JAL has opened a new economy class check-in counter area at Narita Airport Terminal 2 - the airline’s main international hub. Passengers can now check themselves in using one of 36 of the latest easy-to-use Self Check-in Machines (SCM) installed in the area to speed up the whole departure process. After doing this, if they have luggage to check in, they must then proceed to a nearby luggage check-in counter, otherwise they can head directly to immigration.
Economy class passengers without luggage can also check-in at a new express counter conveniently located in the departure lobby close to the south entrance for immigration control. In July, the economy class check-in counter area will be expanded further with the opening up of an e-style section dedicated to customers who have checked in already using the Internet.
Furthermore, with the introduction of an inline luggage screening system to Narita Terminal, passengers in all classes of travel no longer have to present their luggage for X-ray machine security checks prior to checking in. Passengers can go straight to one of the self check-in machines or check-in counters.
© Japan Today
12 Comments
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Tatanka
I hope there are not made by NEC. Twice now the new automated immigration gate has failed for me and they just sent me to the Crew line which is great!!
LFRAgain
Not really. That means the new security system doesn't really work. Which shou;d be worrisome.
Statistician
Did you think it would work?
So now with "self check-in" JAL have caught up with where Lufthansa and British Airways (to name but two) were two years ago. If they would just slash their fares to the same level as their competitors I might even fly with them.
Tatanka
The first time the passport scanner didn't work and the third time the camera didn't work -- if this were baseball, one for three is good. On the other hand, last week I flew Jet Blue twice and used their automated check-in machines without a hitch.
Hughgarse
yes, but in Japan these machines are a useless thing, as there is a girl next to each one showing you how to use it.. just add them onto normal check in counters...
niku
Slash their fares? Why? Good safety record = High Fares. Ever heard of Qantas??
LFRAgain
What I can't understand is why does it take so little effort to get a boarding pass from one of the automated kiosks, but it's like pulling teeth to get the same boarding pass the conventional way, face-to-face with an actual person who supposedly is more familiar with the system?
As for high fares, I'll pay the extra for my ticket if it means the plane won't lose an engine at 30,000 feet. That's what a lot of that plane fare pays for. It also pays to the people who check the planes a salary that helps curtail the "I don’t earn enough to give a damn" attitude that’s all too prevalent in the American airline industry today. The old adage has never been truer: You get what you pay for.
Statistician
Slash their fares? Why? Because JAL offer a grossly overpriced service that is no better than anybody elses. Believe me there is absolutely nothing wrong with the quality of Lufthansa safety, efficiency and service and it costs 30% less. American airlines I can't speak for, I don't use them much.
In Japan you don't pay extra for safety.You pay extra to cover the wages of all those spare people you see standing around watching and trying to look busy counting photocopies and the like. This doesn't only apply to JAL, banks are pretty classic at it too.
Ever heard of value for money???
Honne
Maybe because one is a computer? I dunno, never had problems with the ladies at either ANA or JAL at NRT.
That phenomenon is known as gainful employment and is taken to new heights in Japan (elevator girls, depato greeters, the 3 to 4 people who help guide your car out from a parking garage, the girl next to an SCM, etc).
LFRAgain
In exchange for higher unemployment rates? Because that's exactly what would happen with the Wal-Martification of the average consumer's mindset. No, thank you. Lowering prices just to satisfy a few penny-pinchers who don't really appreciate the luxury that flying really and truly is doesn't do any good when it creates a greater disparity between those who can afford to fly and those who barely can or can't at all - the ones who end up tweaking (or not tweaking) that bolt on the rear stabilizer.
This system keeps the wheels going round and round in Japan. It's why there's no such moral abomination as tips in Japan. People in restaurants make regular hourly wages like everybody else. It's why rice costs so damned much. It's why taxis cost an arm and a leg. In the short term, it sucks, sure. But overall it's a good thing for the economy, and any inconvenience it may cost someone in the extra, say 30%, they might have to pay for leisure (I mean really, when you're can afford to toss around 200,000 yen to fly overseas, really, what's another 50,000 yen? The inconvenience (and that's what it is really, since flying home for a visit doesn't exactly constitute a necessity for living, like, say, food) is surely negligible when balanced against preventing a higher crime rate that would surely follow in a high unemployment, low wage society.
Yeah, Japanese airlines are more expensive, but again, it pays off for the consumer in the end when spread across the broader fabric of the economy in terms of safety and reliability.
Statistician
Well, I'll tell you what then. You go on paying a large shedful of extra cash to JAL and I'll find a cheaper ticket and then we will both be happy.
presto345
Oh yes, this is what it is all about. The happiness of the individual and foremost the individual. The happiness of 'the others', the fellow men, the masses doesn't count. That is a remote concept at the far end the 'I, ME' figure simply ignores.