In what may be a sign of things to come, Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport has decided to implement self-service baggage check-ins for KLM passengers on a trial basis.
Passengers who have checked in on the Internet or at the self-service kiosks at the airport can drop off their luggage at a special machine. They will then have to scan their boarding card and answer a few security questions. Once that’s done, the machine will weigh the bag and print out a label that the passengers will attach to the suitcase.
During the trial period, there will be employees who will verify passports to ensure the bag does belong to the passenger. But in the future machines, will handle that, too.
Although this is a first for KLM, the same procedure has already been implemented at Montreal’s Pierre Trudeau Airport in 2004.
Will this same self-service baggage check-in be implemented in the United States anytime soon? Maybe. As Chris Elliott wrote in his blog, US Airways may already be starting. He reports that some of the airline’s skycaps will be replaced by US Airways employees — or by a machine.
Charlie Leocha also wrote that the next generation of airport check-in kiosks will be able to print out baggage tags. In the not-too-distant future, he added, “passengers will tag their own bags and…deposit their bags at a centralized baggage drop-off spot.”
While this may speed up the check-in process down the road, there will be some “speed bumps” in the beginning. Last year, Elliott talkedto Paul Heymont, an assistant principal from Brooklyn, New York. Heymont tried to use the self-service kiosk, but he commented that there were too many options that were unexplained and too many boxes and buttons to click. Out of frustration, “he ended up waiting in a long line to speak with a real person.”
I really don’t think that we can do away with the agents completely. With the TSA and the airlines changing the rules constantly, it’s the infrequent fliers that will benefit from the human touch.
