Feasibiility for in town/remote check in for Australian Domestic and International services

[LionKing]

In many countries in the world, such as Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong, in town or remote check in is available at an extra charge where passengers can check in their baggage through a courier in town, weigh and tag, have their boarding pass printed and then send to the airport ready for their service later in the day.

In Australia, usual hotel check out time is 10 or 11am, which means unless you have an early afternoon service, you usually will have to bring your baggage to work or to your conference, then leave early enough for your 5pm or 6pm service to your home town.

With technologies such as Uber Courier, I was wondering whether it is feasible for Qantas and Virgin Australia (as well as other airlines) to launch in town check in where some of the hotels in town can offer an early check in counter for evening flights with a midday cut off, which would have allowed business travellers to check out their rooms and check in their bags for their afternoon flight at the same time, and they could have just arrived at gate 30 minutes before which could have saved unnecessary waiting times at the lounge or at the terminal?

This service can also be a paid service for those who have an early afternoon international O&D or simple stopover/transfers to allow anyone to check in their bags in dedicated points and have a courirer picked up and deliver to their flights, which also means say passengers travelling on SQ242 could leave work on time at 5pm, catch Uber and arrive at airport 15 minutes later and can still make their service leaving at 6pm?

 

[esseeeayeenn]

As far as I am aware this service is not offered in Singapore.
It is offered in a few cities and I have used it in both Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur.
In each of those cities it is offered in conjunction with an express airport train service.
This is important because there are some basic checks to be done, which would prevent such a service being offered from a large number of hotels, for example.

There are no such express train services operating to any Australian airport.
Sydney, Brisbane and Perth airports are each serviced by regular suburban commuter trains, which also service many other stations.
Melbourne, Adelaide, Darwin, Canberra and Hobart have no airport rail connection at all.

Of the airport rail services which exist, none of them has the sort of dedicated station facilities which exist in both Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur.
Even there, the service is only available at select stations with such facilities.
In HK this means Central and Kowloon. In KL it means KL Sentral only.
Further, it is only available for certain airlines.

In short, I think the main obstacle to implementing this in Australia would be the lack of appropriate supporting rail infrastructure.

 

[SYD]

I have a vague recollection that there used to be in town bag drop in Sydney for certain airlines (might have been QF/BA) but that was “enhanced” after 9/11.

There used to be bag drop at London Paddington in conjunction with HEX. Again, “enhanced”.

 

[markis10]

As far as I am aware this service is not offered in Singapore.

It was offered in the past and has recently come back in limited form supporting guests at three hotels flying SQ, and they pay $29 per bag for the privilege

 

[dajop]

As far as I am aware this service is not offered in Singapore.
It is offered in a few cities and I have used it in both Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur.
In each of those cities it is offered in conjunction with an express airport train service.

There are two types of such services. The one where you turn up to a normal checkin desk at a train station instead of an airport, which is what you mention. These are usually free (in conjunction with train ticket)

Then paid services that will pick up your baggage from the hotel and check it in for you, such as airportr.com

Swiss rail also have a paid service to transfer your luggage to ZRH and then you can collect at their luggage counter at the airport station before proceeding to checkin yourself.

So there are different options.

 

[Cloud9]

Apologies for sounding overly cynical, but I just honestly wouldn't have any faith in my bags being properly routed (if they even did make it all the way to the airport to begin with) with such a service here in Australia.

It's proving difficult enough for our services to just co-ordinate two planes taxiing at SYD.

Infrastructure, competence, and sheer cost probably make it prohibitive alone.

 

[TheCollecter]

Hi HK, which I've only been to in 2023, I'm told Cathay had just recently restarted bag drop at the city station for the airport train after a break for Covid. I didn't use it, but a local colleague said she had found it to be magic, as she could bring her bag on the morning commute, drop it, walk the 5 mins to work with just her wheelie carry on, and then get the train to the airport at some point that day.

As nice as this may seem, in Melbourne we have bigger fish to fry... like an actual train to the airport... how our bags get there is light-years away from our consideration

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Hi HK, which I've only been to in 2023, I'm told Cathay had just recently restarted bag drop at the city station for the airport train after a break for Covid. I didn't use it, but a local colleague said she had found it to be magic, as she could bring her bag on the morning commute, drop it, walk the 5 mins to work with just her wheelie carry on, and then get the train to the airport at some point that day.

As nice as this may seem, in Melbourne we have bigger fish to fry... like an actual train to the airport... how our bags get there is light-years away from our consideration

Also at MEL they (often/generally/always) won't accept bags more than 3 hours prior to a flight because of lack of storage space.
I have sometimes flown SYD-MEL and had to wait to check in for an onward flight to PER because of this.
(Why? To access the MEL F lounge and fly on the 787 to PER.)

 

[Cloud9]

Also at MEL they (often/generally/always) won't accept bags more than 3 hours prior to a flight because of lack of storage space.
I have sometimes flown SYD-MEL and had to wait to check in for an onward flight to PER because of this.
(Why? To access the MEL F lounge and fly on the 787 to PER.)

At least if you do have hold luggage and you're going direct from MEL, you can drop it 4 hours ahead of time and go booze it up with some squid.

 

[Noah Count]

Not sure if I can add any value as I and a HLO type. We have used the in town check in HK, KL and SG, from memory SG was available depending on the hotel. As SG is small and not expensive prior to check out I used to ask my +1 and daughter to get their stuff packed and Would take it to the airport come back and meet them at our agreed point. Japan is different, luggage forwarding is common not just to airports but also between cities and can be done at most 7/11's provided you can fill in the form or have cashier do it for you. Also in Japan I know there is a luggage forwarding service dedicated for airport transfers at Shinjuku (not sure if it is still there) in a building 3 floor up in a building next to the station, the only catch and from memory your luggage ended up at a collection point and then you had to check it in. Sure it was a bit complicated but saved dragging luggage around Tokyo for a day.

As for AU I don't think I would trust our systems.

 

[Quickstatus]

Also in Japan I know there is a luggage forwarding service dedicated for airport transfers at Shinjuku

From anywhere in JPN to anywhere in JPN

Your hotel can just book Tak-U-bin who will transport your luggage to airport or anywhere else.
From airport same service to your JPN destinations alleviating need to drag heavy luggage on trains.
Of course distance determines time required

Companies like Yamato Black Cat provide very cost effective, efficient and reliable Tak-U-Bin

We Once left a passport in hotel safe. Rang hotel. They got the passport delivered from a hotel to another hotel in another part of JPN within a day.

 

[Seat0B]

I think this is offered in Oslo - as @esseeeayeenn said, it was in conjunction with the dedicated airport train that I noticed this as an option at Oslo Train station last year. So it did not really seem that advantageous to me - by the time you get to the station, all that's left to do is take the train trip and walk the short distance from arrival platform to airport check in.

 

[elanshin]

The real problem with Australia is not our ability to do these things. It's the cost. This is a relatively labour intensive process. Our wages would mean such a service would cost a fair bit - then no one would use it etc.

 

[Seat0B]

Your hotel can just book Tak-U-bin who will transport your luggage to airport or anywhere else.

It's a great service and we make regular use of it to deal with our skis etc so we can tourist around a bit after we finish skiing.

However, you do still have to collect your luggage at the airport depot and check it in at the usual airline counter, so it's not exactly what the OP was imagining - but for me it works very very well. I would like to use a service like that at more places, including here in Aus, but to be honest, I am not sure how much I would trust it here, as several have suggested. I don't think the care factor is the same here as it is in Japan.

 

[Quickstatus]

Won't work in Austrslia
High cost
Small population

However, you do still have to collect your luggage at the airport depot and check it in at the usual airline counter,

Yes, it's a luggage forwarding but they can hold luggage for a few days at the airport.
Incredibly the booking is all on multi carbon copy paper and phone call . Nothing online. .

 

[Seat0B]

Japan is not really the tech paradise it seemed to promise in the 1980s, is it! They still use faxes there pretty regularly.

 

[Quickstatus]

tech paradise

They invented the Electronic TV, Walkman, lithium battery, blue LED. Sega, Nintendo, Sony
But they can't do online Tak-U-Bin or Shinkansen bookings.

Still on paper train tickets
But hey the train turn up when they are supposed to and a Passport arrives

 

[elanshin]

Japan is not really the tech paradise it seemed to promise in the 1980s, is it! They still use faxes there pretty regularly.

They invented the Electronic TV, Walkman, lithium battery, blue LED. Sega, Nintendo, Sony
But they can't do online Tak-U-Bin or Shinkansen bookings.

Still on paper train tickets
But hey the train turn up when they are supposed to and a Passport arrives

Simple answer - they arrived at the 00s in 1980-90. But since have barely left the 00s.

 

[kpc]

The intown checkin at Hong Kong is great...last year we arrived from Guangzhou by train. Checked in our bags at Central, wandered around HK with only our carryon, then took the train to the airport for our evening flight

 

[TheCollecter]

They invented the Electronic TV, Walkman, lithium battery, blue LED. Sega, Nintendo, Sony
But they can't do online Tak-U-Bin or Shinkansen bookings.

Still on paper train tickets
But hey the train turn up when they are supposed to and a Passport arrives

Last country to stop making floppy disks, and not as long ago as many might think

But… have they actually stopped using those floppy disks??