In the Trenches: Prioritizing Tasks, Getting Paid – Intuit Small Business Blog
We’ve neglected an important part of the business, and that means I need to either reallocate time or find someone new to handle it.
American Says: Check Your Own Damn Bag. We Say: Finally – Conde Nast Daily Traveler
American started self bag-checking in Chicago yesterday. This is long overdue here in the US, but it’s not quite as simple as it could be.
We flew internationally starting at DCA early March, and using this system was a disaster. We entered our passport information x4 online when we bought the tickets, again the night before to print boarding passes, but the system still wanted us to retype all 4 names, DOBs, and passport numbers onto the touch screen, just to check the bags. Either the passport scanners did not work, or this is standard procedure to verify the scanned info. After wasting about 10 minutes at various kiosks, we left and used the regular line.
Why the unpaid commissions? Are companies just holding back until they have to pay, they pay quarterly, or do some companies not pay until after the service is used?
David/Jim – In general, hotels are just bad at paying. The problem is that it’s really up to each individual hotel, even in a chain. So Hilton, for example, has a central place where you can dispute unpaid commissions, but all they do is go to the individual hotel management to get it paid. So you never know if it’s a reliable place or not because you don’t really know who runs each property.
Just stop booking your customers at deadbeat hotels. Book them at hotels that pay on time.
Qantas and Jetstar have been doing the self check in bag drop for years now from about the same time as Air NZ.
You can check in at the kiosk manually by inputting the booking number, or, if you have a loyalty card, just swipe it. Too easy.
It is quicker to use the kiosk than to use the dedicated Business Class checkin counter…red carpet, brass stanchions with velvet ropes notwithstanding.
With enough kiosks, there is almost never a line up to wait at.
Some airports in Europe are already doing it. I noticed that they were in operation at Prague Ruzyne last year.
I’m a big fan of the Qantas Next Generation baggage system–if anyone is interested in the move to self-bag-tagging, take a look into what Qantas has done. It’s quite amazing to use. It hinges on a Qantas-issued ‘permanent’ bag tag that uses RFID technology to link that tag/bag to your boarding pass.
If you have one of the tags on your bag, you can check in on your smart phone or at a kiosk; then head to the baggage kiosks and put your smart phone/boarding pass under a scanner and place your bag on the conveyor belt. Another scnner then links your RFID ‘permanent’ bag tag to your booking adn send it straight off to the baggage handlers–no furth paper bag tag needs to be attached!
The whole process takes less than a minute if you’ve already checked in on your smart phone and is quite incredible to watch. I love it!