CO Delivers Client Kiosks

<B>CO Delivers Client Kiosks</B>

By David Jonas

Providing further convenience to corporate travelers, Continental Airlines has started delivering checkin kiosks to the headquarters of some corporate clients. Meanwhile, other carriers are exploring that idea and other checkin methods targeted at frequent travelers.

Continental last month sent a checkin kiosk to AT&T's corporate headquarters in Basking Ridge, N.J. "We prototyped an off-airport checkin machine with our employees in Houston," said Scott O'Leary, the carrier's manager of self-service. "Based on the success of that prototype, we were willing to take the next step, which meant installations for corporate clients."

The machine, which is centrally located for AT&T's e-ticketed domestic travelers, allows seat selection, upgrades when available, frequent flyer account information and same-day flight changes. Future features include baggage tagging and international flight checkin.

Skip Thompson, Continental's national sales manager, said AT&T was an ideal candidate for the machine. "Several hundred AT&T travelers pass through Newark on a daily basis and better than half are from the Basking Ridge headquarters," he said, adding that more than 75 percent use e-tickets. For those frequent travelers, the real beauty is the ability to check in for an afternoon or evening flight in the morning and select the best seat available.

The machine not only benefits travelers, but also allows Continental to filter out frequent customers and free up gate agents needed for special needs travelers. As terminals become more congested, offsite kiosks enable airlines to get the most out of a finite space.

"This helps us with the lines at the airport," said Monisa Cline, Continental's managing director of national corporate sales. "We are talking to several other large customers to install machines at their locations."

O'Leary added that other checkin systems, "perhaps an Internet-based system," also are in the works. "We are watching Alaska closely," he said.

Indeed, Alaska last year launched Internet checkin capability, a new concept it tested with Integrated Device Technology in San Jose. "We were already 100 percent ticketless before. This is just another step," said travel manager Colleen Summaria, adding that Alaska has set parameters, such as cutting off Internet checkin an hour before the flight.

Though Alaska also has been installing self-serve kiosks in off-airport locations, such as satellite and car rental parking lots, and has considered placing the devices at top corporate accounts, it instead is focusing on Internet checkin.

None of the other majors have yet installed kiosks at their corporate clients. Northwest, however, has been considering it. Al Lenza, the carrier's vice president of distribution planning, said the problem is generating enough volume to warrant such installations. Therefore, like Alaska, Northwest is focusing on Internet checkin. "We have two corporations lined up to test self-serve checkin at nwa.com very soon," Lenza said. "This is the most cost-effective for us and more convenient for them since any PC could be used as a checkin device, irrespective of how the ticket was booked."

Northwest also is weighing the idea of dedicated co-branded corporate kiosks at the airport, but only with high volume and e-ticket usage guarantees.

Swissair took a different approach when it launched a new system that enables frequent flyers to check in via a mobile phone using wireless application protocol.