Most recent changes with domestic airlines might be good for the bottom line, but seem to make travel more difficult and more expensive for travelers. However, someone at United had a good idea, that doesn’t cost anything, and can actually make life at the airport easier: baggage information kiosks.
These new baggage information kiosks can help track checked baggage at 14 U.S. airports, including San Francisco, Washington-Dulles, Chicago, Denver, Orlando and La Guardia, before it’s even missing.
The machines ask passengers to key in a claim tag, mileage number or name. Then they advise the current status of the baggage — it may already be assigned to a carousel, it may have arrived on an earlier flight or it may still be in transit. These kiosks eliminate the need to wait for that last bag from your flight to come down the chute to finally discover whether or not your bags made the connection, or if, blessedly, they made an earlier connection.
On a recent trip through Chicago, these machines saved me a lot of time and stress. By keying in my mileage number at the San Francisco airport, I learned that my bag had actually taken an earlier flight than I. After heading to the other baggage carousel, which was empty, I was able to spot the bag a few minutes later on a guarded trolley that a United baggage agent was about to lock up for the night.
Passengers who have checked luggage should check at one of these new kiosks as soon as they get to baggage claim. Even if there doesn’t seem to be a problem. At worst, it will take a couple minutes and allow passengers to relax knowing their bag is on the way. At best, passengers will save time and be first in line to talk to the agent and fill our forms if there’s a problem.
Of course, these machines won’t help checked bags get on the right plane. But at least passengers can skip the agonizing experience of waiting with an ever shrinking pool of grumbling travelers at the baggage carousel to realize the bad news.
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Re “It may have been on an earlier flight.” — I’m curious. What happened to the 100% bag matching rule after 9/11 ? I’ve had my bags turn up on an earlier flight a few times recently and was surprised. I thought the TSA mandated that checked bags fly WITH their owner on the same flight?
Yeah, you and me both. I love how they won’t let you standby on a flight if they can’t get your luggage swapped for security reasons. But they do this ALL the time. Do they really think terrorists don’t know how messed up the baggage system is? Sigh. (If you ever fly between the Hawaiian Islands I think about half the time your bag goes on the next flight out, no matter when you are flying.)