If there’s one thing I don’t love about air travel today, it’s the lack of human interaction in the airport. Well, guess what, boys and girls? It’s about to get a whole lot worse.
Have you heard the latest one from the airlines? They’re now testing out automated boarding turnstiles at the departure gates. You scan your own boarding pass before getting on the flight.
Continental tested it out in Houston a while back, and now Delta is trying it in Las Vegas and Atlanta. And a number of airlines in Europe and Asia have already implemented it.
Now, the airlines will argue that this reduces the workload of gate agents so they can focus on customer service. But here’s the real story: it reduces the need for gate agents altogether, which saves the airlines money.
But here’s my opinion: Anytime you lose the opportunity of having a conversation with someone, there’s less chance to solve problems if something goes wrong.
If it’s a regular flight from Burbank to Las Vegas or New York to Chicago, this kind of automation can make sense. But for me, getting rid of the human face is not a good sign of things to come.
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