skywardhunter

You completely misinterpreted I think. One would have a mobile BP or kiosk BP to pass through security, and would of course have to show a passport at immigration. Document check on international flights refers to the airline verifying one is travelling on the correct passport and holds a valid visa if needed. The point is nowadays the interaction with humans at check-in is basically purely for this reason: to verify the documents, everything else can be automated. Whether it helps or hinders clueless pax is a different story.

irishguy28

Quite possibly - because I see no logic at all in what was suggested.

There can never be "no checkin restrictions". At the very least you must be at the correct airport, with a valid ticket, and the correct documentation for your destination and any transit countries - and you must also present yourself on time. Whether or not you go to a "universal" check-in kiosk, a desk, or online, doesn't affect these things. And rearranging the order of the sequence through which you go through the various tasks doesn't of itself allow things to be done quicker. (In fact, by performing tasks in the wrong sequence, the passenger may be further disadvantaged).

If the most stringent check is left to the very end, then the options for the passenger to recover from this are limited [see, for example, the OP in this thread who had time to take a taxi from the airport back home to pick up a credit card to enable check in.

If the "document check" is performed last [no visa/invalid ticket/expired passport] - and therefore possibly only just before boarding - that the bag was effortlessly tagged and checked in already, and security cleared, mean that these tasks were unnecessarily performed. It doesn't save the passenger anything by pretending everything is OK until the very last minute, rather than letting them know there's a problem at the earliest possible opportunity.

VH-RMD

Um.... Australian domestic airports all allow non-ticketed persons airside.

brumbrum

I never use checked baggage, shortening checkin deadlines and therefore more delayed bags are no problem from my POV :-)
Or, at least, let people do all this by automated systems. I was flying out of CGN on 4U once and the first human interaction was on board.
People are only complicating this when you give them the power. An AB staff at the same airport caused me to miss the flight when not even bothering themselves by putting something like "final call" or "gate closing" on the screen. You finish with employee telling that it´s over under the screen still displaying "boarding" sign. Absolutely unnecessary and incompetent. She also had "rules" that I should have been there earlier, when I made it to the next airport by train, the [moderator edit] gate agent also had "rules" that I made the no-show for the first flight, so I flew nowhere. This would never happen with computers doing this work properly and incompetent people left only helping on request.

brumbrum

I got many times where I was absolutely NOT supposed to be through people. Never through a properly working machine.

irishguy28

Ultimately, it is up to the passenger to make sure they are at the gate at the advised time.

You should never rely solely on Flight Information Screens, or that you will be paged. It is always prudent to find your way to the gate in good time and to keep an eye on what is actually happening with your flight, rather than remaining out of sight of the gate and relying on external sources.

If you want to make the argument on one hand that you want less or no human interaction - then you should not, on the other hand, blame "An AB staff" when you miss your flight!

brumbrum

I was there an hour before. Using the airpoirt wifi and waiting for the "final call" sign. That is exactly why I want less humans in the process. It would not happen without them.

LondonElite

Maybe, maybe not. Take it up with EY and/or the airport. I'm sure they have their reasons. Doesn't seem crazy to me for a busy airport.

irishguy28

I just can't understand why someone who has turned up at the airport in good time cannot wait at the relevant gate, or within sight of the gate, or at the very least, go from their waiting area/lounge/bar to the gate in time for the advised boarding time; or, once the boarding time is approaching, why they apparently lack the curiousity to even glance over at the gate, or physically go to the gate, to see why the display hasn't called them for boarding.

If you miss your flight, no-one else is put out, just you. So why not take the initiative?

vishalgupta22

We only have OP's side of the story and very normal for people to find others rude when they don't give in to their demands (justified or otherwise). I have traveled through multiple airports in India and have never found staff rude.

It's not a question of whether T-60 is reasonable or not (that's an entirely different unrelated discussion), here the OP bought a ticket with Terms / CoC and he was denied boarding based on those terms. At the end of day, when anything is disputed, it's the rules that matter, not the common sense.

Offtopic: At the end OP got a very nice resolution. I think that is great customer service from both EY and Expedia.

brumbrum

Ok, once more, I was sitting in front of the gate, doing something on wifi. There was still "boarding" on the screen, the door open, the woman beeping those torn up papers into the machine...would you still be suspicious it is closing/closed? Of course, since that time I do not believe them and pass through at the end of the crowd, leaving wifi between the gate and airbridge. It was just the case to show what could happen because of unnecessary human interventions. Airline telling you "follow the small print rules and do not trust our employees" is a piece of something smelly for me.

(sorry for not quoting you irishguy, someone was faster:-) )

irishguy28

Absolutely. Once the "crush" of passengers has gone through, and the remaining people (or person, if it was just you) in the immediate vicinity shows no interest in boarding, then the agent will quickly move to close the gate.

You may have been paged - but the message may not have gone out in the immediate boarding gate area, as the assumption would be that if you were near the gate, you were lined up to board, or running to board.

If you had no baggage checked, then they may not have paged you. (There is no actual requirement for the airline to page you)

At the very least, you should move closer to the agent and give some indication that it is your intention to travel. The ball, at that stage, is firmly in your court. If you remain where you are, apparently oblivious to what has been going on around you, then the agent has little reason to assume that you are a passenger that is booked on that flight.

Often1

First, I don't know how armchair operations "experts" are able to judge how much time a given carrier ought to require for check-in at a specific station. Here, as was pointed out to OP, the staff had largely moved up to the gate to handle the departure. OP was quite lucky that there was anybody left at the counter. While at a major station, the counters are always manned from well before first departure, this is not so at an outstation where holding staff back to handle stragglers means slowing down the boarding process or hiring additional staff at additional cost.

Second, as others point out, departure requirements are not always within the carrier's control. Security, passport control and other bits and pieces of bureaucracy are up to the government and local airport authority. Some places, India being one, have raised this to an art form. T-60 is pushing it.

Third, the ultimate goal is to board the aircraft and push on time. This means getting everybody to the gate and then boarded. EY lets its premium passengers check in as late as T-45, but clearly it can't do this for everyone. Customer service means holding everybody to the same standard too.

brumbrum

well, I was not, now I am, lesson learned :-)
Just wanted to say that for not suspicious people the current world of flying might be very hard, employees do not make it any easier and machines might be able to ease that.

Guvner067

Yes and No. I was with a colleague at AKL quite a few years back in the Koru Lounge waiting for a flight to MEL. The flight was showing as delayed. An hour later it went from "Delayed" to "Go To Gate". As we were walking out of the lounge the desk staff told us to wait in the lounge as there was a further delay and that they would inform us when it was time to board.

We went back to our seats and I went to the bar. As I'm standing there waiting I glance up at the board and it says "flight closed". Immediately I grabbed my colleague and started heading to the gate only to see the aircraft doors being closed. When I approached the gate agent to explain what happened he looked me up and down and said, "Well everyone else made it".

Back to the lounge, apologetic staff put us on the next flight which thankfully was only a few hours later. She told us she thought we were on the SYD flight.

Fortunately it turned out OK but if there hadn't been another flight I would have been extremely annoyed.