Check out the Web check-ins

USING the Internet to check in for flights has become common for many travelers, who find bypassing check-in lines at understaffed airport counters or crowded kiosks a blessing.

Now hotels are jumping on the e-check-in bandwagon, with Hyatt the latest to offer it. But the benefits of using the Web to check in to a hotel may not be as obvious.

Hilton has offered online check-in to the top-tier members of its frequent-guest program, Hilton HHonors, since the beginning of the year. Guests can check in online for stays at 2,300 Hilton-branded properties, including Hilton Hotels, Conrad, Doubletree, Embassy Suites, Hampton Inn, Hampton Inn & Suites, Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites by Hilton.

Hilton started the service to give its customers more convenience and control, said Scott Normali, senior vice president of website development and marketing for Hilton.

Guests can check in online two to 36 hours before arrival. The information is transmitted to the hotel, and upon arrival, guests can use a kiosk, where available, to print out their key, or the front desk will have it waiting. Hilton has no plans to expand the offering to regular guests or HHonors members who are not at the Gold or Diamond level.

This may sound like a small benefit. After all, guests still must stop by the kiosk or front desk. But the pluses go beyond this.

Say you’re flying to New York. You can check in to your hotel before you board the plane and not have to worry about being denied a room if you check in late.

“You can go out and play all night and that room will be there for you,” said Matt Adams, vice president of operations for Hyatt Hotels.

Hyatt last month launched its own version of online check-in for 60 properties in North America. It plans to expand it to the rest of its hotels, except for Grand Hyatt, in the next 90 days, Adams said. (The program is currently available only to its top-tier frequent guests as Hyatt evaluates the program.) Hyatt allows customers to check in online after 6 a.m. Pacific time the date of arrival.

Hyatt hopes new technology will allow guests to use their frequent-guest program card as a room key, bypassing the kiosk and front desk. Adams said that would not be available until at least 2007.

When checking in online, guests cannot yet select a specific room, only a level -- high, medium or low floor. Unlike airlines that fly a few types of airplanes with a fixed number of seats, each hotel is different. Still, the goal is to let customers choose exactly which room they’ll sleep in.

“This is a technology that is in its infancy,” Adams said.

Airlines have been offering e-check-in for several years, and it has enjoyed a fair degree of consumer acceptance. United Airlines reports that 11% of its customers now use the Web to check in.

Southwest Airlines sweetens the check-in pot by allowing travelers to check in online for their flights up to 24 hours in advance and secure the all-important “A” boarding pass. Southwest does not have assigned seats (though it will test an assigned seating system on some San Diego flights beginning next month). Under the current system, travelers are boarded by groups -- A, B or C -- based on when they check in for their flight. The A group gets first pick of the seats.

This policy once prompted passengers to arrive at the airport very early for their flights to try to get the coveted A pass.

Now, the advance online check-in and the desire for the A pass has spawned a cottage industry of entrepreneurs who, for a small fee, check in for you.

Southwest has ordered the dozen or so websites that offer this service to cease and desist.

BoardFirst.com, founded a year ago by Kate Bell, a former interior design assistant and frequent Southwest customer, is one of the websites that Southwest is determined to shut down.

It charges customers $5 for checking in a passenger online. If it cannot obtain an A pass, there is no charge.

Southwest has sued BoardFirst.com in federal district court in Dallas, alleging computer fraud, unfair competition, trademark infringement and “unjust enrichment.” Bell is ready to meet Southwest in court.

“We’re still up and running and we’re going to stay up and running,” she said. “They’re suing me for unfair competition. They have 30,000 employees; I have two, which is including myself.”

Southwest spokeswoman Brandy King said passengers complained that it was becoming difficult to get the elusive A pass.

Southwest carried 85 million passengers in 2005, or an average of 233,000 boarding passes a day. Bell says BoardFirst.com averages 100 requests for boarding passes a day.

“We’ve made a decision to protect our product and protect our brand,” King said.

“We’re doing what we feel is the best thing for Southwest Airlines.”

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You can reach James Gilden at james.gilden@latimes.com.