United Airlines is making it easier to avoid lines by offering a new dedicated bag drop area that it hopes will result in a far more efficient airport experience.
While this concept has theoretically been available in the self-service check-in area for years, when the line is mixed with passengers who need to check-in or reprint their boarding pass, the process is slowed down tremendously.
Here, United hopes to achieve an assembly line-style efficiency in which boarding passes are scanned, tags are printed and applied, and passengers are sent on their way with very limited wait.
United originally tested this at Newark (EWR) last summer, receiving high praise and genuinely reduced waiting times in customer satisfaction surveys. Toby Enqvist, Chief Customer Officer for United, noted:
“Our initial customer data proves this free, simple-to-use process saves our customers time and energy as they get ready for their flight. We’re thrilled to be the first to offer this service to all customers who check-in on our award-winning mobile app.”
This service is free and now available at all of United’s U.S. hubs. United plans to expand “bag drop shortcut” to dozens more new airports this year.
Where this process could become truly revolutionary (and we’ve seen it in other countries like Australia) is by allowing customers to tag their own bags and drop them on a conveyor belt. Australia does not check ID on domestic flights, but new facial recognition technology that is in effect at many airports in the U.S. already could totally bypass the need to require an agent (except to control against weight shenanigans, like holding the bag slightly so the true weight is not registered). That may come at a later point, but today’s news should save many travelers several minutes of waiting at airports.
United Airlines is introducing a new “bag drop shortcut” aimed at saving passengers queuing time at airports by streaming the baggage check-in process. This is good news and long overdue: initial tests have revealed the concept works and the system is now available at all of United’s U.S. hubs, with plans to expand to downline stations in the months ahead.
Have you used United’s “bag drop shortcut” before your flight? Did it save you time?
Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.
This has been available at DEN for a few months. Unfortunately, it hasn’t reduced lines and if anything, has created more confusion for those checking in.
It’s the same with the premier area. You now go to a kiosk but then have to take your bag to an agent but there are often lines to drop the bag which results in bottlenecks.
Yup, number of agents is always limiting factor. This does nothing to change that. And there will forever be two agents clustered at a single computer trying to figure something out for 10+ minutes.
Agreed with Rich. You still need to go to an agent to physically hand your bag off and thats where the line still is. It’s not slower than before but not faster either. It’s just another idea that sounds good on paper but someone at United forgot to take into account human factors
why have no other us airlines adopted the same machines spirit has used since 2020? they allow fully self-serve bag drop. Checking in, printing and applying bag tag, scanning and verifying your ID, and weighing and depositing your bag is ALL done by the kiosk with no human contact. https://www.airport-technology.com/news/spirit-airlines-bag-drop
“After scanning the boarding pass, guests will be notified about the biometric option, which they can use. If the guest is willing to avail of the service, then the unit asks the guest to scan their ID through the built-in hardware. Once scanned, the unit compares the photo on the ID with the facial scan recorded by its onboard camera and will compare identification details with the guests’ reservation information. After a successful match, the rest of the automated bag check-in process is initiated and guests will have to place their bags on the conveyor belt attached to the unit.”
I think all the airlines are actively looking at this. It’s not the bag drop itself, it’s the process that every airline has to go though the TSA for rigorous testing and approval. It’s no small feat from what I’ve heard
Great United but you know what would actually help? Unloading my Priority tagged bag onto the carousel first.
50% of flights where I check my bag the priority tags come out on the last cart. I leave this feedback on every survey and nothing happens. It’s as simple as training the luggage handlers.
Haha you’re right. I’ve been one of the last to receive my bag multiple times
Funny enough, my luggage that was tagged priority was recently lost in Zurich.
There is a good reason why you’re priority bags go on the last cart because they go right in the door of the aircraft, and in the hubs and in cities of destinations your priority bags are the first to come off because they’re right at the door and they get loaded into the first cart to the inbound bag room ahead of the regular checked bags, sometimes with the first cart of bags.
Why not fully automated? The new airport in Munich has completed automated drops, drop your bag on the conveyer and off you go.
I’d imagine due to ID-check requirements, which I’d like to see eliminated.
Hello Matt. I work in IT security and we have “security theater” there as well (such as the “special characters” requirement in passwords.)
Anyhoo, if the goal is to make sure someone whose checking into a flight actually will be with their bags, then their credit card would match their ID which would be associated with their boarding pass and ID when they go through TSA. If someone was going to play bag swap for the wrong reasons, they could do that only with the cooperation of the ticket holder making the ID check moot.
Good point. Let’s hope United is reading.
The person that created this is a great individual. I know them personally and was there to help them test it through the hubs. Let me know what you guys think so I can give feedback on any changes we need.
How is this any different than what was already provided? It’s just “lipstick on a pig” as they say. I still have to wait in line to physically hand the bags to an agent who wants to see my ID and boarding pass.
The better solution is to have the kiosk verify the passport or drivers license as the identification check. Once I tag my bags (which quite a few kiosks have been printing self-tags for awhile) I drop them on the belt myself.
I feel like this is on the table for all the airlines, but the US ID checks are much stricter than what we see in the EU, hence why you see very limited usage right now. The whole process needs to be tested and vetted with TSA approval and takes quite a long time to get sign off from what I’ve heard.
We have had this in Australia for a number of years. It works well over all, and is definitely much faster. The only thing that slows it down is sometimes it takes a couple of attempts to get the tag on the ban to scan correctly after putting it on the convey belt.
I spent what felt like 10 minutes trying to print a bag tag in SRQ last year. Turns out the kiosk prints your tag behind the GA counter, not out of the front as a normal human would expect. Of course, it doesn’t warn you. So you and everyone else try to check in and reprint again and it won’t let you!
I tried this at EWR in December and it was nice but not groundbreaking at all. On the other hand AA has something similar in DCA where one floor down from the main ticketing area (on the security level) there’s a counter explicitly if you’re checking bags. I found this to be much faster than using the bag drop areas upstairs, likely because it’s kind of hidden and there’s no signage. I felt like UA’s version was more advertised (I received a notification on the app) and didn’t feel like it made a difference.
Easyjet have had similar available in the UK for years. It’s pretty efficient when you get to the check-in machine, scan your boarding pass, bag on scale, tag prints, put on belt and press button. What slows the whole process right down is the staff member checking ID and Covid docs before you get to the scale resulting in long queues. Your ID is then checked again at the Gate making the first process somewhat redundant. There is also a manual check-in counter available but poorly signposted at MAN so you get some pax, particularly elderly, struggling with the process who then cause a log jam.
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