14 CFR Part 382 Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Air Travel (Air Carrier Access Act): Preamble and Section-by-Section Analysis (with amendments issued through July 2010)

6. Advance Check-in Time

The proposed rule asked questions about operational reasons, if any, for requiring passengers who request to use their respiratory assistive devices to comply with an advance check-in deadline. It also asked about issues passengers who use respiratory assistive devices would face if carriers were permitted to require an advance check-in deadline, as well as what would be a reasonable length of time for the advance check-in.

Comments provided by the industry to justify the need for advance check-in are similar to the justifications provided for advance notice (e.g., to ensure the device is safe for use on board, to ensure proper packaging of batteries, ensure an adequate supply of batteries). Consumers questioned whether advance check-in is necessary if a passenger provides advance notice of his/her intention to bring and use the electronic respiratory assistive devices. The consumers noted that they have other obligations and restrictions on their time and that advance check-in places significant burdens on their time. If advance check-in is required, consumer commenters favored a one hour advance check-in requirement. Industry comments supported one hour advance check-in for all domestic flights but two hour advance check-in for international flights. Carrier comments also sought the authority to deny boarding if a passenger has failed to comply with the carrier’s procedural instructions on using electronic devices onboard.

The Department believes that it is necessary to permit carriers to require advance check-in to enable the carrier personnel to inspect the label on the electronic respiratory assistive device to ensure that it was labeled by the manufacturer in accordance with the applicable regulations and to ensure that a passenger is carrying an adequate number of properly packaged batteries to power his/her assistive device. The Department generally believes that one hour advance check-in is reasonable for both domestic and international flights, especially since “advance check-in” as used in this rule means checking in one hour before the carrier’s normal check-in time for the general public. Thus, for example, if a carrier’s normal check-in deadline for all passengers for an international flight is one hour before scheduled departure time, the carrier is free to require passengers who wish to use electronic respiratory assistive devices to check in two hours before scheduled departure time. That having been said, it would not be reasonable for a carrier to require one hour advance check-in in situations where a passenger is not able to check-in one hour in advance because the passenger’s connecting flight arrived late. Consider the example, of a codeshare connecting itinerary from Washington, D.C. to Johannesburg through Rome, where carrier A operates the segment from Washington, D.C. to Rome and carrier B operates the segment from Rome to Johannesburg. If carrier B has a one hour advance check-in requirement and the passenger checks in for the flight to Johannesburg less than an hour before departure due to carrier A’s late arrival in Rome, the passenger must be accepted on the flight to Johannesburg up until carrier B’s general check-in deadline for all passengers on that flight. The Department is not persuaded by consumer comments that one hour advance check-in would be a significant burden on them, particularly since this rule would not permit carriers to require a one hour advance check-in for a passenger who is not able to meet that requirement due to his/her connecting flight arriving late. The Department is also not persuaded by industry comments that a two hour advance check-in is needed for international flights, in part because the information that the carrier personnel will be verifying at the departure gate does not change based on whether the flight is a domestic flight or an international flight.