Is Self-Service Check-in in HAL's Future?

[pms4104]

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Without chip - on left.

With chip - on right.

 

All of that printing at the bottom of your "face page" is machine readable. I'm guessing that's what you'd slide through the kiosk because that's what the check-in people do.

Thanks for your clarification. Never had to swipe mine so I wasn't thinking barcode vs. machine-readable info.

[Typhoon1]

I am sure it is not far away. You see them everywhere else, airports, hotels, markets. It's just a matter of time before it will print a room key, just like hotel kiosks do.

[Nutrioso]

I agree with SJSUlibrarian (Hi, Barbara! Long time no see). I don't think it will speed things up, nor do I think it will slow things down. It is about not having to have so many staff at checkin. Saving money, don'cha know! ---Penny

[Typhoon1]

Somebody still has to take a reasonable picture of you.

 

Princess snaps your picture as you board the ship. Insert key card into machine, look up and your picture is taken. IIRC there was a staff member present to monitor the process.

[gatour]

Thanks for your update.

 

If only the bar code on the new passports would work in the kiosks, that would contribute to job security at the pier at least til 2016, which is when our passports expire. I think we were some of the last before the chipped passports were implemented fully.

 

On the other hand, those barcodes must mean something and I'm guessing that the codes on any unexpired passport, chipped or not, would be acceptable for kiosk checkin. Otherwise, what's the point of outsourcing the personal pier service to a machine?

 

The airport kiosks accepts the bar code type passports so I imagine that a cruiseline's kiosk would also, since the rfid was only required in the last year or so.

 

Back to the original thread, in the old days, the clerks at the checkin counter spent much of their time being data entry people which held up the lines.

 

Next step was a few years ago when you entered the same information online that the clerks entered when you were checking in after a couple of years this process has been worked out