That is inventive greater than truly helpful or a fantastic deal, although I can’t assist however cowl it (due to Frankfurtflyer for flagging this).
Pay €99 for personal check-in counter in Vienna
Airways attempt to monetize all types of premium companies, starting from precedence check-in to precedence boarding. Nevertheless, Austrian Airways’ latest initiative takes {that a} step additional. The Star Alliance airline is now promoting entry to a personal check-in counter at its Vienna Airport (VIE) hub.
The airline describes this as an ideal possibility for a honeymoon journey, bachelorette celebration, or household trip. The concept is that you just not solely get entry to a check-in space that’s completely for you, however you’ll be able to even customise the realm, by including a private contact. The check-in counter may be booked on-line for €99 per 30-minute block.
These personal check-in counters have been beforehand reserved primarily for company purchasers, however the airline is now increasing this providing to all passengers “because of excessive demand from the group journey section.” After all group vacationers can nonetheless use the conventional check-in counters, so this isn’t a requirement.
Right here’s how the expertise works:
- Reservations are required no less than eight days earlier than departure, and can be found for all departures from Vienna with Austrian Airways, Lufthansa, or SWISS
- The personal check-in counter have to be booked for at least half-hour
- Passengers can customise their check-in counter based on their needs, with a private message of as much as 66 characters, or a brand on the display screen
This can be a cute & humorous idea
I can after all see benefit to an idea like this for group journey. If there are a bunch of people who find themselves touring on the identical flight, there’s not solely comfort to having a devoted counter, however there’s additionally a “cool issue” to having the distinctive branding of the group.
The facet of this that I discover a bit funnier is the considered setting this up for a household journey, a bachelorette journey, and many others. Once more, I suppose this might create some laughs, and the pricing isn’t unreasonable, when you think about {that a} devoted counter is being stored open only for you, and the staffing it requires.
On the similar time, check-in is normally a fairly environment friendly course of these days. Most individuals check-in on-line, and those that have checked luggage can simply go to a bag drop zone, the place they will rapidly get their luggage tagged. Assuming you don’t need to e-book an unnecessarily lengthy slot, you’d additionally should time your arrival on the airport fairly precisely, so that you just don’t miss your window.
Backside line
Whereas airways attempt to monetize the airport expertise in some ways, promoting entry to a personal check-in counter is a novel idea that I hadn’t heard of earlier than. I can’t think about this has huge attraction, although maybe there are conditions the place this might make sense for group journey, or as a little bit of a joke for a particular journey.
What do you make of Austrian Airways’ personal check-in counter idea?
