a business that ought to exist: home baggage pickup
(Written at the airport waiting in line with 8 bags)
I would pay a premium for a service that picked up my bags from home the night before I had to travel and checked them through to their destination. A service like this would make airports work better because passengers wouldnt struggle through lines. It could be built on existing airport shuttle infrastructure (like Shuttle Express) taking advantage of unused capacity during off hours. Seems like a winning proposiition all around.
3 Comments so far
Leave a comment
[…] a business that ought to exist: home baggage pickup […]
By Around the web | alexking.org on 07.16.07 3:20 am
Don’t know if this is what you were looking for, but I’ve recently seen some references to third-party companies that pick up your luggage and deliver it to the airport or even your final destination. Here’s some info you may or may not find useful:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/biztravel/2005-02-21-baggage-table.htm
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/makeover.html
Good luck
By Wade on 07.18.07 11:07 am
A somwhat similar service does exist in Japan, and is very popular (however it doesn’t actually check your bags through). Most Japanese travelers use this to send their luggage to and from the airport, as they almost always use mass transport.
http://www.kuronekoyamato.co.jp/english/
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2278.html
Takkyubin isn’t just for luggage though… you can have just about anything delivered from anywhere to anywhere, including just about every convenience store in the country.
I lived in Japan for two years and used it many times, however for some reason I never did use it to send luggage to the airport (though I almost always sent luggage home this way). I got so used to it that when I arrived back in the States for the first time, I immediately looked around for the UPS/FedEx/USPS counter at the airport, assuming there *had* to be one. That was a frustrating day, me wandering around the airport cursing our non-service-orientated society…
Your suggestion for checking the bags through however is a great one, not sure how that would work with the “appearance of security” measures we have in place.
By joshua on 07.18.07 12:03 pm
Leave a comment