Venabili

They recommend you to use the kiosk for the BP but they do not force you to use it... If you want to deal with a human, that's fine...

But I do not understand what's the problem with the kiosks (especially in PHX) - they print the BPs faster than most agents, the bags tags then are out automatically so the agents can just tag the bags and check the credentials...

txrus

Went to the line that said 'First Class'. Convinced the contractor guarding it to let me in since I was flying in first class. Got to the front of it & was pointed towards a kiosk by a US employee to get my BP, despite saying to her, several times, 'for first class'? TA who came over & took my bag away from me, while I was still fighting w/the non-working touch screen, told me I should go to USairways.com & file a complaint because 'we think this is stupid, too'.

So, it would appear that this is standard practice.

Even more 'fun' awaited me on board where, somehow, the same set of 4 seats had been given to 3 different groups of pax. FA up front wanted nothing to do w/sorting it out & insisted one group go back up to the gate. GA promptly brought them back down, inspected BP's, shrugged her shoulders, moved 1 pax up front (to a seat that, it turned out, was also occupied thereby ensuring the front cabin got in on the fun) & then walked out. FA then proceeded to, loudly, announce she was going to throw one of the pax off the plane if he said one more word-mind you, the only raised voices thru the entire fiasco were from her. She then went up front & proceeded to get the capt involved-the 2 of them spent the rest of boarding standing @ the door & boasting to each other what they were going to do to the poor man who's seat was occupied, in between welcoming other pax on board.

Had I not witnessed & heard this myself I would have never believed it was possible for 'professionals' to behave in this manner, but I suspect this will be par for the course w/the 'New' American aka Doug Parker Air

txrus

No, the bag tag did not come out automatically-TA had to do everything that is normally done to generate a tag once we finally got to the counter.

Believe it or not, I have done this a few times in my life & have even used kiosks in multiple airports. I do not find them faster especially now that I have to waste my time declining useless upsells, like mileage multiplier, in order to finalize the transaction I do want.

LowlyDLsilver

Your experience may be from a faulty kiosk, but it runs counter to every flight on US that I have checked bags on in the last two years. I'll just walk up to any open kiosk and even if the agent is 3 stations down holding a kettle's hand, the bag tag auto-prints, I show ID, and they tag it. The agent never has to touch the terminal.

As far as checking in with a human goes, to each their own, but I prefer to not take up an agent's time for the mundane. Reason being, at the times I have a situation that really requires human intervention, I would like that agent to be free to handle it, rather than doing tasks another pax could do on their own. It's a karma thing ...