Long lines waiting to check a bag seem like an unnecessary bottleneck. But they’re one of the biggest risks that force you to show up at the airport early.
Two months ago I checked bags for the first time on an American Airlines itinerary departing Charlotte. The kiosks rejected me – it was an international trip, where my reservation actually began the day before. So I stood in line at Priority Check-in for more than 45 minutes as the moments to departure ticked away.
In the end I had plenty of time to make the flight, thanks to a delay. But it was not a pleasant experience – and most of the time long lines for assistance are totally unnecessary, because for most itineraries you should be able to drop and go.
Here’s something that airlines just get wrong – that they can fix, but most don’t. One passenger captured it well. They used the self-service kiosk, but with just one employee accepting self-tagged bags, the whole process still took a full hour.
@AmericanAir thanks so much for having one (1) person working bag drop at Boston Logan. Nothing better than using a self kiosk to tag your bag in 2 mins and then having to wait an HOUR to actually drop it off. Insane. pic.twitter.com/Onym5DeRQA
— mgrover11B (@mattygrover92) May 16, 2026
Yet you don’t need the employee pecking away at their keyboard at all! Self-service bag drop, or automated bag drop, is something that can be done and in fact some airlines do it.
- check in via app
- print or activate bag tags
- put the bags on an automated belt
- scan your boarding pass, tag and ID
Boom, your bag is accepted into the baggage system without a staff member needing to even be present except potentially to show customers what to do or assist with exceptions.
Alaska Airlines has this at Seattle and Portland. At Frankfurt and Munich, Lufthansa passengers drop baggage themselves by scanning a boarding pass at a kiosk. Qantas Australian domestic terminals permit this with their Q Bag Tag and have for many years. So too KLM at Amsterdam Schiphol.
Even American’s joint venture partner British Airways has something close at London Heathrow, though theirs is “hosted” and they do require passport and visa checks frequently at bag drop. Similarly, IAG-owned Aer Lingus has Express Bag Drop where passengers place the bag on the scale, scan boarding pass, attach the luggage tag, and place the bag on the belt. Staff are still present to help first-time users. And IAG-owned Vueling does this at several stations, too. Even Delta and United are heading in this direction.
There’s really no excuse in 2026 to have passengers self-tag their bags at a kiosk – and then stand in line for an hour to hand that bag to a staff member.
