Virgin Blue’s self check-in

I flew to OZCHI in Sydney recently. I flew VirginBlue. I used their self check-in on the flight there and the flight back. It sucks. Here’s why:

The problem with VirginBlue’s self check-in is not the touch-screen process which is quite lovely. I have used it before this trip and I have always found it easy to use and understand. At the end of the touch-screen process you get a boarding pass with all the usual information like flight number, gate number, departure time and so on.

The problem comes after you use the self check-in system to print your boarding pass. What do you do with your luggage? In Brisbane there was a queue to join. This was not what I expected the next step to be and indeed there was no way to tell what the next step was without asking one of the VirginBlue self check-in helpers. So I joined the snake line. If I didn’t use the self check-in I could also have joined a different queue to get someone to check me in. Having arrived at the head of the snake line I was called to a check-in desk where I had to present my boarding pass and photo ID which was glanced at (do they really check?) and then I was allowed to check my bag and go to security.

In short: I had to queue up anyway. Pants to that.

In Sydney I used the self check-in again. Same lovely experience with the touch screen and same poor experience with what happened afterwards. This time there were portable bollards set up to mark where the queues should go but there were no people queueing and so it was just a sea of uprights. I asked the Virgin Blue self check-in helper about where I was supposed to go. “Join the queue” she said. So I started a queue of one — a concept only an Englishman or a computer programmer would appreciate.

The problem, then, is not one of how the technology is designed or implemented but in how that technology is integrated into the wider process of checking in. As it is, there is no way to know that you need to line up after getting the boarding pass. Self check-in is a new way of checking in that breaks the script that most people have learnt for how check-in works. The old script goes:

1. Line up
2. Give bags to nice person
3. Get boarding pass
4. Proceed to security

The self check-in script goes:

1. Get boarding pass
2. Line up
3. Give bags to nice person
4. Proceed to security

By rearranging the order of what you do and when, Virgin Blue have dramatically changed the check-in process. Even more importantly, the gaps between the discreet steps in the new self check-in script are undefined. It is mostly safe to assume that people know what to do with the assisted check-in script and how to navigate the spaces in between the discrete steps.

The most critical part of the new script is the space between steps 1 and 2. Ordinarily, once you have your boarding pass, you’re practically done. In the new script you’re only just beginning. It’s disorienting to realise that you have a boarding pass and yet you still need to do something with your bags.

Virgin Blue needs much more support in the way of signs and direction to allow for the new check-in script and how it can be disorienting. Being told “join the queue” when there no other people queueing or having to decide which of two seemingly identical queues to join is not respectful of people and their experience in the airport or with an airline.