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Check-in confusion at HON

bofie

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Here are the problems that I saw...

-Terrible signage. No signs at the traditional-looking desk telling pax that check-in is done nearer to the street. A second line formed here that had to be shifted to the right place.

-GAs wear nothing that looks like an AW or USAirways uniform.

-Staff shows up at 9. Pax are there at 8.

-Clustered computer stations make it hard to see when a GA is free.

-No signs directing pax to the Ag inspection station. Fully half had to leave line to get Agged.

-No FC line, no DM line.
 
Here are the problems that I saw...
I guess you mean HNL? Honolulu?

-Terrible signage. No signs at the traditional-looking desk telling pax that check-in is done nearer to the street. A second line formed here that had to be shifted to the right place.

Not sure about the policy in HNL, but in a certain station, the airport people keep coming by taking the signs away that we make. They have a uniform sign policy, however, they dont want to give us the signs that we request right away since it has to be approved by the airport board or someone. They will make up little generic signs for us, but thats it. They wanted to take away the big "A" and "B" signs with the different airline checkin info on it, until the supervisor explained that those were from corporate and we needed them. Maybe HNL does the same thing? The little signs we had, and the ones the airport finally gave us, are vastly different from what was requested.

-GAs wear nothing that looks like an AW or USAirways uniform.
Were they US/HP people or contracted? If they were US/HP people, they have only been agents for a short time and are probably still waiting for their uniforms. We have agents hired back in Nov that are still waiting for their uniforms. They were white shirts and dark blue pants of their own, but its hit and miss with it some days.

-Staff shows up at 9. Pax are there at 8.
How many hours before flight did they show up? This is a management/skd thing. Normally they should be there 4 hours before flight time, although we've had management try to make it 2 hours before dept and we told them it isnt going to work so it was changed. Did the flight leave on time? Until they start taking delays, they will probably try to limit the hours given to the agents.

-Clustered computer stations make it hard to see when a GA is free.
Again, probably an airport thing or space constraint? Were the computers and checkin counters the same as the other airlines (spacewise?) If so, then its an airport thing. If not, then it could be they needed X amount of computers and could only get X amount of space free to work with.

-No signs directing pax to the Ag inspection station. Fully half had to leave line to get Agged.
This could be an airport thing again or did the other airlines have signs directing to ag? If so, then management needs to get signs for this at the counter and/or have the agents make announcements to get the new people to go to ag before joining the line. SJU used to have the same problem, but now they have signs.

-No FC line, no DM line.
Space issue again? If they only have X counters for the flight, they might have decided it wasnt worth the space to tie up for 8 FC customers and ? Preferreds vs having room where the line doesnt go out the door or down the hall? I have never been to HNL so I dont know, but that would be a guess.

I'm not saying that the above is true for HNL, just possibilities of what might be happening there. I hate it when a customer comes up accusing us of not having great signage when the airport guy has just come by and took everything we had up down. Yeah, that pathetic US cant even get the signs right. :down:
 
Here are the problems that I saw...

-Terrible signage. No signs at the traditional-looking desk telling pax that check-in is done nearer to the street. A second line formed here that had to be shifted to the right place.

-GAs wear nothing that looks like an AW or USAirways uniform.

-Staff shows up at 9. Pax are there at 8.

-Clustered computer stations make it hard to see when a GA is free.

-No signs directing pax to the Ag inspection station. Fully half had to leave line to get Agged.
-No FC line, no DM line.



Where in the HECK is HON
 
HNL not HON. It looked right when I typed it.java script:emoticon('🙁', 'smid_2')
🙁 🙁
The Flight was at Midnight, so staff was there 3 hrs early.
Ok,
Since I was the Tech who installed HNL let me answer as best I can...

-Terrible signage. No signs at the traditional-looking desk telling pax that check-in is done nearer to the street. A second line formed here that had to be shifted to the right place.
HNL set up is designed by the Airport not US. There is nothing at the "traditional-looking desk" I mean nothing. Just blank desk. No ropes, no staging. Nothing.
Everything else is just 30 feet in front of the desk.


-GAs wear nothing that looks like an AW or USAirways uniform.
The employees are Aloha Contractors. They wear hawaiian shirts.

-Staff shows up at 9. Pax are there at 8.
I was concerned at this also at first but they do not seem to have any time problems with this and do not take any delays due to this issue.

-Clustered computer stations make it hard to see when a GA is free.
Actually the way the station are setup make it very easy to move passengers quickly. They have 6 free standing pc desks in the middle of the lobby. In 2 rows of 3 with the baggage belt running down the middle.
Many of the airlines are moving/have moved to this in HNL.
Only a few still use the desk against the walls.
There is only room for like two station at the "desk" if we did install any there. Plus no bag belt. No room for it....

-No signs directing pax to the Ag inspection station. Fully half had to leave line to get Agged.
The Agriculture inspection lines are in front of the passenger lines. You have to walk through this area to get to the passenger area. There are signs all over the place from when you first get to the curb up to the AG area.
They are about 2 feet square, black with lots of smaller white writing.

-No FC line, no DM line.
No there is no First Class line. There is no room between the AG area and the TKT area.

I agree it would be helpfull to have someone at the line explaining things as the passengers move through like they do at PHX. But some things the passengers could help by looking and reading such as the AG issue.
While I was there I saw the first couple of days in action.
I am not a person who deals with the front line issues and customers. I honestly don't think I could deal with it.
I saw customer demand outrageous things, special treatment, and be generally rude to these agents who amazingly smiled and did their best to accomidate within our guidelines.
I am proud of the job they did.
I will pass these concerns to the HNL station manager.
 
Ok,
Since I was the Tech who installed HNL let me answer as best I can...


Thanks for the update Geek. Since I have never been to HNL I could only guess as to some reasons why things happened as explained. I know from what happens in my station, the airlines dont always have a lot of leeway in regards to their setup or what they can/cant do in regards to the counter/ropes/signs. It is very frustrating to have to listen to these complaints all the time when you do the best with what the airport allows you to have.
PS- The sign patrol swiped our unapproved signs again just last week! 😛h34r:
 
Thanks for the update Geek. Since I have never been to HNL I could only guess as to some reasons why things happened as explained. I know from what happens in my station, the airlines dont always have a lot of leeway in regards to their setup or what they can/cant do in regards to the counter/ropes/signs. It is very frustrating to have to listen to these complaints all the time when you do the best with what the airport allows you to have.
PS- The sign patrol swiped our unapproved signs again just last week! 😛h34r:

Yes airports have a lot of control over what we do. The most frustrating issue is that they are never the same. What is demanded at one airport, is forbidden at another. The general population doesn't understand that and blames us for this.
Signs being a huge issue. But while a person standing and helping customers is the best, I understand the costs associated with this. We are a LCC!
Geek
 
Are we talking about the gate or ticket counter?


Ticket counter, but the staff are the same as the gate.

BTW they did a good job moving people through and dealt kindly with some pretty dopey passengers.
 
Huron South Dakota...

Yep, Huron can be a zoo when all 10 pax off of the Inland Air Lines Boeing 247 from Denver (with three intermediate stops) are connecting to the Mid-Continent L-10 Electra trip to Minneapolis (with only one stop!).
 

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