self boarding gates are here
 

did a search and couldn't find anything on this topic - if it's already covered, mods, please merge or delete.

flew from A8 last night and noticed these banners advertising self-boarding / e-boarding gates as well as the gates themselves.


http://i1273.photobucket.com/albums/...psahzsnk6a.jpg


http://i1273.photobucket.com/albums/...pswm089gwf.jpg



they weren't in use but clearly the are coming.

be interesting to see how priority boarding etc will work - will the gates refuse anyone through who doesn't have it or will boarding become even more 'free for all'....?

Happy Flying.

My guess even more if a free for all. It states "All customers" on the boards.

How does the travel document check work?

Looking at the instructions on the board, these will be for domestic flights only.

Your eyes are better than mine :cool: but then I'm viewing on a phone

Yep only domestics, only time they will have your photo.

Yeah, that's a very interesting point. One gate could be programmed to just accept eligible boarding passes, however, this would likely be clogged by people trying their luck before their priority is reached. The priority level currently boarding would need to be very very clearly shown for it to have any chance of working. I can see a bad-tempered scrum around any priority boarding gate...

Previous discussion here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...es-coming.html

What is certainly new is the banners, so yes I'm sure they are limbering up for finally switching these on. As shown in the previous thread, BA have been trying to get this to work properly for years, without much success. The machines had such a high failure rate it was frankly cheaper to get humans to do it, similar to the experience of self service check-in at locations other than LHR. Those of us who travel on Lufthansa and SAS are well used to these gates, the Lufthansa version is also "tuned" to enforce priority boarding, by the way. And even if they are not, people think they are!

Will be interesting to see how op-ups, exit row seat checks, and other random boarding pass troubles are handled. Perhaps it'll be akin to the Tesco self-service checkout situation where you have roaming assistants waiting to intervene everytime an issue arises that the technology can't handle. I fear this will be more annoying for everyone involved, particularly if the boarding becomes more of a free-for-all, as suggested above.

Isn't CE coming soon for domestics though?

I for one welcome this initiative, provided it does indeed control Priority Boarding consistently and particularly if it frees up staff to properly police hand baggage, give floating help etc.

Not sure that makes a difference? Other than in setting boarding order.

The point being you only have a biometric photo for domestics, which is what the gates use to identify you.

I would guess the gate might ask you to scan your BP and swipe your passport so as to match the name on the PNR with that in the machine-readable text... which is pretty much all ground staff have the time to do now...

It's clear from the sign that there's a camera which will be used to match your face against the photo on file.

Similar to the e-gates at immigration, but rather than matching against your passport biometric photo, it will match against the photo taken at domestic security.

It could be used for non-domestic flights, but only for passengers with approved biometric passports.

At immigration, this is a manual check, as the automatic matching wasn't accurate.

I wonder if it will be manual at the gates?
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I just wondered if there was CE on domestics then it would create a greater need for priority boarding, adding considerable complexity to the process.