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I’m traveling from Bucharest to Dubai this summer with wizz air with a non-eu passport, and I learnt that when we have a non-EU passport, we need to go to the check in desk to present our passport even after the online check-in.

But in that case, do I still need to go to the check-in desk 3 hours before departure? Even though I checked in online?

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    If you have already checked in, look at the details, often it says 'this is not a boarding pass', even though it looks like one.
    – Willeke ♦
    Commented Jul 30 at 8:08

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Yes, you have to present yourself at the check-in counter. The WizzAir website is pretty clear in that situation:

In case you have not purchased any seats with your booking, check-in will become available only 24 hours before departure.

  • check in online
  • print your boarding card
  • present the printed boarding card at the gate with your travel documents no later than 30 minutes before the scheduled departure time
  • if you hold non-EU travel documents, you need to present yourself at the check-in counter to have your documentation checked and your boarding card stamped

(taken from https://wizzair.com/en-gb/information-and-services/booking-information/check-in-and-boarding)

Unlike other airlines, it seems that WizzAir allows / expects you to do a regular check-in first and then present your passport at the check-in counter. My guess is that they have this step separate in order to make the actual boarding process faster if boarding staff only have to look out for stamps, not verify your documents.

As for the timing, the check-in counter opens 3 hours before departure, and closes 60 minutes before departure (this information can be found on the same site linked above). Keeping in mind that there might be queues, it's best not to cut it too short - arriving at the airport 70 minutes before departure could easily make you miss your flight - but if you consider 3 hours to be excessive, you're probably fine planning your day such that you arrive about 2 hours before departure. However, all this is done at your own risk - if you don't make it to the check-in counter at least 60 minutes before departure (and by "making it" I mean actually standing in front of the counter, not joining the queue), you might not be allowed to fly, so you better plan to arrive a bit earlier and have a nice coffee or meal in case everything goes smoothly.

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    It's also worth noting that sometimes if you are travelling without hold luggage, they will let you do the visa check at a customer service desk, which usually has little if any queue. This doesn't apply to all airports, so OP should still arrive in plenty of time.
    – MJeffryes
    Commented Jul 30 at 10:19
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You don’t need to check-in 3 hours in advance.

What you need is to be able to reach the check-in desk:

  • Before the check-in deadline (60 minutes before scheduled departure for Wide Air in Bucharest)
  • With enough time left after they do their documentation checks to go through security and reach your gate before boarding closes (30 minutes before the scheduled departure time).

Unless you have fast track, this probably means you should reach the desk a bit earlier than one hour before departure. You also need to budget some time for queues, and some margin in case there are any delays in reaching the airport (depends a lot on how you get there and where from).

All in all, that’s why most airlines recommend arriving 2 to 3 hours before departure, but there are quite a few variables which may require more or less.

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What I have experienced with other carriers is that, whenever they need to check your passport before issuing the ticket, your online check in will not go through and you will not get any boarding pass.

You might get a generic error or a more detailed explanation depending on how the site is configured, but in all cases your check in will be done once the staff at the gate will have checked your passport. And then they will hand you the boarding pass.

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