Thursday, March 3, 2011

Passengers in rage over new Qantas check-in

AIRPORT workers have been given panic alarms following a spike in confrontations with passengers following "issues" with Qantas' new automated check-in system. The Australian Services Union (ASU) said many passengers have been left frustrated and outraged when trying to use the new technology, which Qantas began trialling at Perth Airport in July last year.

The trial involved 100,000 of the airline’s frequent flyers, asking them to be more hands-on in the check-in process – such as weighing their own bags.

ASU Federal Secretary Linda White said there have been “a lot of issues” with the new technology, which has led to an increase in incidents involving disruptive passengers. “Passengers are pretty upset about the automated check-in, especially premium passengers as they don’t want to have to do things like carry their own bags,” Ms White said.

“Attacks on our members can range from being spat on or being verbally harassed, and there has been an increase in these kind of incidents since the automated check-in systems were introduced in Perth.”

Ms White said many passengers simply don’t understand how to use the system, which asks them to weigh their bags, pay for excess baggage charges and modify their booking information before checking-in luggage at the automated bag-drop point. “It’s very hard to figure out what to do,” Ms White said.

Qantas has denied the new check-in system is causing problems and said no staff members have used the new duress alarm. “Overwhelmingly, we are getting positive feedback from our customers and the time to check-in has been cut dramatically.”

Currently only about one quarter of the staff at the Perth terminal have the portable device, and the ASU says that every single airport worker should have one. Duress alarms are already installed behind the airport check-in counters, but this is of little use to those workers who aren’t behind the desks.

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