[ The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 8/30/02 ]
Delta encouraging do-it-yourself check-ins
By RUSSELL GRANTHAM
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer

Recently the 36-year-old Columbus resident bypassed the long, winding line at Delta Air Lines' regular check-in counter at Hartsfield International Airport. Instead she headed for a cluster of touch-screen computers where Delta's first-class ticketing area used to be.

"It was completely new to me," said Collins, but within a few minutes, she had checked herself in at one of the self-serve check-in kiosks. She got her boarding pass, handed her two bags to a nearby Delta employee and headed to the gate.

"That was cool. That was a lot easier," she said.

Delta and other airlines hope other travelers will have the same reaction.

After briefly shutting down such shortcuts after Sept. 11, airlines have been redoubling their investments in self-serve kiosks and other technology to speed passenger check-ins.

Like ATMs and grocery store checkout stations, such devices also help airlines cut labor costs as customers perform tasks that once required an employee. Similarly, airlines have prodded travelers to use the Internet, where they become their own reservationists.

About a dozen carriers, including Delta, Continental, Northwest, American, United, US Airways, Alaska and America West, have installed thousands of check-in kiosks at airports around the country. Many, like Delta's, allow passengers with e-tickets to check themselves in and check luggage with an attendant stationed nearby.

Use of the kiosks is climbing fast, according to Delta.

About 400 Delta passengers a day used self check-in at Hartsfield last year, said Delta spokesman John Kennedy. Now, the number is up to 5,000 a day -- one-quarter of Delta's daily average at the airport, he said. It's expected to reach one-third by the end of the year, he added.

"Certainly technology saves money for both the passenger and the company," said Kennedy. But "the primary objective is to give customers a choice. It's effective and quick."

He said the airline has no plans to reduce its ranks of check-in agents.

"I think our customers will always want an option of personal service," he said, especially for more complicated transactions such as buying a ticket, checking golf clubs or sending an unaccompanied child.

Delta and other airlines have also rolled out systems allowing customers who don't need to check bags to check in by telephone, online or with wireless e-mail devices.
DO IT Your SELF
At least one airline is doing away with traditional check-in counters and their dreaded lines in some airports, said Jim Brown, spokesman for Kinetics. The Lake Mary, Fla., company makes kiosks for Delta and other airlines.

At Alaska Airlines' hub in Anchorage, customers use kiosks arranged in circular islands, helped by roving ticket agents, said Brown. In the future, he predicted, airlines will have curbside kiosks and possibly devices that can remotely read a customer's card and pull up her itinerary before she even puts down her suitcase.

Such technology has a "fundamental" impact on savvy travelers, "especially for people who don't carry a bag. It makes it so much easier," said Atlanta business travel consultant Chris McGinnis.

Delta has accelerated its turn to technology since Sept. 11.

After spending about half of its $10 million budget for kiosks and other measures in the past three or four years, Delta spent the other half this year to help counter the delays from beefed-up security screening, said Kennedy. This year alone, Delta has roughly tripled the number of kiosks in place. It now has 385 in 79 cities.

While usage is growing, many fliers continue to stand in traditional lines, and some who try the check-in machines are flummoxed by the unfamiliar procedure, if only momentarily.

On a recent afternoon, people tended to stand in line waiting for a kiosk, even though several other kiosks weren't being used at the time.

A Delta employee called to them.

"You can check in yourself. You don't have to stand in line," she said. "Any kiosk."

Other customers pulling suitcases that needed to be checked mistakenly stopped at a kiosk for travelers with carry-on luggage only.

"This will get easier. It's new to a lot of people," said Kennedy. "Once they use it, they know to come here."

But veteran users were also delayed sometimes as they tried to figure out which set of numbers to type into the computer.

Glen Goggio, a vice president of sales for Minnesota Life Insurance Co., headed to the correct line with a suitcase he wanted to check for a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The 32-year-old Boulder, Colo., resident said he uses the self-serve kiosks at Delta and other airlines "all the time."

This time, nothing happened after he typed in the code next to "confirmation number" from a reservation printout for his online booking.

"Where is my confirmation number?" he asked a Delta attendant, handing her the paper. She showed him a different number, and he finished the job, then handed her his bag.

Time elapsed: 2 minutes, 40 seconds.

Even with the glitch, Goggio said, "It beats sitting in line."