Convention Centers and Hotel Groups Ease Airport Travel
Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 4/24/2006
The race is on to add airport check-in services.
San Francisco's Moscone Center announced its service on March 29. Chicago's McCormick Place followed on April 6, and Hilton Hotels and Hyatt Hotels revealed their services on April 13.
Las Vegas' Venetian Resort Hotel Casino is expected to start offering the service on May 23. The hotel will introduce a new kiosk system called Airport SpeedCheck Advance, brought to the resort by the city's McCarran Intl. Airport. Each unit will feature a baggage weight scale between two check-in kiosks.
Both McCormick and Moscone have partnered with Orlando-based Baggage Airline Guest Services, which in 2004 began offering airport check-in at Orlando's Orange County Convention Center and at the adjacent Rosen Plaza Hotel in 2003.
The BAGS' remote skycap program at the two centers allows visitors to check into domestic flights (on most major airlines out of O'Hare Intl. and San Francisco Intl. airports, respectively) and receive boarding passes for a $10 fee.
Baggage is secured and transported to the airport, where it undergoes the same Transportation Security Administration-screening process as baggage checked at airports. Baggage can be checked as early as 12 hours and as late as three hours prior to departure.
More than 1,600 visitors during a few recent McCormick Place shows, including the Intl. Home & Housewares Show, have already used the service.
Prior to airport check-in at McCormick, baggage and coat check stations are available throughout the facility, allowing visitors to check travel items on the final day of their visits at an additional cost of $2 per item.
BAGS processes more than 10,000 passengers daily through its remote airport check-in services at more than 30 locations in the United States.
Hilton Hotels, in 37 participating locations, enables guests to print boarding passes for 18 major airlines at lobby kiosks — at no cost. Using the airlines' Web sites, guests can check in for flights, change seats, request upgrades and print boarding passes at the kiosks.
Participating locations include Hilton Millennium and the Waldorf Astoria in New York, Hilton Houston Convention Center and Hilton Boston Logan Airport.
Hyatt is also introducing a lobby kiosk system called Fast Board, which will be installed in all domestic Hyatts by June 1.
The Venetian may not be the only Strip hotel to offer airport check-in this year. According to McCarran spokeswoman Elaine Sanchez, "there are other hotels in the works. It's the wave of the future."
In 2003, McCarran was the first U.S. airport to introduce multiple-carrier check-in kiosks, Sanchez said.
