Let me give you a couple of examples.
Bagless vacuum cleaners. When they had paper bags you simply took them out when they were full, placed them in the bin and clipped a new bag in place.
Quick, easy, simple and - here's the important part - no mess.
Some loony had the idea that this wasn't good enough so he or she came up with...drum roll...The Bagless Vacuum Cleaner. Every manufacturer blindly followed the new system.
The result is that all the dust, and we have a lot of that in Dubai, goes into a bucket thing in the cleaner. To empty it you have to upend the bucket into the garbage bin. The result is that half the dust floats back into the room.
Here's another example, which we banged into on our flights to and from Singapore en-route to Sydney.
We checked in online, selected our seats, printed out the documents, went to the appropriate desk which was proudly marked...
It's bloody identical to the NON-internet-check-in-NON-fast-bag-drop desk!
Exactly the same as any other check-in queue, you wait while the desk attendant takes forever to do whatever they do on the bloody computer - which we've obviously already done - prints out a boarding pass, weighs the baggage, puts a tag on it...
What is the point and where's the improvement in the system?
8 comments:
Have you checked out the self check in at T3 in Dubai? Not only do you check in on the net... after you turn up at the airport, you simply walk up to the self check in counter, weigh your own bag, even tag your bag and let the bag on the belt. No 'other human' intervention here till you turn up at the immigration counters!!
Internet check-in has worked very well for me. Usually it will let you go to the business class queue and bypass the economy plebs. If you ever went through Perth and copped the 3 desks serving the 3 business class passengers and the untended desk with the 100 economy passengers dieing in the non moving line, you'd know what I meant. In Melbourne, it got my family past the hours long queues when the computer checkin system had crashed.
At home we are using the Kirby vacuum cleaner which indeed still use the paper bags... as you said those paper bags are easily disposable and no mess and make our life easier.
get one of those vacuum cleaners.
you should try the internet self checkin in the new terminal 3... you don't have to attend to any airport attendent.. you make every thing yourself... great service. plus as "Bush Mechanic" commented, in most airports you can check in from the Business class if you check in online... no body tells you this, however you can que at the business class even if you bought economy tickets :p
My favourite "product enhancement" is definately the internet refridgerator.
Allowing me to keep a track of what food and products I have in the fridge without even opening the door!!
I can adjust the temperature control from my worksplacce and view my rotting cheese from an internal webcam mounted near the egg compartment. Bloody brilliant!!
Dave, and what about the fridge with a built-in television? Very odd.
Dave: So the light does stay on when you close the door! A mystery solved!
My thoughts exactly! With all the travel I do, I often wonder what is the point of all the effort I went into, to check in before I arrived at the airport!!! Touche!
Hi Seabee, I have to disagree with you on one point, I think the bagless vacuum cleaner is a good idea, think of how much paper is saved by not having a disposable bag. Take the cloth bag outside and empty into the bin, then the dust stays outside and you have saved a tree. Isn't that a good thing?
I do agree about the non-speedy-online-checkin-bag-drop-queue, which is pointless and frustrating. It should be automated like it is in some places in Europe.
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