December 04, 2004

Ticket machines inside the security zone

Here's something I don't understand: why, after 9/11, airports still have those machines that let you print your own boarding pass located past security. It made sense before, because you didn't need a boarding pass to get through security. But now, in theory, you can't have gotten that far without one.

So why are they still there?

(Also: we are in Salt Lake City now.)

Posted by Mike at December 4, 2004 05:52 PM
Comments

Ack! I missed your post last week! I am anxiously awaiting good news!!

Posted by: Dawn on December 4, 2004 05:41 PM

Welcome to Salt Lake! I hope everything goes well for you! :-)

Posted by: Tamra on December 5, 2004 12:28 AM

The simplest example is if you happen to buy tickets from different airlines for different legs of the trip. At checkin you might be able to check your bags all the way, but the checkin agent might not be able to issue a boarding pass for the other airline. In that case it is nice to not have to exit, checkin again and go through security at the next airport.

Posted by: Patrik on December 21, 2004 10:41 PM

I take that back, a lot simpler example is if you for instance travel with southwest on a there-and-back-in-a-day business trip and you fear that they will overbook the flight back to the extent that you will have to spend an interesting amount on time waiting for the next flight. In that case, it can be convenient to check in for the return flight just after you landed.

Posted by: Patrik on December 21, 2004 11:10 PM