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Time Savers
Cheap Charlie · June 19, 2000

I know that anyone who has recently waited in a line at an airport doesn't have much good to say about airline efficiency during the check-in process. After this recent Easter weekend fiasco in Boston - with the main radar being damaged by high winds, and additional bad weather along the East Coast - the lines were longer and more irritating than ever.

Let's face it, when there are disasters such as the radar being blown away or floods striking airports during the holidays, there isn't much a reasonable traveler can expect.

But it is those other times where everything should be working well and smoothly, that really result in frustration when nothing seems to be going at a reasonable speed.

Can anyone believe the time the check-in personnel take to get you a boarding pass? I find it amazing.

In this day and age of computers, it seems that the airport check-in personnel are tapping in enough keystrokes to write the opening chapter of a new novel. It must be the old computer systems.

I recently read that the cost per check-in was something more than $5 per passenger when handled by an agent. The cost for checking in when passengers use the automated kiosks starting to find their way into airports is something like $1.50 per passenger. Something tells me that more and more automated check-in machines are going to appear. This is a good thing - and economics are on our side.

While researching another story on business travel, I spoke with Northwest Airlines representatives. They mentioned three improvements that are being implemented in the coming months. These changes promise to help limit the time spent waiting in line while at the airport.

First, the Northwest spokesman mentioned that both Northwest and Continental passengers can now check in using the automated check-in kiosks from either airline. This means that in many cases the option to check in "automatically" has more than doubled at many airports.

Northwest is also testing portable handheld check-in computers that personnel can use to check in passengers while they wait in line at the airport. If the passenger is flying on the same flight as their original ticket, they can move through the line rapidly whenever they find one of these remote ticketing agents. Start looking for them.

Delta Airlines has begun to issue boarding passes as well as accept checked baggage at some airport locations. As other airlines begin to follow suit that will be another help.

Another new feature that is being tested by Northwest Airlines is the use of telephone carts with about ten phones per cart that will be rolled into the check-in area whenever there are delays. These telephone banks will offer priority lines directly to the reservations office so that passengers on delayed or canceled flights can call to make new arrangements, rather than wait in a long line.

I have long advocated using the phones to make alternative arrangements when faced with delays and cancellations, but this is the first time that the airlines have begun to facilitate that solution.

Time will tell. What I find most promising is that the airlines are no longer standing still when faced with disgruntled passengers. For the first time in a while, they are taking positive action to help with some of the more mundane airport problems facing everyday passengers.

It's a welcome development.

Charlie Leocha is the Boston-based author of Travel Rights: Know the Rules of the Road and the Air Before You Go. Cheap Charlie appears every Monday on this site. E-mail him at charlie@ticked.com or access his Web site.