Qantas to Remove Domestic Boarding Pass Printing from Kiosks

serfty said:
Where was this? I had believed this was not going to be ordinarily possible at a lounge.
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I've had no problems at lounges like SYD Dom J. Depends who you get at the front desk and whether they feel like doing it for you. I've had them print new boarding passes when I've made seating requests at the lounge. They will also print boarding passes when flow forwarding etc.
 
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I just don’t get the logic behind removing this functionality from the new kiosks…like what’s in it for Qantas to inconvenience passengers who, for whatever legitimate* reason, haven't checked in online?

Clearly it must somehow come back to profit, dividends and executive bonuses, but for the life of me I can't work out how letting people punch a few buttons on a screen and print a supermarket receipt boarding pass could be a significant cost overhead. Also none of the pre-flight comms are explicit in saying if you don't follow their suggestions to check in online you'll basically be left hanging at the airport seeing as there's likely to only be one or two manned counters open, defended by one of the company's most fierce dragons of all: the "priority" check in queue monitor. (If only priority boarding was as strictly controlled as turning away some poor NB who doesn't want to fight with machines to check a bag...)

*Legitimate reasons such as:
  • International tourists who are used to checking in at the airport on full service carriers and unaware of the Spirit of Australia way
  • infrequent flyers who have "always" used airport check in in the past for their annual holiday to OOL with the sprogs
  • older people
  • flat phone batteries
  • rushing from a work meeting to get the car back to Hertz on time
  • mis-typed one digit in mobile number when booking so didn't get text messages or changed numbers in the time between booking and flying (potentially months apart)
  • People who usually fly out of regional ports where counter check in is the norm and unaware that capital city terminals operate differently
  • The dreaded "we can't check you in at this time, see staff at the airport" message that comes up from time to time
I reckon these and many other case examples cover much more than 1% of passengers alluded to in previous posts who will be inconvenienced. The question is, how many will reconsider Qantas in future? By all means encourage the use of the app. Bring back the old totem poles for all I care (remember those?), but when something as simple as kiosk check in ain't broke, why fix it?
 
But I guess with Alan running the airline, we have to expect cost cuttings/savings.
Someone somewhere must have had the idea to start it, maybe in a focus group, or something.
And Alan, or his delegated officer, would have thought, aha, yes, thats a good idea.
Lets update/modernise the kiosks, and remove BP printing facility from it, ... but staff are there to assist.
Except of course, maybe someone else didn't speak to this focus group, about the decision to close service desks at airports.
We all feel we know how to "properly run an airline operations wise". but we don't, run it that is.
Its QF and its focus groups, and their outsourced ops that run the whole airline.
Yes, it would be nice to have a QF rep on here again, or even to have Alan have an opening ear, and amenable to suggestions, but, he does not care.
Except, till the you know what hits the fan, then he goes onto the media, (("the crying Kangaroo: Qantas...". battle to restore its image".
 
SYD lounge reprinted my BP yesterday because the barcode wouldn't scan. Seems some things don't change (bad barcodes ex WLG).
 
Kiwi_Flyer said:
SYD lounge reprinted my BP yesterday because the barcode wouldn't scan. Seems some things don't change (bad barcodes ex WLG).
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Not just WLG...quite a few airports have this problem IME. Maybe they need to invest in some new printers...
 
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I just went to check in online for tomorrow morning's flight PER-ADL-MEL. "Flights on time". Good, that means it’s not cancelled. However, when I proceeded to the final step, "Oops! Looks like something went wrong." "The site is currently unable to finalise your request."

THIS is why we need boarding passes at the kiosks. The system may or may not be up and running by the time I leave for the airport. As I have only carry on, can I go straight through to the Qantas J Lounge and check in there? Not happy, Jan!
 
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I would assume that the cost is related to the traditional 'boarding passes' ... one would hope that the new machines at least have the capability to print a basic thermal receipt type.
 
So I've recently travelled through Cairns Airport and caught a glimpse of these *new* kiosks myself.

Where I really think Qantas is actually saving money is through buying what looks to be the most entry-level, cheapest, off-the-shelf kiosk replacement. These new machines look cheap, low cost and pretty darn ugly.

Qantas' revolutionary next-gen domestic check-in that was rolled out in 2010, had huge amounts of research, design and testing money pumped into it. Some of Australia's best industrial designers and manufacturers were put on task to design and develop the next-gen check-in. The result was (in my opinion) a world-leading and award-winning solution that worked pretty darn well for its time and in a design sense, was bang on. It was very impressive.

The previous old white chunky kiosks weren't the best part of that 2010 roll-out, but as a whole solution, the next-gen check-in looked and worked pretty good.

These new kiosks just look cheap and out of place. The screens are tiny, the black and white body looks stock standard and the general aesthetic feels basic.

Why Qantas didn't get their current designer David Caon involved in a redesign of the kiosks? Once again, that's where the cost savings will be... This is just a cheap end-of-life replacement for the historic kiosks. Instead of commissioning David and the team to work with kiosk manufacturers to design something unique and with a hint of Qantas' design style (as I'm sure they would have previously done), they've bought 100+ cheap off-the-shelf machines to do the job for the next ~10 years.

It's sad that even their own Jetstar have better looking kiosks than Qantas now.

Granted, I did not use the kiosks, so can't comment on the UX/UI or the general vibe of the things. I've been checking in on the app myself for years without any concerns. I did forget that Cairns airport doesn't accept Q-tags, so I probably could have used it to print my own bag tag. I am going to try use the machines to print my own bag tags on my next trip in a few days to see how using the machine stack up.
 
I've just had the pleasure of using one of the new machines at Melbourne. Found it fairly easy to use, but the buttons were very non responsive to multiple pushs so there is an issue there that needs to be addressed. Not very clear about printing tags for 2 customers either.

Had an interesting discussion with one of the staff at the Qantas Club about the whole issue if boarding passes. She told me the machines are capable of printing boarding passes, but Qantas have decided not to allow this (not sure if correct).

I asked about getting a boarding pass at the gate.
She said if people use the digital card in the app that has the barcode, a paper tag will be issued at the gate to allow boarding. This of course depends on having the app on your phone.
 
willclan said:
I asked about getting a boarding pass at the gate.
She said if people use the digital card in the app that has the barcode, a paper tag will be issued at the gate to allow boarding. This of course depends on having the app on your phone.
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As confirmed up thread, scanning a physical FF card also at the gate will generate one of those small paper BPs.
 
BD1959 said:
Call me old fashioned but personally I don't count the till receipts issued at the gates as a real BP.

Regards,

BD
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But would likely serve as a record for the actual seat my posterior occupied while wandering?
Fred
PS Yes there is a spreadsheet which is updated following all wanderings
 

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