Cathay Pacific: Online Check-In and Boarding Pass

The online check-in opening time depends on the flight and the departure airport. It appears on your booking confirmation or in Manage Booking, and that is the reference to follow, especially on flights operated by a partner airline.

Cathay Pacific states that seat selection is possible at any time before check-in closes, and that during online check-in this choice remains open until 90 minutes before departure. Treat this as a cautious working limit: beyond it, you should plan on using a counter or kiosk at the airport.

At some stopovers, the airline also runs downtown check-in counters, separate from those at the airport. Their opening hours are their own, so check the day before.

The airline points travellers to its website: "Go to Cathay > Online Check-In." The Cathay Pacific app gives access to the same process, as well as to Manage Booking, where a seat can be chosen before online check-in opens.

You will need your booking or ticket number and the passenger's exact name, as printed on the passport. For an international flight, travel document details are usually requested during the process.

Not every booking goes through this channel. Cathay Pacific states, for combined trips to the Greater Bay Area: "Our codeshare coach booking currently does not support online check-in service." In that case, you can check in online for the flight to Hong Kong, but you still need to go to the Cathay Pacific check-in counter at the departure airport to arrange full baggage check-in.

Once check-in is complete, the airline lets you have the document resent: after online check-in, you can click the "Resend Boarding Pass" button, choose how you want to receive it, enter your mobile number or email address, then open the link received by SMS or email. Cathay Pacific notes that an internet connection is needed to open the file on your phone or computer.

The mobile boarding pass is not accepted everywhere: some airports and local authorities still require a paper copy, printed at a counter or kiosk. If your itinerary includes a connection outside the Cathay Pacific network, check that the boarding pass for the second flight has been issued to you.

The seat assigned at check-in can change up to the last moment for operational reasons or an aircraft swap. The gate number printed on the pass should always be cross-checked against the airport screens.

Online check-in does not exempt you from going to a counter if you are travelling with checked bags. Baggage drop-off closes 90 minutes before departure, and queues at peak times in Paris, London or Hong Kong mean you should arrive well ahead of that.

Cathay Pacific offers several self-service setups depending on the stopover:

• self-service check-in, notably in Amsterdam, Cebu, Chennai, Penang, at the Shanghai downtown terminal and at Taipei's A1 station;
• self-service check-in and bag tag, notably in Paris, Frankfurt, London, Manchester, Tokyo Narita, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Boston, Hong Kong;
• self-service bag drop counters, notably in Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, London, Manchester, Bangkok, Singapore, Auckland, Los Angeles, Hong Kong.

At Taipei's main A1 station, the airline states that if you have already checked in online or collected your boarding pass at the self-service kiosk, you can go straight to the self-service bag drop counters. Baggage allowances, for both cabin and hold, depend on your ticket: check the conditions attached to it.

When online check-in does not go through, start by checking the channel you used and the actual operator of your flight. Two situations are documented by the airline:

• a booking that includes a codeshare coach segment to the Greater Bay Area, which does not support online check-in;
• a flight operated by a partner airline, in which case check-in follows the rules of the carrier actually operating the flight.

If a flight is delayed or cancelled with a connection involved, Cathay Pacific states it will do everything possible to find an alternative flight if the connection is on a ticket for the same itinerary. With a separate ticket bought on another airline, it states it is not able to change bookings for missed connecting flights, and advises contacting the relevant carrier on arrival; bags are then tagged through to the final destination as a courtesy.

If you are then travelling on a oneworld partner or a regional airline, check-in rules differ: see American Airlines check-in rules, checking in with Alaska Airlines, the Air China procedure, ANA check-in or the Asiana Airlines boarding pass. For a Cathay Pacific flight, travellers who prefer it can hand their online check-in over to iBoardingPass, which carries it out as soon as the airline's check-in opens and sends the boarding pass by email.