In a very short time we will be ready to travel to Europe and/or Schengen area and we will have to check in to board the plane. But the thing is that with the implementation of the EES system, which is the system that registers our biometric data, it is not very clear if we will be able to do our first check-in from home or we will have to do it from the airport. This is an unknown because in order to be able to travel with an ETIAS we must have been previously registered in the EES system which will be at available kiosks at the airport to register, among other information,  our fingerprints.

Therefore, with total certainty, at least the first check-in we need to do on our flight to Schengen area, will have to be at the airport. And once the EES system has collected all our data, the following flights will certainly be much easier, and we will be able to use the airlines’ mobile apps to make our seat assignments and get our boarding pass online.

Online check-in is actually more advantageous for the following reasons: you avoid lines at the airport, you can choose or change your seat, and you have the possibility to check in from 24 to 48 hours before the flight. Then, once at the airport, you must show your electronic card at the control and then you can access the boarding area with your carry-on luggage. This does not apply if you have luggage to check in, as you will have to go to the baggage check-in counters, where you will be given a receipt that will be associated with your boarding pass.

The first step to definitively launch ETIAS is the start of EES in the form of kiosks at all airports with flights to the Schengen area. We have no news yet on what the user experience will be like, but we will definitely have to go to the airport with some extra time to be able to finalize this very important first step recording all our data electronically, and that will make our future travels much easier.

But remember: EES will only be used for our first check-in. Once our biometric data is registered in the system, we will not have to use it again until we change our passport.