How to Survive from Automatic Check-In
At 7 am, still a little stoned, we arrive at Newark Airport and meet for the first time United Airlines Automatic Check-In. It was not easy to understand it!! If it happens to you too that we have to deal with it, we give you a hand to get out of it alive quickly!
The Last Alarm in New York
Departure from New York early in the morning … the flight that takes us to Los Angeles is at 9.40 AM from Newark Airport, but from Manhattan to the airport it takes at least 50 minutes, so the alarm pulls us out of bed at 5.30 AM. Last night we asked the hotel if they could book a taxi, but at the reception they reassured us by saying that it was enough to call this morning before going down. So, once the suitcases are closed, we call the Hall to book a Taxi. We go down, and the “TAXI” they called us, actually looks more like a Uber Black friend of the hotel concierge. We don’t worry about it and we are taken to the airport. Arriving in Newark, we get out of the car, take back the suitcases and the driver presents us the bill of well 97$ in cash. We realize that maybe we took half a corner but we don’t have time to protest!!
Quokka recommend: don’t do like us!! In Manhattan between Uber and Taxi you’ll find it at every corner, so it’s better to do it yourself and call a Uber, rather than end up like we did! Above all, with Uber, you know immediately, in advance, how much you will pay for the transfer!
We slip into the airport and a snake of passengers blocks the road that leads us to Check-In!! And luckily we are in Newark and not JFK!
Automatic check-in in Newark
We remain a little surprised and, elbowing a little, we can overcome the human rank … we really don’t understand what needs to be done! We have already checked-in online, we have the ticket sheets and passport in hand and at this moment we don’t know where to go!
Let’s Think
- We are on the right floor for departures;
- The river of people goes upstairs, so it’s not our way for now;
- Above the ceiling there are signs with the words “Step1” and “Step 2”.
Ok, so to start, trivially, we head towards the “Step 1” and for the first time we run into the automatic check-in. It had never happened to us in Our Travels! It took us a while to understand how it worked but basically the Check-In is divided into two Steps:
“Step 1”:
instead of having the Bank of the United company, as we would have expected, there is a computer where you have to scan the passport and, automatically, the computer prints the boarding cards and the bar code to be applied to the luggage to be loaded in the hold. In case of problems, a Hostess or Steward is available to support every 4 workstations. Immediately afterwards we move on to the baggage boarding.
“Step 2”:
without queue you go to the counter where a Hostess checks the weight of the baggage (luckily it is not too rigid!) and embarks it directly on the belt.
Honestly, after the first impact a little traumatic, the procedure is much faster than the usual Check-In, in fact there are no mileage tails to which we are accustomed.
Now you are wondering: and the river of people you were talking about earlier ??
Here, the quick practice of Check-In pours all the people leaving for any destination, at the Passport control, which, as we said, is upstairs! So the queue from the ground floor where we are, continues to the second floor where there is physically the Passport Control and the Metal Detector !!
But even here the Americans manage to surprise us! In just 10 minutes, in fact, we find ourselves in front of the Policeman with the passport in our hand!
We head to Our Gate and decide to have a quick breakfast before boarding our flight to LA. There are a lot of options to choose from, but Giugi only sees one thing !! With his heart-shaped eyes he has only one thing in his head !! Donuts!! Just like Homer Simpson, his craving for Donuts becomes irrepressible !!
They have already started calling our flight and we have to eat our donuts a little fast! We can’t wait now and we are very excited to arrive on the West Coast!!
