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I’m skeptical of the faster boarding claim. My perception is that it’s the physical loading of the plane cabin, rather than the scanning of boarding passes, tha

I’m skeptical of the faster boarding claim. My perception is that it’s the physical loading of the plane cabin, rather than the scanning of boarding passes, that wastes time. Also, having dealt with the face scanners at the border entry points I’m also skeptical that self service face scanning will be faster than just scanning a boarding pass. Not to mention that security, not boarding, is the painful part of the process anyway. And 99% accuracy is not actually great...

duxup 8y ago
Yeah the scanners for tickets are basically ... put ticket on scanner, beep ... now wait in a new line while people load up stuff.
- ceejayoz 8y ago
  It depends a bit. On smaller flights, there may only be one gate agent and scanner. If someone's boarding pass isn't correct or there's some other issue, there gets to be a big backlog while they get sorted out. Sometimes that takes several minutes, and the smaller flights are often the ones with short 20-30 minute turnarounds scheduled. Had this happen on a flight I took a few weeks back.
  - wccrawford 8y ago
    >If someone's boarding pass isn't correct or there's some other issue, there gets to be a big backlog while they get sorted out. And that's still going to be the case with facial recognition. The only time saved is scanning a ticket vs scanning a face. And people are pretty much guaranteed not to lose their faces.
    - ceejayoz 8y ago
      > And that's still going to be the case with facial recognition. Not if it's an automated gate. I just got back from Australia, and the passport gates there are automated facial recognition; they look kinda like the gates in a subway where you scan a travel card. A reject heads over to the desk to get sorted. Everyone else keeps going through the automated gate.
rdtsc 8y ago
> “This spring, Lufthansa announced that it boarded an A380 with over 350 passengers at LAX in less than 20 minutes—less than half of their normal time—using self-boarding gates linked to CBP’s facial-enabled traveler verification service,” McAleenan said. Lufthansa got on the PR train perhaps. Who knows? 20 doesn't sound a lot, but over many flights it starts to add up. I think it is mostly about the international travelers just like the first sentence says: > Some international travelers can leave their boarding passes and passports in their pockets when flying out of Dulles International Airport They check the passports at the gate making sure you didn't swap boarding passes with someone else. For domestic travel it is usually just as you said - scan the bar code and move on.
- craftyguy 8y ago
  > “This spring, Lufthansa announced that it boarded an A380 with over 350 passengers at LAX in less than 20 minutes—less than half of their normal time—using self-boarding gates linked to CBP’s facial-enabled traveler verification service,” McAleenan said. This smells of a staged PR stunt. Or, maybe "boarded" means people were all through the gate, but not necessarily on the plane?
  - T-hawk 8y ago
    That last has to be it. Every flight I've ever boarded has been bottlenecked at the jetway by people getting themselves and their carryons loaded and situated, not the speed of scanning the boarding document. At best, it means they boarded an A380 through multiple doors in parallel instead of all through a single scanning location. This only matters for planes big enough to have multiple entrances.
    - toweringgoat 8y ago
      They always board A380s through multiple doors. But they probably had a flight full of Germans - Americans tend to take a lot longer to get themselves sat down than most Europeans do, and spend a lot more time faffing around with their bag and belongings while blocking the aisle. The Japanese are still the most efficient at boarding though.

duxup 8y ago

Yeah the scanners for tickets are basically ... put ticket on scanner, beep ... now wait in a new line while people load up stuff.

ceejayoz 8y ago
It depends a bit. On smaller flights, there may only be one gate agent and scanner. If someone's boarding pass isn't correct or there's some other issue, there gets to be a big backlog while they get sorted out. Sometimes that takes several minutes, and the smaller flights are often the ones with short 20-30 minute turnarounds scheduled. Had this happen on a flight I took a few weeks back.
- wccrawford 8y ago
  >If someone's boarding pass isn't correct or there's some other issue, there gets to be a big backlog while they get sorted out. And that's still going to be the case with facial recognition. The only time saved is scanning a ticket vs scanning a face. And people are pretty much guaranteed not to lose their faces.
  - ceejayoz 8y ago
    > And that's still going to be the case with facial recognition. Not if it's an automated gate. I just got back from Australia, and the passport gates there are automated facial recognition; they look kinda like the gates in a subway where you scan a travel card. A reject heads over to the desk to get sorted. Everyone else keeps going through the automated gate.

rdtsc 8y ago

> “This spring, Lufthansa announced that it boarded an A380 with over 350 passengers at LAX in less than 20 minutes—less than half of their normal time—using self-boarding gates linked to CBP’s facial-enabled traveler verification service,” McAleenan said. Lufthansa got on the PR train perhaps. Who knows? 20 doesn't sound a lot, but over many flights it starts to add up. I think it is mostly about the international travelers just like the first sentence says: > Some international travelers can leave their boarding passes and passports in their pockets when flying out of Dulles International Airport They check the passports at the gate making sure you didn't swap boarding passes with someone else. For domestic travel it is usually just as you said - scan the bar code and move on.

craftyguy 8y ago
> “This spring, Lufthansa announced that it boarded an A380 with over 350 passengers at LAX in less than 20 minutes—less than half of their normal time—using self-boarding gates linked to CBP’s facial-enabled traveler verification service,” McAleenan said. This smells of a staged PR stunt. Or, maybe "boarded" means people were all through the gate, but not necessarily on the plane?
- T-hawk 8y ago
  That last has to be it. Every flight I've ever boarded has been bottlenecked at the jetway by people getting themselves and their carryons loaded and situated, not the speed of scanning the boarding document. At best, it means they boarded an A380 through multiple doors in parallel instead of all through a single scanning location. This only matters for planes big enough to have multiple entrances.
  - toweringgoat 8y ago
    They always board A380s through multiple doors. But they probably had a flight full of Germans - Americans tend to take a lot longer to get themselves sat down than most Europeans do, and spend a lot more time faffing around with their bag and belongings while blocking the aisle. The Japanese are still the most efficient at boarding though.