Las Vegas’ McCarran airport has check-in kiosks which serve multiple airlines, a departure from the standard practice of each carrier having its own proprietary system.

The system will get a boost at the end of July when American Airlines and JetBlue Airways join the SpeedCheck system.



They’ll join AirTran, Alaska, Aloha, America West, Continental, Delta, Midwest, Northwest, Song, Southwest, Ted, United and US Airways, which are already on the system.

This fall the kiosks will be rolled out to local casino resorts on a test basis, beginning with three as yet undetermined properties. Travelers will be able to checkin and check baggage at their hotels.

Currently some airlines offer this service through their own proprietary system at some airport hotels close to their hubs. If memory serves, United offers this at the O’Hare Hilton and Northwest offers it at the Detroit Metro Westin.

It’s a great feature for travelers with baggage who may not be flying out for several hours after hotel checkout time, reducing the hassle of storing bags at the hotel and then transporting them to the airport. And it’s a great feature for reducing checkin uncertainty that leads some travelers to arrive at the airport far earlier than necessary.

However most of that uncertainty has been mitigated by the availability of proprietary checkin kiosks already — the checkin process is generally not the most time-consuming part of arriving for a flight. The bigger issue is the airline security checkpoint, and Las Vegas is one of the airports with the greatest variation in security delays.