Too many United Kiosks?
I’m probably not the first person to complain about this, but there is one thing about United Airlines that really gets under my nerve.
If I go to the American Airlines Priorty check in at LGA, I go to a sectioned off area and am greeted by two agents at podiums.
If I go to the Delta Sky Priority Lane at JFK, I go to a really private area, with bottled waters and mints, and am greeted by four or five agents all wanting to help me.
When I go to the United Premier Access Check-In at EWR, I go to a separate level (nice) and there is an actual person the has to grant me access into the check in area, but it goes all downhill from there. Instead of seeing 7 employees wanting to help me, I see 20 kiosks, and six United Employees. The moment I head towards an employee, he or she tries to act busy (which irks me) and when I say “Hello”, he or she says “Please start with the kiosk”. Or, he or she will come around from the back to do the kiosk for me. And then he or she will quickly move to another kiosk stand to tag someones bag and come back.
Not only does this not say “Premier,” it’s ugly for economy.
And this is not exclusive to EWR, it’s like that at 85% of US airports for United.
If it weren’t for longer lines, I would much rather go downstairs to Additional Services and check in where they have those new gate podiums with the flexible monitors.
Anyway, I have a few problems with checking in at a kiosk:
1) I like cardstock boarding passes, which are only available through the agent or a PMUA kiosk (none at EWR)
2) I don’t like having my information being displayed on a 16 inch screen in front of everyone else. It would take nothing for someone to snap a photo of the conf # and change my itinerary. Same reason why I don’t like ATM’s.
So, the question is, how can I convince the agent at the Premier counter that I want to check-in the old fashioned way?