Alaska Airlines Plans to Scrap Its Check-In Kiosks

By the end of the year, passengers flying with Alaska Airlines won’t be checking in at kiosks anymore. According to Travel Weekly, the airline will remove the kiosks to replace them with bag tag stations with iPad tablets. 

Customers should expect the change to affect Alaska Airlines’ hub airports on the West Coast, including Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Anchorage. Of course, customer service agents will be available to help. We understand how new upgrades like this can have a few technical glitches or some passengers might be tech challenged. 

Airports have already begun changing to the new tablets, which are part of the airline’s $2.5 billion, three-year investment in the airport experience. The ultimate goal is to get customers through the lobby and to security in five minutes or less. 

And it looks like more changes for Alaska Airlines could be on the way in 2024, too! The airline’s hub airports will have technology that will allow flyers to drop off their bags after the machine scans the customer’s face, government-issued I.D., and bags. The customer’s bags are placed onto a conveyor belt and loaded onto the plane. Easy-peasy! 

For regular check-in service, customers can also use the Alaska Airlines app to check in and secure a boarding pass before coming to the airport. You may recall that the airline was the first U.S. carrier to launch self-bag tagging from home on selected routes.