Kiosk In Baggage Circus

[wench]

So if U wants to cut costs, put a Kiosk outside the Baggage Circus Office, let passengers do their claims, and have the agents follow up and set the bags up for delivery-since that's a most desirable rotation to work..NOT!!!

Now that's an idea that should fly...

 

[18yrsandstillonnights]

Too late... i hear that Delta is already going to test that. They will have a bar code reader and a phone direct to res (in India more than likely) and the res agent will take the claim, passenger will scan the bag tag and that is it.... No one to make sure that the bag just hasnt fallen off the belt in the back, just pickup, scan and log your claim......

 

[Trin03]

Having worked baggage as one of my many adventures with US , That could be good and bad.

Good because, it may force some passengers to actually look for a bag instead of comming ino the office and having fits before the bags finish loading onto the belts.

However, on the other hand... complaints galore when they have to wait on the phone to talk to a live person!

 

[Seatacus]

Isn't it tradition to be angry at the agent in baggage service. Without someone to yell at the customer would end up leaving unfulfilled. :huh:

 

[Trin03]

Isn't it tradition to be angry at the agent in baggage service. Without someone to yell at the customer would end up leaving unfulfilled. :huh:

[post="166512"][/post]​

Truest statement made in a long time!

 

[WorldTraveler]

Not sure what other airlines are doing but Delta has said that they are adding the type of scanning technology and processes that allows a bag to be traced just like FedEx and UPS trace packages. Baggage Service isn't a difficult process if you can tell a passenger that their bag is sitting in ATL right now on a cart set up to be loaded on flight 123 which is scheduled to arrive at the passenger's destination at 3 pm. The reason why baggage service is so bad is because the airlines have no good answers. A person in India should be able to answer a question (as can a kiosk) if a person can provide a bag tag and a phone number where they can be contacted for follow-up. A kiosk can even spit out a voucher for one hour of free parking and a discount on a future flight if the passenger is willing to come back to the airport to pick up their bag.

 

[thepoohbear]

I heard the kiosk they are looking to purchase is part punching bag part kiosk.

 

[Prince of PAWOBs]

Having not put my two cents into any topic recently, I figured this one was more worthy of a post than all of the "sinking ship" posts that are currently cluttering the board.

Since remote data collection technology has been around for a while, it's astonishing that the airlines have waited so long to integrate it into tracking baggage. For example, say you are a ramper in PIT and you're given a RDC at planeside. As you load the bags onto the beltloader, you give the tag a quick scan, and through the miracle of cellular technology, the computer system records that the bag is on the particular flight and will arrive at the destination. Pretty simple, methinks.

Now, if you know what bags are on a flight, you can interpolate what bags failed to make the flight and perhaps even why they failed to make it. Couple tag scanning with a database that records bag weight at check-in, and you make it easier to figure out weight and balance without worrying whether or not Joe Ramper was honest when he filled out his OF-11E, assuming you work for Express, of course.

When you consider the necessity of positive bag matches for international flights, the cost of fuel, the potential loss of LifeFlight PDQ's and the loss of revenue from supervisors failing to log mail in a timely manner, RDC technology solves so many problems. And being able to tell Mrs. Smith that her bag is on it's way home to Greensboro on the next flight saves the agent on the phone from having to listen to a string of obscenities and complaints of how bad the airline is at handling baggage.

 

[mweiss]

PoPAWOBs, you're absolutely right. One of the sad things I've learned in my years in technology, though, is that these additions tend to have to go through the mainframes, most of which have old(ish) COBOL on them. The powers that be don't like making changes to those systems.

So, as simple as such an addition would seem, it's often difficult to do.

 

[Prince of PAWOBs]

PoPAWOBs, you're absolutely right. One of the sad things I've learned in my years in technology, though, is that these additions tend to have to go through the mainframes, most of which have old(ish) COBOL on them. The powers that be don't like making changes to those systems.

So, as simple as such an addition would seem, it's often difficult to do.

[post="167734"][/post]​

You're right, Michael. Pay attention, management lurkers! If you want to save money, you must innovate. If you want to save your jobs, you better innovate as fast as possible. Mix the pain of a new system with the pleasure of success, and you might not mind how much it hurts.