Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Osaka: Kansai Airport proud to have never lost single piece of luggage (2024)

japannews.yomiuri.co.jp

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 113 posts

Re: Osaka: Kansai Airport proud to have never lost single piece of luggage (2024)

#51

Post by eudamoniac »

bombcar wrote: post #35
rectang wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should be spreading our cynicism over both management and customers. There is almost no level of service so terrible that people won't buy cheaper airline tickets. Let alone losing luggage, you could dial up the risk of death and people would still buy the cheaper tickets.

We need shame, really, societal shame that we inflict on those who have to take government benefits, perhaps. Flying an airline that's known to treat their employees like shit should cause the people at the cocktail to look at you strange. (We kind of have something like this in that shopping at Costco is considered "good" but lots of people won't admit they shop at Walmart - I'm sure they'll be bankrupt soon given h…

Not sure if this is sarcasm, but Walmart earnings continue to rise. Being embarrassed to shop at Walmart is largely a coastal elite bubble situation.

For a more applicable example of shame, buying "cheap Chinese crap" is usually looked down on by all demographics or alignments.

Re: Osaka: Kansai Airport proud to have never lost single piece of luggage (2024)

#52

Post by gmd63 »

lostlogin wrote: post #49
observationist wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The culture bit is the most important. You could add 100x the current headcount at all American airports and because the workers simply don't give a shit about doing good work, because they're treating it as a 9 to 5, where they have to go and suffer through a meaningless 8 hours, or worse, they treat it like their own personal access to other people's stuff to loot at will. The TSA is security theater, a vast majori…

> You could add 100x the current headcount at all American airports and because the workers simply don't give a shit about doing good work, because they're treating it as a 9 to 5, where they have to go and suffer through a meaningless 8 hours, or worse, they treat it like their own personal access to other people's stuff to loot at will. This places the blame solely on the workers. Their CEO earns a ludicrous multip…

Yep. The reason employees don't care about their work is that caring for their work is not valued. Box checkers and opportunists proliferate as loyal craftsmen get screwed over repeatedly.

> You could take the Kansai airport baggage handler team and drop them into any airline in the world, and they'd perform to the same high standard. Take any halfass United Airline baggage team and drop them at Kansai and they'd be breaking guitars, killing dogs, and all the other usual shenanigans just like back at home, and they wouldn't give a flying rat's behind about how their employer respects them or not. They're there for paychecks. Respect doesn't even enter into consideration.

The hypothetical of dropping one baggage team into another airport might be true in an immediate timeframe but it doesn't address the core issue - each team was formed in a completely different society, one values celebrity and quick-buck scamming, one values planting trees that cast shade long after you're dead. Pretending like the influential people who steer the most economic activity aren't to blame at all for that difference in culture is insane, especially when we have a felon president who has been pardoning many high profile fraudsters.

Re: Osaka: Kansai Airport proud to have never lost single piece of luggage (2024)

#53

Post by m3kw9 »

jakub_g wrote: post #16

> In early December, a 35-year-old passenger from Tanzania was impressed to see that all the handles of the suitcases on the conveyor belt in the baggage claim area were facing the passengers. > After the luggage is unloaded and collected in the cargo handling area upon arrival at the airport, ground support personnel manually align the handles of the bags and place them on the conveyor belt. That's a level of attent…

real world user interface done right

Re: Osaka: Kansai Airport proud to have never lost single piece of luggage (2024)

#54

Post by notahacker »

ghaff wrote: post #41
bombcar wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the "permanent losses" are because the passenger gives up or doesn't care terribly much - hence all the luggage at the airline outlet stores. Most airlines do eventually find the bag, and if you kept in touch they'll usually even get it to where you are, even if you've since returned.

I honestly have no idea how those dynamics work. At some point, the airline presumably pays, travel insurance does, or a combination of the two. At some point if it's just a bunch of old travel stuff, I guess I can see a customer shrugging, collecting the money, and dropping the whole thing.

I'm now imagining a situation in which a customer at the point of successfully making an insurance claim to pay for the nice new clothes they've bought themselves is infuriated to receive an email informing them that Kansai airport has found their luggage and will endeavour to deliver it to a hotel anywhere within the world within two days...

Re: Osaka: Kansai Airport proud to have never lost single piece of luggage (2024)

#55

Post by fusslo »

apetresc wrote: post #47
adrian_b wrote: post #23

When traveling to Japan, I did not have the slightest problem with lost baggage, either at airports, or with the Japanese services that allow you to send your baggage from one hotel to another, to be able to travel more lightly. However, at the airport, when flying back home I had an unexpected experience. At my final destination, when I retrieved my checked baggage in the airport, it no longer had the padlock that i…

Why would a knife be a problem in a checked bag, even if it hadn't been sealed in the original package?

I've asked TSA people similar questions when they checked my bag. He said that the item was blocking view of what was underneath it.

I'd guess it's not the packaging, but a big piece of steel blocking the xray view.

Re: Osaka: Kansai Airport proud to have never lost single piece of luggage (2024)

#56

Post by ghaff »

notahacker wrote: post #54
ghaff wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly have no idea how those dynamics work. At some point, the airline presumably pays, travel insurance does, or a combination of the two. At some point if it's just a bunch of old travel stuff, I guess I can see a customer shrugging, collecting the money, and dropping the whole thing.

I'm now imagining a situation in which a customer at the point of successfully making an insurance claim to pay for the nice new clothes they've bought themselves is infuriated to receive an email informing them that Kansai airport has found their luggage and will endeavour to deliver it to a hotel anywhere within the world within two days...

The customer has presumably been paid. If they're smart there's nothing or very little in the suitcase that can't just be replaced. The airline/insurance has paid out and just wants the claim to go away.

As a side-note, had a small kitchen fire with smoke damage last year and it was pretty obvious that, even though they were reasonably generous, the insurance adjuster, cleaning people, movers, etc. just wanted the whole process to go away so they could move on. They objected a bit to a few claims but, for the most part, spending $50K was nothing compared to the claims being reopened.

Re: Osaka: Kansai Airport proud to have never lost single piece of luggage (2024)

#58

Post by bakies »

afavour wrote: post #20
jakub_g wrote: post #16

> In early December, a 35-year-old passenger from Tanzania was impressed to see that all the handles of the suitcases on the conveyor belt in the baggage claim area were facing the passengers. > After the luggage is unloaded and collected in the cargo handling area upon arrival at the airport, ground support personnel manually align the handles of the bags and place them on the conveyor belt. That's a level of attent…

I think it also highlights something: better things are possible. Zero lost suitcases doesn't require magic to achieve. It just requires enough workers or enough time to make sure each worker is able to do their job successfully. Unfortunately financial and time constraints mean that very often there aren't enough workers or enough time, and some passengers suffer.

Something I noticed when I traveled to Japan was how many workers there were just doing things. Attention to detail is so amazing. Things as simple as guiding people in the sidewalk while construction vehicles exit the site has a person dedicated to it

Re: Osaka: Kansai Airport proud to have never lost single piece of luggage (2024)

#59

Post by tt24 »

lostlogin wrote: post #49
observationist wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The culture bit is the most important. You could add 100x the current headcount at all American airports and because the workers simply don't give a shit about doing good work, because they're treating it as a 9 to 5, where they have to go and suffer through a meaningless 8 hours, or worse, they treat it like their own personal access to other people's stuff to loot at will. The TSA is security theater, a vast majori…

> You could add 100x the current headcount at all American airports and because the workers simply don't give a shit about doing good work, because they're treating it as a 9 to 5, where they have to go and suffer through a meaningless 8 hours, or worse, they treat it like their own personal access to other people's stuff to loot at will. This places the blame solely on the workers. Their CEO earns a ludicrous multip…

Sorry, it’s acceptable to mistreat luggage because the CEO’s comp is higher than yours?

Re: Osaka: Kansai Airport proud to have never lost single piece of luggage (2024)

#60

Post by mc32 »

afavour wrote: post #20
jakub_g wrote: post #16

> In early December, a 35-year-old passenger from Tanzania was impressed to see that all the handles of the suitcases on the conveyor belt in the baggage claim area were facing the passengers. > After the luggage is unloaded and collected in the cargo handling area upon arrival at the airport, ground support personnel manually align the handles of the bags and place them on the conveyor belt. That's a level of attent…

I think it also highlights something: better things are possible. Zero lost suitcases doesn't require magic to achieve. It just requires enough workers or enough time to make sure each worker is able to do their job successfully. Unfortunately financial and time constraints mean that very often there aren't enough workers or enough time, and some passengers suffer.

Also you need to keep organized crime out of airports. Some percentage of lost luggage is actually stolen luggage. Misrouting is also another large percentage. In the US unclaimed lost luggage ends up in some gigantic warehouse in Alabama.
Post reply on HN