How to check in online with Vueling

With Vueling, online check-in is free, and when it opens depends on the fare you booked. On a Fly Light fare it's 24 hours before departure; on the higher fares it's available as soon as the booking is complete. Online check-in closes 50 minutes before departure, and at some airports the deadline is a good deal earlier. Your boarding pass can be printed or kept on your phone, and collecting one at the airport desk costs nothing.

Below we set out what you need before you start, how the process runs on the website and in the app, when the check-in window opens for your fare, what the airport route involves, and which deadlines apply once you're there.

Before you start, have the following to hand:

• your booking code, which is on the booking confirmation;

• the email address used to make the booking, or the surname of the passenger;

• your passport or national identity card, depending on where you're flying.

If you can't find the confirmation email, you can have it sent again from the Vueling website, and the booking code comes with it.

On flights to and from the UK, Advance Passenger Information is compulsory. These are the passport details that border authorities require before a journey begins, and with Vueling you enter them during check-in itself rather than beforehand.

The process takes a few minutes, and it runs the same way on the website and in the app.

How to check in for a Vueling flight:

1. Go to the check-in area of the Vueling website, or open the Vueling app.

2. Enter your booking code, with either the email address or the surname on the booking, and select Access.

3. Fill in the details you're asked for, including your Advance Passenger Information.

4. Complete the check-in and collect your boarding pass.

The Vueling website and the Vueling app take you through the same check-in, but they don't leave the boarding pass in the same place. Here's what each one involves:

With Vueling, the online check-in opening time is set by the fare you booked, and the closing time by where you're flying from.

On a Fly Light fare, online check-in opens 24 hours before departure. Buying a seat at the time of booking brings that forward to 15 days, and adding a Fast Pack or a Luggage Pack from My trips opens it straight away. On the Fly and Fly Grande fares it's open from the moment the booking is complete, and members of Vueling Club can check in from 7 days before the flight.

Online check-in closes 50 minutes before departure. Vueling publishes a second deadline of 1 hour and 10 minutes for flights to or from outside the Schengen area, so on a route between the UK and Spain or Italy it's worth working to the earlier of the two.

A list of airports runs to a much earlier deadline of 4 hours before departure, and Birmingham is on it. If you're flying from there, check-in is closed well before you'd normally set off. The full list is on the Vueling website.

Checking in online isn't compulsory with Vueling, and doing it at the airport doesn't cost anything: the desks issue boarding passes free of charge. What you spend instead is time, in a queue, to a deadline set by the desk rather than by you.

There are also cases where the desk is the only route. Vueling's page on check-in problems lists them, among them bookings where supporting documents haven't been checked and those where the card used to pay needs verifying, and it notes that a few airports don't offer online check-in at all.

At the airport

What's left when you get there depends on whether you have a bag to check in.

• With hold luggage, the desk comes first, and you'll need to be there before it closes.

• With hand luggage only, in most cases you can go straight through to security.

On flights to and from the UK, the check-in desks open 2 hours and 20 minutes before departure and close 60 minutes before. Vueling publishes different times for flights that stay within the Schengen area.

You need to be at the boarding gate 40 minutes before departure, as the boarding pass says, and the gate closes 20 minutes before. Make sure you keep to the cut-off times indicated by the airline – if you miss them, you may be denied boarding.

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. The rules cover every flight departing from a UK airport, whichever airline you're travelling with.

If your Vueling 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 Vueling compensation page.

Keeping track of your Vueling 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.

Vueling's website has a Flight status section, and the Vueling app keeps your boarding pass available even when you're offline.

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.