American Airlines introduces self-bag tagging

On November 14^th, American Airlines introduced self-bag tagging for travelers flying out of Orlando. This comes after a successful trial run at Austin Bergstrom international Airport earlier this year. According to American Airline, check-in times were reduced by as much as 55% in Austin.

The way it works is that travelers are allowed to use a kiosk to print and attach baggage tags. The traveler enters all their flight info, pays any necessary charges, and then prints their tag and attaches it to their bag. They then take their bag to a drop off area and show ID to an airline representative.

American plans to expand self-bag tagging to Chicago O’Hare and Washington Reagan Airports in the coming months. The airline also expects to debut this service in up to 8 more U.S. cities within the next 2 years.

There are still many travelers who remain wary of the self-serve options and its uncertainties. One issue in particular is that of lost and mis-routed bags due to passenger self-service error. What happens then? Is the passenger at fault? Does the airline take responsibility? Nobody knows.

The truth is that there is a first time learning curve for airlines when it comes to dealing with this new service. Bags get lost or mis-routed fairly regularly when trained agents from the airlines are tagging the bags. It is only natural to assume that this would be compounded by your every day traveler tagging their own bags.

This self-bag tagging system sounds good in theory but it feels too impractical. I am a firm believer that the customer/client should be able to choose when they want to serve themselves and not be forced into it if they desire to interact with a real person. It is, after all, the "Service" industry.