W3WN
01-12-2024, 05:17 PM
So, for the last 5 years, I've worked out at Pittsburgh International Airport. My company is a contractor that manages a lot of computer systems -- flight displays, the Airport Operational Database, and the shared (aka "Common Use") gate and ticket counter computer/scanner/printer systems. (Amongst others)
In between the two sets of Common Use ticket counters, we have four self-service kiosks. They currently handle Alaska Airlines and Frontier Airlines -- only. (We have another 7 in other parts of the building for American, Delta, and jetBlue, but I digress)
So... about 4:15, a Ramp Supervisor for the company handling Alaska and Frontier bursts into my office, and begs me to either fix the four kiosks, or have them say "Out of Order", because a passenger is complaining that they're "broken." Which one(s) and what's wrong? That he doesn't know.
I remote into each of the four kiosks. No visible issues, 2 are currently in use. I check the management software, no new issues. I head over to the kiosks, which are about 50 feet from my office. Nothing out of the ordinary. One of the Frontier agents tells me that someone complained, and he THINKS it's because they're all "out of paper" (ie baggage tag rolls.) So I check... nope, plenty of BT's in each.
And then the woman comes up to us starts complaining. Long, loud, and unhappy. How she has to check in for her flight, it's a major inconvenience, she's going to be late and miss it (her flight departs more than 90 minutes from then, I checked later), we had better fix these kiosks... or she's going to complain to our managers... yup, she's a Karen all right.
The agent asks her which airline she's flying out on, Frontier or Alaska. She huffs, crosses her arms, and says "No! I'm flying out ON SPIRIT!!"
Spirit has their own ticket counters and kiosks. They're almost literally in front of her face, the way she's standing... she could be looking right at them...
The Frontier agent tells her this. She blinks, looks, and without another word, storms off to the Spirit counters. [ And starts complaining there about her wasted time... ]
*sigh*
In between the two sets of Common Use ticket counters, we have four self-service kiosks. They currently handle Alaska Airlines and Frontier Airlines -- only. (We have another 7 in other parts of the building for American, Delta, and jetBlue, but I digress)
So... about 4:15, a Ramp Supervisor for the company handling Alaska and Frontier bursts into my office, and begs me to either fix the four kiosks, or have them say "Out of Order", because a passenger is complaining that they're "broken." Which one(s) and what's wrong? That he doesn't know.
I remote into each of the four kiosks. No visible issues, 2 are currently in use. I check the management software, no new issues. I head over to the kiosks, which are about 50 feet from my office. Nothing out of the ordinary. One of the Frontier agents tells me that someone complained, and he THINKS it's because they're all "out of paper" (ie baggage tag rolls.) So I check... nope, plenty of BT's in each.
And then the woman comes up to us starts complaining. Long, loud, and unhappy. How she has to check in for her flight, it's a major inconvenience, she's going to be late and miss it (her flight departs more than 90 minutes from then, I checked later), we had better fix these kiosks... or she's going to complain to our managers... yup, she's a Karen all right.
The agent asks her which airline she's flying out on, Frontier or Alaska. She huffs, crosses her arms, and says "No! I'm flying out ON SPIRIT!!"
Spirit has their own ticket counters and kiosks. They're almost literally in front of her face, the way she's standing... she could be looking right at them...
The Frontier agent tells her this. She blinks, looks, and without another word, storms off to the Spirit counters. [ And starts complaining there about her wasted time... ]
*sigh*