Alaska launches DIY bag drop pilot project at LAX

Many people are familiar with self-checkout at the grocery store – it can be a speedy and simple option when there are long lines or when purchasing just a few items. Imagine that ability, but with bags at the airport. Alaska Airlines is bringing this technology to the Los Angeles International Airport by piloting a…

Always innovating: Alaska testing electronic bag tags

Travel can be a hassle. Nobody knows that better than the members of CX Labs, Alaska Airlines’ customer research and development team, who spend their days at the airport looking for travelers’ pain points and brainstorming ways to soothe them. Since the department’s creation in 2013, the team has tested all kinds of new products…

Alaska testing biometric IDs, boarding passes

One carry-on bag. One personal item. A jacket. Your morning coffee. A boarding pass. Two hands to juggle it all as you wait to board your flight. Something about the above equation just doesn’t add up, and Alaska Airlines’ customer research and development team knows it – which is why they’ve spent the past several months…

Students compete to find clean-tech solutions to environmental problems

By Ben Raker, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and Halley Knigge, Alaska Airlines A window that harnesses solar energy and sends electricity down its edge to feed the power grid; a hair dye with gold particles that limits the need for reapplications and reduces the chemicals sent down drains; road barriers that use old tires otherwise destined to…