took off I promptly forgot about it. That is, until the I got in the cab for the 5 minute drive to the airport for my flight home. I quickly pulled out my phone and thought I wouldn’t have enough time to finish the check-in before the cab arrived at the airport. Turns out, I was wrong - really wrong. It was quick, and simple to do from my phone’s browser. I was able to check-in for the flight, confirm the number of bags we had and even change our seats! The best part is that I was finished checking in before the cab reached the airport. That short 5 minute taxi cab ride was more than enough time. Awesome!

I guess the reason I’m so thrilled, is that one of the guys at work attempted this with another airline before his flight, but everything went bad pretty quick when it required him to print his boarding pass. Of course this isn’t very easy to do from your mobile device. Thankfully, my airline thought this process through and informed me to head directly to the web check-in line and the attendant will take my bags and print my boarding pass. And that’s exactly what happened.

So many times I see companies try to make mobile and/or web based services available to their customers but more often than not, the company has not fully thought things out and the experience is lacking. So it’s great to see that some do get it right. I’m a happy customer, and I would do it all again.