Alaska Airlines' tech breakthrough: check-in and baggage delivery in less than 5 minutes

Mobile technology, biometric recognition, luggage tag station. Alaska Airlines has announced its big little revolution to eliminate airport lines by coming up with "seamless travel." That much-hyped frictionless travel that will allow people to change the'Most boring airport experience' (check-in and security check) into a practice to be done in "five minutes or less."

It starts from Seattle Tacoma

The airline launched, through a press release and a series of videos, its plan of trasformation of its Seattle-Tacoma international hub. which includes the total elimination of check-in kiosks, replaced only by baggage tag stations equipped with iPads.

The project, part of a $2.5 billion investment and redesign plan, will also involve Alaska's other U.S. airport-bases:  Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles e Anchorage.

Most of these airports will be equipped with the new instruments by 2023, and from spring 2024 all so-called Alaska Airlines Lobby in its hubs will have the technology to deliver luggage almost automatically, using only the smartphone.

How the airport experience is changing

A evolved kiosk-scanner, in fact, will allow the traveler's face, ID or passport,, and luggage to be scanned in a matter of minutes, automatically producing the label to be affixed to the suitcases. From that moment, an Alasaka attendant will pick up the luggage and direct it to the conveyor belt.

The evolution of Alaska is not so much in the baggage tag stations-these are already in rapid deployment and use in many airports and with various airlines-but in the ability to implement all processes in one step.

Consequently, this will also change the face and functionality of acceptance desks. Moreover, the service will be available due to the fact that check-in and boarding pass will be available only through app or website.

And the machine-scanners will obviously be equipped with Pos to make any baggage payments instantly. Goodbye kiosks, goodbye paper, goodbye lines.

Alaska closes era of check in kiosks

Alaska's stated goal, in fact, is "to get the passenger from the lobby to the security checkpoint in five minutes or less."

"Thinking about how to provide the best experience for our customers, it was clear starting from the first stage of the airport journey that continues to be a weak point. We realized, then, that most of our customers can do much of the expected actions at the kiosks just with their smartphones, and we can thus reduce lines and crowds at airports. Alaska was the first airline to introduce kiosks more than 20 years ago. Now we want to be the first to eliminate them," said Charu Jain, senior vice president innovation and merchandising of the airline.