doesn't checking in for a flight online before you go to the airport totally undermine the whole idea of checking in? i thought the point of the check in is to see who among the people who bought tickets for the flight actually showed up at the airport. but with at-home check in, the airlines can't have any idea who actually made it until they show up at the gate to board.
maybe the don't need to know who makes it to the airport and all they need to know is who shows up at the gate. but in that case why have this check-in process at all? most forms of transit don't have separate tickets and boarding passes. a train ticket, for example, is effectively the pass to board the train. because trains don't have a special check-in procedure, there's no need to have a separate boarding pass. you board with the train ticket you could have bought months earlier.
so why do we need the extra step with the check-in and the boarding pass when we fly on a plane? why not just let us board with the ticket?
