In this new place, the counters but also the terminals where you can print your ticket should disappear. The plan will be implemented in the coming months.
There is something ironic in the initiative ofAlaska Airlines : more than 20 years ago, the airline was the first to use these famous terminals where you check in yourself on the flight and pay if necessary for checked baggage, for example. And now, it is the first company to want to get rid of it.
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She wants to accelerate the current movement, namely that many passengers register upstream, on the Internet, by downloading the ticket on their phone or by printing it directly at home. 70% of Alaska Airlines travelers already do so on average. In some airports, this rate rises to 90%. To print the label that accompanies your suitcase in the hold, the company will install tablets, which are less bulky and easier to use than a terminal.
A $2.5 billion plan
Those who have neither the possibility nor the desire to take care of everything before their arrival at the airport or on a tablet can always ask employees to do it, the old fashioned way, assures Alaska Airlines. The company hopes to reduce the time spent in airport lobbies as much as possible. According to her, this is one of the main sticking points cited by her clients. It is already testing the system in several airports, Portland, Las Vegas, Palm Springs in particular. Alaska bollards should be gone everywhere by early 2024.
The management of the company puts forward a plan of 2.5 billion dollars over three years to improve “the customer experience”. In particular, it plans to let travelers drop off their luggage themselves on the carpet that takes them to the hold. How ? Thanks to biometrics, which makes it possible to identify who deposited what. Delta, the second-largest US airline, is already using similar technology at some US airports. Alaska Airlines hopes that its passengers will be able to drop off their suitcases without going through a counter by the end of 2024.
“Reimagine the customer experience”
One question remains: will this really help passengers? Alaska Airlines calculates that a passenger spends an average of 2 to 3 minutes at a terminal today, the time to enter the necessary information, choose their seat, pay for baggage. With its new system, the duration drops to 45 seconds. I let you decide if the time saving is significant, but if there is a queue at a terminal, it can, it is true, make a difference. Alaska isn’t looking to downsize or save money, she says.
Above all, she wantsreimagining the customer experience”. The use of biometrics does not enchant the site Gizmodo, technology expert. Expect to see your personal data exploited by third parties or to suffer the racist excesses of certain algorithms, warns Gizmodo. And then, in the United States, what wastes time today is not really the counter, since a lot of people already use the Internet to register. The problem is security, taking off and putting on your shoes, your belt, your electronic devices… And that, Alaska Airlines can’t do much about it.
