United Debuts New ‘Bag Drop Shortcut’ Service
United has announced a new bag drop shortcut, which promises a new, simple way for customers to skip the line, check their bag in a minute or less on average, and get to their flight. The bag check process can be one of the more stressful and time-consuming parts of the travel experience. So being able to check your bag in for less than a minute sounds like a great option.
Here’s how bag drop shortcut works:
- Check-in on the United app and select the number of bags
- Find the bag drop shortcut location at the airport with detailed instructions available right in the app
- At the bag drop shortcut location, customers place their bag on the scale and scan their boarding pass at the kiosk
- The United team will check the customer’s ID, apply the bag tag and they’re on their way!
For now, this free service is available now at all of United’s U.S. hubs in Chicago, New York/Newark, Washington D.C., Houston, Denver, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The airline says it has plans to expand bag drop shortcut to dozens more new airports this year.
“Our initial customer data proves this free, simple-to-use process saves our customers time and energy as they get ready for their flight,” said Toby Enqvist, chief customer officer for United, “We’re thrilled to be the first to offer this service to all customers who check-in on our award-winning mobile app.”
The bag drop short cut was originally tested in New York/Newark in August 2021, and proved to be instantly popular with customers. In less than six months, bag drop shortcut moved from a proof-of-concept to a fully functional service in all seven of United’s hubs. By creating a dedicated area for those who only need to drop their bags, United is able to reduce wait times for all customers, which has significantly increased the airline’s customer satisfaction scores.
