I’m live-blogging my SAS EuroBonus SkyTeam Million Mile challenge this week. Click here for background and route information.
One thing I love about traveling through Japan, Singapore, or Taiwan is the little push carts available past security for the easy transport of your carry-on bags. What a shame we do not see more of these in the USA!
Even if you are traveling with a relatively easy-to-handle roller, if my laptop bag is on top of it, I’d rather put it on a small cart and push it.
I’m not sure whether it is just something the airport provides or whether the duty free shops provide it to encourage shopping, but we see these mini-carts throughout Asia and it’s so easy to put your carry-on bag and personal items on this little cart and push it to the gate. It’s a little thing, but I mention it because it makes the entire travel experience smoother.
This is also available in Copenhagen (CPH) and Amsterdam (AMS) and I suspect other airports in Europe and Asia as well that I am not thinking of right now.
But I cannot recall a single airport in the USA that offers such carts. Maybe that is because we do not have exit controls, providing a barrier of sorts to the carts leaving the airport concourse? Or maybe because they would quickly be stolen or defaced?
In any case, I’d love to see these at more airports and appreciated so much that TPE had these available while flying through.
Do you ever use these little carts?
I like them too. Nice to hold your jacket and sip some water.
And let me guess: they are free and you don’t have to pay an extortion fee to get a luggage cart like you do here.
Oh, that too! Yes, FREE…not $8 like those stopid SmartCarts in the USA.
I have seen SmarteCartes available for rent airside at ORD T3 in 2019. Not sure if still a thing. I swear I’ve seen another US airport with the same but I could be wrong.
I couldn’t believe it when I landed at JFK International Airport and got to the customs area, only to find out they charge for luggage carts! I was like, Huh? Most other international airports in the U.S. offer them free for international passengers. Shame on you, JFK!
With some US airports having a mandated minimum wage approaching $20/hours, some things will get priced out of the market. These free carts require dedicated employees to corral them.
A US airport having these might cost $250,000 per year in labor cost. That might mean a cost of a few million dollar every 10 years in total costs.
There is a point to having a minimum wage but also drawbacks. In Taiwan, they have a very low minimum wage. However, they have mandated paid vacation. Some Scandinavian countries lack a minimum wage so it’s not just countries with a lot of non-white people.
That’s what lazy people managing the airport would say. Here is an easy solution: similar to Aldi supermarkets where you need to place a quarter to get a cart and get that quarter back when you return it, how about do the same with a credit card? You slide your credit card and get the cart, when you return it you slide it again and it shows you returned it and you get no charges for using the cart. In the case you don’t return it, your credit card gets charged. There is always a solution but airports in the US are greedy.
@Santastico … What if the credit card machine doesn’t return your card ?
Some, but fewer and fewer, uS airports have SmartCartes that return 25 cents. Tom Hanks’ character in The Terminal survived on these quarters.
Once I had a several hour layover at a large US airport and started to exercise by walking briskly. I then monetized the effort collecting carts. I collected $10! Many carts were collected at international departure gates with low foot traffic after the flights departed.
@derek … +1 . Good exercise and clever move !
It’s the { not only } American way, MONETIZE everything you possibly can ! … In addition to a deposit, plaster the cart with advertising that should help subsidize the operation….nah, …. it’s far easier to charge exorbitant rental fees…
I love it and use one all the time in SIN.
Imagine if they had these in PHL or CLT. Ha!