How to check in online with Air India

With Air India, online check-in opens 48 hours before departure and closes two hours before. It's worth doing, but on an international flight – including flights departing from the UK – you'll receive a confirmation slip rather than a boarding pass. The pass itself comes from the counter at the airport, once your documents have been checked.

Below we set out what you need before you start, how the process runs on the website and in the app, why the counter is part of the journey either way, and what the deadlines are at Heathrow.

The window is a wide one, and it shuts earlier than most.

Online check-in opens 48 hours before the flight and closes two hours before departure. Two hours is early by the standards of most airlines, and on Air India there's a reason for it: what you do online is the first half of something that finishes at the counter.

At Heathrow the counters close 75 minutes before departure. That's tighter than the 60 minutes Air India gives as the general rule for international flights, and the same as Delhi, which it also singles out. The boarding gates close 20 minutes before departure.

The form asks for two things:

• your booking reference, six characters, or the ticket number;

• the last name of the passenger.

That's all it takes to open the booking. Your passport comes into it later, at the counter, where the documents are checked before the boarding pass is issued.

Now that you have those, we can go through the check-in itself.

How to check in online with Air India:

1. Go to the Check-in section on airindia.com, or open the Air India app.

2. Enter your booking reference or ticket number with the last name, then select Submit.

3. Pick your seat from the seat map, or keep the one you already have.

4. Complete the check-in, and on an international flight you're issued a confirmation slip rather than a boarding pass.

The website and the app run the same check-in. Both are set out below.

The confirmation slip isn't a boarding pass and it won't get you through security. What it is, in Air India's terms, is proof that the check-in is done: it carries the flight number, the departure time and your seat, and it shows the staff at the counter that you've completed the online check-in.

You can print it or keep a digital copy on your phone. Either way it goes to the airport with you, and the boarding pass is issued at the counter once your travel documents have been checked.

At the airport

Everything left over happens at that counter. You hand over the confirmation slip, your travel documents are checked, and the boarding pass is issued. Any bags go over the same counter, and the baggage tags come back once your documents have been checked and your baggage has been accepted, you can then head for security.

At Heathrow the Air India counters are in zone D of Terminal 2, and they close 75 minutes before departure. The boarding gates close 20 minutes before.

You checked in in good time, you got to the gate when you were meant to, and your booking was confirmed. Even so, a delay, a cancellation or an overbooked flight can still get in the way of your plans.

If that happens and the airline is responsible, UK261 entitles you to compensation of up to £520 per passenger, depending on how far you were due to fly. UK261 covers every flight departing from a UK airport, whichever airline you're travelling with.

If your Air India flight departs from an airport in the EU, the equivalent European rules apply instead, under Regulation EC 261/2004.

Being turned away at the gate is covered too: our guide to denied boarding sets out where you stand. And to see what you may be owed for your own flight, start with our Air India compensation page.

Keeping track of your Air India flight

With check-in out of the way, all that's left is the wait. It's well worth keeping an eye on your flight status in the meantime, particularly if you have a connection to make or someone meeting you at the other end.

Air India's Flight Status page takes a flight number, a booking reference or simply the route, and gives the departure and arrival position for the day.

You could also use the free AirHelp app, which does one thing more: if your flight is delayed by more than 3 hours, is cancelled, or you're denied boarding, the app checks automatically whether you're entitled to compensation under UK261/EC 261 and lets you know.

With the AirHelp app you can:

• receive real-time notifications about delays, cancellations, gate changes and baggage reclaim;

• scan your boarding pass to add your flight quickly;

• share your flight status with whoever is picking you up;

• automatically check whether a disruption entitles you to compensation of up to £520;

• start your compensation claim straight from the app, with no paperwork.

The app is free and available on iOS and Android.