Things are getting a bit more personal at Alaska Airlines. Travelers can now enter the airline’s member-only lounge by scanning their fingerprints rather than showing identification.
The Alaska Dispatch News reports that Alaska Airlines recently began testing a new identification system for access to its Board Rooms across the country.
Travelers who participate in the program scan their index finger at the front desk. An algorithm then converts unique reference points of the fingerprint into a string of numbers associated with that person’s Board Room membership.
Nearly 8,000 people have checked in to the Board Room at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport since the program began in mid-September.
Officials with Alaska Airlines say 91% of the members who have accessed the club via fingerprints have rated the system “good” or “great.”
“Our goal is just to make travel easier and reduce some of the pain points along the way,” Bobbie Egan an airline spokesperson says. “We know it saves time, and when you’re traveling you don’t have to search for an ID.”
The program, which first rolled out in Seattle in August, could eventually be extended to other areas of the airport including check-in, security screening and the boarding process.
While Alaska Airlines has begun initial conversations with the TSA about expanding its biometric program, “it would be premature to say how soon, or if the TSA is even interested” in the expansion, Egan tells the Dispatch News.
Alaska Airlines rolls out fingerprint ID for Board Room members [Alaska Dispatch News]
by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist
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