British Airways online check-in: times, boarding pass and airport guide

Online check-in with British Airways opens 24 hours before departure, through Manage My Booking or the British Airways app. Once you're done, you can print your boarding pass, download it to your phone, or have it emailed to you.

This guide covers when British Airways check-in opens and closes, what you need to start, how the process runs, and which deadlines wait for you at the airport.

Online check-in opens 24 hours before departure. You can do it through Manage My Booking on the British Airways website, or in the British Airways app.

British Airways sets the closing time by airport, and for departures from the United States, the long-haul deadline applies. Check-in at a long-haul international airport closes at least 60 minutes before the flight leaves, and a few destinations close 90 minutes before.

Leaving from London, the times differ again: Heathrow and Gatwick close 60 minutes before a long-haul flight and 45 minutes before a short-haul one, London City closes 30 minutes before every flight, and Stansted 60.

Whatever the airport, the rule behind the deadline is the same. You must have your boarding pass before check-in closes.

Online check-in on the British Airways website asks for two things:

• your booking reference, which is six letters and numbers;

• the last name of the passenger, as it appears on the booking.

Enter both and select Start check-in.

The British Airways app takes a different route. There you can check in by scanning your passport, and the boarding pass lands in the app once you are through.

At an airport kiosk, either works: your booking reference on its own will bring up your reservation, and so will your passport.

Online check-in opens 24 hours before departure and runs the same way on the British Airways website and in the British Airways app.

How to check in online with British Airways:

1. Open Manage My Booking on the British Airways website, or open the British Airways app.

2. Enter your booking reference and the passenger's last name. In the app you can scan your passport instead.

3. Review or choose your seat.

4. Take your boarding pass in the format you want: printed, downloaded to your phone, emailed, or saved to your Apple or Google Wallet.

Checking in for more than one flight, or more than one person

The app lets you check in for a whole booking rather than one flight at a time. You can download boarding passes for your return flight and, where possible, for connecting flights departing within the next 24 hours. Up to nine people on the same booking can be checked in together, on ba.com or in the app. Boarding passes for up to eight people on one booking can be downloaded onto a single phone.

Online check-in is not offered everywhere. British Airways lists a small number of European airports where it is unavailable, and none of them is in the United States. Where that applies, the boarding pass comes from a kiosk or a check-in desk at the airport.

With the boarding pass already in hand, what you do at the airport depends on whether you have a bag to check.

Traveling with a carry-on only, you can go straight through security to your gate.

With a bag to check, head for the Bag Drop area. Bring your boarding pass, passport and any travel documents your destination requires, including a visa if applicable.

If the boarding pass has not reached you yet, the check-in kiosks will print one before you go to Bag Drop. The same kiosks will reprint a pass you have lost or left behind.

Check-in is the easy part. A delay, a cancellation or an overbooked flight can still get in the way of your plans.

Flights to and from Europe fall under one of two sets of rules: EC 261 in the European Union, or UK261 in the United Kingdom. If the airline is responsible for the disruption, you may be owed up to $650 per passenger under EC 261, and broadly the same amounts under UK261. The figure depends on how far you were due to fly.

Which of the two applies comes down to where your flight starts and where it ends. Both guides set out how that works.

Rules on the U.S. side come from the Department of Transportation, and our guide to US air passenger rights covers them.

To find out what your own flight may be worth, start with our British Airways compensation page.

Keeping an eye on your flight

Once you've checked in, you can keep an eye on your flight. British Airways publishes flight status on its own site, and the British Airways app sends notifications about gate changes and other updates in the 24 hours before departure, including live activities on your lock screen.

For another way to keep an eye on your flight, the free AirHelp app can track it and check whether a delay, cancellation or denied boarding may entitle you to compensation.

With the AirHelp app you can:

• receive real-time notifications about delays, cancellations, gate changes and baggage claim;

• scan your boarding pass to add your flight quickly;

• share your flight status with whoever is picking you up;

• find out automatically when you are owed up to $650 in compensation;

• start your claim straight from the app, with no paperwork.

The app is free and available on iOS and Android.