At AA we check in on line 24 hours before departure, it was 4 hours before departure for years. It was changed a couple of years ago. I prefer the first come first serve, one reason is everything else is based on seniority so at least the junior people get a shot at getting on. My partner works for another airline that boards DOH, we usually travel use them (UA) they have a better network to Europe especially since the CO merger. Hes not that senior but because of the many different options we usually get First or Business.UA has EWR with about 35-40 cities in Europe, you can also go thru IAD or ORD with lots of widebodies. I hope if we do merge that we keep all of US's European destinations. But it depends on which mgmt takes over. When AA bought TWA they immediately discontinued almost all of the European flights, so unless our mgmnt changes or Parker takes over im sure AA will start cutting routes like crazy. AA loves to give most of our European routes to BA thru LHR. I like the AA first come first serve better. Especially for Europe ,since our network is smaller (except for LHR)