Monday morning I show up at 5:15A for a 6:15 UA flight MCO->IAH. My son and wife are with me. In case you don't know MCO, it can take some time to get through security quickly at that time on a Monday morning, so we were actually cutting it a bit close.
We have baggage, and the premier check-in line is very crowded. So we go to the "regular" line, which has about four parties standing in it. There are many check-in kiosks (10-15 or so?), the whole area is crowded, but perhaps two kiosks are not occupied.
So I say politely to the first person in line, "Sir, do you see that there are some open kiosks that you can use?" He glances my direction and then resumes staring off into space.
I then say loudly to all of the people standing in front of me something like "If no one minds, I am just going to duck under the rope and use one of the open kiosks".
No one answers so I duck under the rope, find a kiosk, and start checking in.
A minute later one of the contract people who is supposed to keep the process moving comes up to me and confronts me, saying that someone had complained that I'd cut in line.
It had never crossed my mind that anyone would have something to be upset about. What is the etiquette here?
I probably would have insisted that the people at the front of the line move to the open kiosk. However, I can't say that I blame you for cutting in line.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cjermain
Monday morning I show up at 5:15A for a 6:15 UA flight MCO->IAH. My son and wife are with me. In case you don't know MCO, it can take some time to get through security quickly at that time on a Monday morning, so we were actually cutting it a bit close.
We have baggage, and the premier check-in line is very crowded. So we go to the "regular" line, which has about four parties standing in it. There are many check-in kiosks (10-15 or so?), the whole area is crowded, but perhaps two kiosks are not occupied.
So I say politely to the first person in line, "Sir, do you see that there are some open kiosks that you can use?" He glances my direction and then resumes staring off into space.
I then say loudly to all of the people standing in front of me something like "If no one minds, I am just going to duck under the rope and use one of the open kiosks".
No one answers so I duck under the rope, find a kiosk, and start checking in.
A minute later one of the contract people who is supposed to keep the process moving comes up to me and confronts me, saying that someone had complained that I'd cut in line.
It had never crossed my mind that anyone would have something to be upset about. What is the etiquette here?
I think you did the best you could with good intentions.
People will complain no matter what. Please remember that you were in the "regular line" and you are in Orlando. That means people that may have not traveled in 10 years and are insisting on seeing and agent and just dont get that machine thingy. I would have told the contract employee that there were open machine and the people in line didnt want to use them so you did.....nothing to be concerned about at all.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mitchmu
I think you did the best you could with good intentions.
+1. Conflicts happen -- usually the best you can do is try to resolve them afterward. In this case, I would have (in ideal circumstances!) responded to the contract employee by politely saying, "I'm sorry that someone complained, but here is what happened: the people ahead of me in line refused to use this kiosk, I pointed it out, they ignored me, so I used it. I'm not in the wrong here."
And then (as a rabidly conflict-averse person) I would have felt conflicted about it for the next 6 hours and posted on FT to help calm myself down.
Well I often go to the nearest open kiosk whether there is a line or not, especially if i have no bags to check, but I don't announce it. I suggest OP be more stealthy in the future.
Part of the problem is UA's system. There are several kinds of people in that line,
- those who have tried OLCI and were told to see an airport agent,
- those who successfully OLCI and just want to check bags
- those who successfully OLCI and just want to print a BP
- those who did not OLCI and want to check a bag
- those who did not OLCI and do not want to check a bag
and UA's system does not efficiently deal with any, especially the first category. Someone in the first category has learned that approaching a kiosk is futile, and so waiting for help (how ever long it takes) is the only way to get checked in. UA's business model depends on pax having as little interaction with its employees as possible and UA would prefer that pax who cannot get a BP actually go home and eat the nonrefundable ticket. Backing up the line draws attention because if that one pax delays enough people long enough,UA will have to incur significant expense to rebook them.
The process should be:
- attempt to get a BP. If you fail, the kiosk prints a slip of paper with the 50 point font: "problem, see agent" and the pax holds it up or goes to the line marked "pax with problem slips"
- once you have a BP, go to the bag check lines if checking bags.
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I probably would have insisted that the people at the front of the line move to the open kiosk. However, I can't say that I blame you for cutting in line.
1+
Same has happened to me at SFO in the "premier" line, 2 people in front of me, I say "there is an open kiosk, would you like to use it or do you need an agent", guy in front of me said "need an agent, thanks, go ahead", I ask the lady in front of him, and she said "I need an agent", I go past both of them with a bag, get to the kiosk, get my card ready to put in, and she pushes up and said "I'm next", yeah I get it... what part of "do you want to use the kiosk" doesn't she understand? Everyone looks at her kinds of weird, by then another kiosk further down opens up and I move on to it.
THEN the "helper" comes over and said "please use the next available kiosk". I want his job, he does nothing, till someone else does his job, then he wants his job back.
I understand people being confused, but you think in a premier line, they would have some idea how the system works, or even some idea if they need an agent or not.
It really irks me to stand in a line, when there are plenty of open available kiosks, and/or a UA or airport employees standing around doing nothing.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cjermain
Monday morning I show up at 5:15A for a 6:15 UA flight MCO->IAH. My son and wife are with me. In case you don't know MCO, it can take some time to get through security quickly at that time on a Monday morning, so we were actually cutting it a bit close.
We have baggage, and the premier check-in line is very crowded. So we go to the "regular" line, which has about four parties standing in it. There are many check-in kiosks (10-15 or so?), the whole area is crowded, but perhaps two kiosks are not occupied.
So I say politely to the first person in line, "Sir, do you see that there are some open kiosks that you can use?" He glances my direction and then resumes staring off into space.
I then say loudly to all of the people standing in front of me something like "If no one minds, I am just going to duck under the rope and use one of the open kiosks".
No one answers so I duck under the rope, find a kiosk, and start checking in.
A minute later one of the contract people who is supposed to keep the process moving comes up to me and confronts me, saying that someone had complained that I'd cut in line.
It had never crossed my mind that anyone would have something to be upset about. What is the etiquette here?
You're in the right, if people are holding up the line then move up.
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As much as I love everything about the UA operation at my home airport (PDX), this is the only weak link in the chain...the Premier check-in line can sometimes take as long as the regular line since there are maybe 2 or 3 (at most) kiosks for Premiers and even those can sometimes get grabbed by the regular line folks so it's sometimes just faster to use the regular line...there is usually no effort on the part of the normally steelar PDX agents to keep the Premier line moving. And Yes, like MCO, folks stand and stare at open kiosks and I will generally say something to the folks ahead of me or politely move in myself as you did.
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OP, I do the same thing, in fact I just did it at MKE recently. I motion to the people in front, "are you going to use that open check-in machine?" if no one says yes, I move to it.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug 1029
I have often asked travelers in front of me if they are going to use the open machines. If they say nothing, I use it.
How can this possibly be argued as wrong? If they're not going to use the Kiosk, they must be in need of assistance from a real live person.
I'll admit that what I do is a mild variation of the OP though; I'll ask the person staffing the line (assuming there is one, and there almost alwasy is) if it's OK to use the open Kiosk. My assumption is that any intelligent person near the front of the line would be using it if it were useful to them. I can only so do far in making sure the less informed aren't offended, but I will mention to any and all that I can who are in front of me, when there's an open kiosk, that they should use it. Blank stares in return are obviously cheap or free because there are a lot of them.
It must be frustrating for the airlines to actually do a decent job with automated systems, only to find people still sit in long lines to talk to a person who in many/most cases can't do more than the machine and takes longer to do it.
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The system is incredibly confusing to me as a 1k. None of the stations I use regularly have the kiosks so, on the few (2 this year) I have been confronted with them, i'm unclear what to do. There's no signage indicating what's meant to happen and no staff to ask.
