Was in SEA on a layover heading to BOI. Got in early and had a 2.5 hours until my 6pm BOI flight. Noticed there was a 4pm flight, so hit the kiosk to see if I could grab a standby slot. When I brought up my itinerary, the kiosk indicated that the 6pm flight was oversold and asked if I'd like to volunteer to be bumped. I did and then went to the Board Room for some more info.

The thing I was trying to figure out was, if there were seats on the 4pm, and the odds of getting bumped on the 6pm were long, I'd take the 4pm. However, if I was near the top of the volunteer list on the 6pm and had a high likelihood of getting bumped and making the 8pm, I'd take that to get the free trip. So I checked with the Board Room desk and they were surprised that I had even been prompted via the kiosk.

Does anyone know if this is a new feature? I'm in the technology field. Personally, I'd like to be able to do everything I can do traditionally by talking to a GA, from a kiosk. Hopefully things are moving that way. I hate to trouble the GA's when I just have a quick question about where I am on standby lists, etc. It would be great to have all that information available via the kiosk (and maybe someday via the web). AS has been on the leading edge (and lately painfully so) on utilizing technologies that enable PAX to be able to self-serve on a lot of items. Hopefully they continue to drive aggressively in that direction.

The other piece of info I wanted, that I was able to verify, is that your status works on the volunteer list just as it does for standby, etc. Good info for future bump attempts.