Lurker1999

Not even one joke thus far about this being the next step towards self-loading freight?

Mackieman

Well, they could go Bridge of Death style:

Justin7525

Murphy's Law. I can see it being text book here!

Steve M

Instead of groin punchers or electric shocks, what they could do instead is have a cattle chute type of system. They make clear announcements and have an electronic sign board for boarding. When you scan your BP, the chute opens in one of two ways: toward the jetway if it's your time to board, or the "reject" direction if you tried to board early. People that attempted to jump the line would be penalized and forced to wait until all other passengers were boarded, instead of just waiting for what was their original due turn. Once any possibility of benefit of boarding out of order was removed, and in fact a penalty established, the problem would go away in an instant.

TRAVELSIG

Agreed- I use this freuqently at both MUC and FRA- and have never had any problems. At HAM they have even installed a system like this for lounge access.

bdraco

I used the one at E4 today. I cannot wait until these are installed on every gate.

CO DCA

Late in replying to the response to my posts but...

My experience with the LH self boarding gates is all LH domestic at FRA. The scrum developed before boarding recent flights to ATH and BCN. I generally don't take LH from FRA to the U.S. That said, the gate agents were awful, apathetic, and did not reinforce German stereotypes, but that's a different post.

Patrick B

Actually, I've found the LH gate agents to be much the opposite. Very stereo-typical German, in that the rules were the rules, and must be obeyed.

I have often found that they call passengers with infants and small children, and *normally* in North America they allow *G and FC/BC passengers to board at the same time. In Frankfurt they ONLY allowed passengers with infants and small children. *G and other status passengers had to wait.

I've used to self-boarding gates with Lufthansa several times, and have never had a problem with them (Frankfurt, Munich, and Dusseldorf etc). They've always worked fine for me. I much prefer them.


Patrick

hydrox

To heck with boarding, give me an electronic bouncer to replace the flimsy curtain at the front of the plane...that's where I'd like to see a few electric shocks and groin punches.

Critic

"Schtep avay from ze boarding area until your group is called - ozhervise it is 30 days in ze cooler..."

gawhite411

Agreed. That curtain is not sufficient protection. It's a shame we can't have a locked door that only FAs can open.

cody77

This has got to be the WORST WORST idea. I'm so tired of this do-it yourself attitude it seems a lot businesses are conforming to. You can't even check-in with a live person anymore at a lot of airports Continental serves, and now this? That's one of the reasons I jumped over to American by signing up for their elite challenge last week. Continental at LAX, for example, has one section of traditional ticket counter with an agent to check you in, but you have to be buying a ticket, a large group, or unaccompanied minor to check in there. I'm an elite member and my thought is I should be able to check in anywhere I please. But 9 times out of 10 they look at me like I fell off the stupid tree and redirect me to the kiosks. The few times I've flown American though, you seem to be given a choice between agent or kiosk. That's not the main reasons I left, but it was up there on my "top ten" list. I hope this experiment follows murphy's law and fails badly. I hate to think automation is taking over our lives.

LowlyDLsilver

Coming soon to a city near you -

The $20 "I need human intervention to be allowed to board the plane" fee

AllanJ

This might be easy for just about anyone to understand.

If something isn't right including trying to board ahead of your zone, a readout on the turnstile simply says "Please see agent".

Then one gate louse after another would have to go say thirty feet over to a counter.

sbm12

The impact of this approach on the boarding time would negate any benefits that the turnstiles offer in terms of efficiency.