Continental Airlines Testing "Self-Boarding"

At one gate at Continental Airlines' hub in Houston, the airline is testing out "self-boarding" for passengers. This is how USA Today explains it: "In self-boarding, passengers — much like customers of the New York City subway— swipe their boarding passes at a kiosk reader at the gate. That opens a turnstile or door to the jet-bridge. Although an agent isn't there to take the pass, one is typically present to handle problems and other customer service tasks." Just hope those boarding pass kiosk sensors don't get too dirty, okay? USA Today adds/warns, "The practice has been common at many foreign airports for several years. And if the rate of adoption abroad is any indication, self-boarding could soon proliferate here."

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By Jen Chung in News on July 27, 2010 3:50 PM

Comments [rss]

ANGRYGOD11

I'm looking forward to the day someone ahead of me tries to swipe their crumbled pass over and over again.

Maybe that person is at the wrong gate, maybe the sensor is malfunctioning, maybe the pass wasn't well printed or maybe the jerk used the pass as a napkin at Cinnabon.

Tower18

If someone has to stand there anyway just in case something goes wrong, what's the benefit? You still pay the human to stand there, but you've also spent hundreds of millions of dollars on equipment that needs to be individually supervised.

ganghiscon

I imagine it's similar to how the self checkouts in grocery stores and Home Depot still have someone there, in case there's a problem.

Tower18

Except those all cluster in one area. At least according to the description, each gate will still need an attendant, since they're an appreciable distance from each other.

The number of agents assigned to automated gates isn't different from other gates: one or two agents for short-haul flights, three or four for longer ones, he says.

So like I said, we still have to pay just as many attendants, but now we've also spent millions on equipment. We'll see that in our airfares, believe it.

nicemarmot

Mostly like. God knows I am tired of bitchy gate attendants and their completely random confiscations of my (oddly shaped, but correctly sized for carryon) suitcase. But maybe not entirely, what happens when they break down and there's no extra staff around to take your tickets?