Delta’s got a plan to eliminate a new-age annoyance, the one where you’ve checked in on-line, loaded your mobile boarding pass on your phone—and then have to stand in line at the airport to drop your checked bag.
Delta’s latest experiment in expedited bag-handling will be tested this summer at Minneapolis-St Paul International, where four self-service bag drop machines are being set up. The machine’s will match a traveler’s face with his or her stored passport picture; if they match the bag can be pushed into the machine and on its way.
Delta has been paying a lot of attention to baggage issues lately, and is the first airline to have incorporated RFID tracking into all of its baggage tags for real-time tracking and more accurate loading. The airline believes the automated stations will handle double the number of bags per hour and free up staff for other assignments.
