Airline Boarding Pass Kiosk

The ability to print boarding passes for flights is a great convenience. Unfortunately, half the time you’re in a hotel room when you check-in online and can’t print the boarding pass.

Some airlines (Northwest for one, but I always fly United) will fax the boarding pass to you—but this still requires that you get the fax. Unfortunately, lots of things can happen between the hotel fax and your room—for example, the business center is closed until after you depart.

The Hyatt Regency hotel at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois has a very helpful solution to this problem: an airline board pass printing kiosk. It’s very helpful and shows that someone was thinking about the customer. I hope that the person who thought of the kiosk sees this blog posting.

Comments

[christopher carfi]

the kiosk is cool, but (as you noted), it's not always there.

guy, i wrote about this last year when i was traveling in chicago as well. here's the lifehack to check in and print your boarding pass, even when you are in a hotel room without a printer.

http://www.socialcustomer.com/2006/01/a_lifehack_for_.html

[Matt]

Treasure Island in Vegas (as of last summer) has the ability to print boarding passes, but they charge $5.00 per copy. Unless you freak out and yell at them, then they give it to you for free.

Better for them to not have it at all than to try to dig the last $5.00 out of your pocket after you check out. What a crappy way to say "Thanks for staying..."

[Vetle]

Do you have e-tickets in the states? In Europe, SAS have e-tickets. No need for boarding pass, even, at least not when travelling inside Norway.

1: Book ticket using bonus card or credit card
2: Check in on the Internet or WAP (it's not dead yet, unfortunately)
3: Go directly to gate, use bonus/credit card at the gate before entering airplane to get ticket with seat assignment

Lovely stuff, no need for anything on paper until that last bit... :)

[olivier Blanchard]

Great idea. I wonder why more hotels don't already do this.

[JasonC]

I recently ran across one of these at the Harbor Marriott in San Deigo. It's such a simple thing for the hotel to do, but a great convenience for their customers. There is a Hyatt, the Omni, and many other options nearby, but all other things being equal (or reasonably close) I'll choose the Marriott next time I'm down there because of this service.

[Ankit]

The Hyatt Regency on the Embarcadero in San Fran has this kiosk too. Very helpful.

[Chicago 2016]

I know the Hilton Chicago has express hotel check-in with airline-like kiosks. What'll we think of next?

[Neil Watson]

It makes me wonder how hotels have missed the opportunity of hitching a printer to their network and charging for printing by the page.

It wouldn't be difficult to track who had printed what - they manage to track the bar bill ok!

[Scott Yates]

Kiosks are getting better and better, and I love them.

No offense to gas station attendants, but I don't care about your boyfriend making a pass at the daughter of his parole agent, I just want to pay for gas and leave. That's why I love love love paying at the pump.

In Denver we have Red Box, which is awesome for when I just can't wait for NetFlix. Right now they are only in McD's... I wish there was one on every block, or in every Starbucks (whichever is greater.)

[LW]

Guy, another helpful tip: you can check in online and then re-print your boarding pass at the airport ticket counter kiosks when you arrive there. You get credit for the early check-in but can still show up 30 minutes before the flight and grab your boarding pass. I'm not sure that all airlines do this, but I know that Continental and Northwest do. I use this all the time!

[sean]

The East Side Marriott in New York also has this type of kiosk in their lobby. Great idea.

[Stephen Pierzchala]

The Residence Inn I stayed at in Beverly Hills had the same feature (same kiosk?), and it was a lifesaver after a long day and a late check-in for the red-eye back to Boston.

It's not a rocket science solution: a low-end printer, and a browser crippled to only go to airline/hotel/shuttle Web sites. Makes the hotel look like they are thinking about their travelling customers.

smp

[Brian]

Neat idea. Makes you wonder if there's something to be said for truly portable printing, but let's not kid ourselves... there isn't. Not yet, at least :)

I appreciate this little exercise about thinking in terms of the customer.

[TR]

Hi Guy --

Won't we just be able to pull up our boarding pass on our iPhone screen and have them scan it at the gate? ;-)