Rather than giving airlines proprietary use of certain gates, airports in the United States are increasingly adopting a common-use strategy — meaning any carrier may use any gate, as well as share check-in kiosks, ticket counters and baggage carousels.
The most obvious risk with mobile boarding is that if your phone's battery dies or there are any problems reading your e-boarding pass, you'll have to print one at a kiosk or ticket counter, and that could delay your trip if you're running late.
For instance, Alaska Airlines offers paid upgrades within 24 hours of the flight's departure through Web check-in, airport check-in kiosks, the ticket counter and even at the departure gate.
Everywhere you look are millions and millions of citizens who are not free to simply walk away from their ticket counter, mall kiosk or college classroom to vote at some time-certain event across town.
(YS-Undergraduate Student 2, Male; 23 yrs) Just like the age of my boy [referring to his three year old son playing in the courtyard]…I can give him an empty cigarette packet and ask him to give the woman who sells at the counter [a kiosk] so that she could sell cigarette to him.
By the end of the month, the airline also plans to begin allowing travelers flying out of Kennedy Airport to international destinations to check in at its kiosks instead of the counter.
Not content to just enable Web-to-retail print transcations, last week, HP surprised the industry by declaring its entry into the self-printing kiosk and behind-the-counter minilab market.
Police then worked with the stores to move the kiosks closer to the counter and to make the windows of the store more transparent so police could see if a suspect was using the kiosk after a report of a theft was made.
Ultimately, kiosks near ticket counters will be replaced by the universal machines and will be able to handle passengers checking luggage.
Working-class people who have not bought a book in years are lining up at kiosks and supermarket counters to pay $15, not a small sum in the middle of the deepest recession here in more than a decade.
