UNIT 2

AIRPORT CHECK-IN

Ask a pair/some pairs of students to read one/all dialogue. After the teacher’s
explanation, practice the dialogue with your classmates.

CONVERSATION #1 – At the Check-In Desk

Dan is flying from New York to Los Angeles. When he arrives at the airport, he goes to the
check-in desk. Listen to the conversation he has with the agent:

Agent: Good afternoon! Where are you flying to today?

Dan: Los Angeles.
Agent: May I have your passport, please?
Dan: Here you go.
Agent: Are you checking any bags?
Dan: Just this one.
Agent: OK, please place your bag on the scale.
Dan: I have a stopover in Chicago – do I need to pick up my luggage there?
Agent: No, it’ll go straight through to Los Angeles. Here are your boarding passes – your flight
leaves from gate 15A and it’ll begin boarding at 3:20. Your seat number is 26E.
Dan: Thanks.

Conversation Vocabulary and Phrases
Airport
 Instead of “Where are you flying
today?” the agent may ask “What’s
your final destination?” The answer
will be the same!
 You can say “Here you go” anytime
you give something to somebody.
 To check your bags means to put them
on the airplane inside the cargo
compartment. The small bag you take
with you on the airplane is called a
carry-on. You need to put your carry-
on bags through the X-ray machine at
security.
 The scale is the equipment that tells
you the weight of your luggage (45
kilograms, for example).
 A stopover or layover is when the
airplane stops in a different city before
continuing to the final destination.
 If the agent says that your luggage will
go straight through, it means it will go
directly to the final destination (and
Other Questions & Phrases for the
 “Excuse me, where is the American
Airlines check-in desk?”
 “Where is terminal 4?”
 “Where is gate 36?”
 “How many bags can I check?”
 “Will my luggage go straight through,
or do I need to pick it up in
[Chicago]?”
 “How much is the fee?”
If your bag is heavier than the weight
limits, or if your bag is larger than the size
limits, you may need to pay extra.
 An oversized baggage fee or
overweight baggage fee (this can be $75
to $300). Some airlines in the United
States also charge a fee for ALL checked
bags (usually $15 to $30).
 “Please mark this bag as ‘fragile.’”
Say this if you have fragile or sensitive
items in your bag that might break.
 “Is the flight on time?”
The agent will respond either “Yes” if the
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 you don’t need to pick it up during flight is on time, or “There’s a 20-minute
your stopover). delay” (for example) if the flight will leave
 Boarding passes are the tickets that later than expected.
permit you to enter the airplane.
 When a plane begins boarding, it
means that the passengers start to
enter the plane. Usually boarding time
is 30-60 minutes before takeoff (when
the plane leaves).

Extra questions in the U.S.

On flights going to or inside the U.S., you will probably be asked some extra security questions
before or during check-in. Here are some sample questions:

Liquids must be 100 mL or less, and stored in a clear plastic bag.

Answer YES to these questions:

 Did you pack your bags yourself?
 Has your luggage been in your possession at all times?
 Are you aware of the regulations regarding liquids in your carry-on?

Answer NO to these questions:

 Are you carrying any firearms or flammable materials?
 Have you left your luggage unattended at any time?
 Has anyone given you anything to carry on the flight?

CONVERSATION #2 – Going through Security

Agent: Please, lay your bags flat on the conveyor belt, and use the bins for small objects.
Dan: Do I need to take my laptop out of the bag?
Agent: Yes, you do. Take off your hat and your shoes, too.

(he walks through the metal detector)

[BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP]

Agent: Please step back. Do you have anything in your pockets – keys, cell phone, loose
change?
Dan: I don’t think so. Let me try taking off my belt.
Agent: Okay, come on through.

(he goes through the metal detector again)

Agent: You’re all set! Have a nice flight.

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The phrase “you’re all set” is a common expression that means “you’re finished and everything
is OK.”

Phrasal Verbs: SET OFF and GO OFF

When the alarm sounds, we say “the alarm went off.” To describe what caused the alarm to
sound, we say “set off” – for example, “My keys set off the alarm” or “My keys set off the metal
detector.”

Announcements at the Gate

Airports are divided into terminals (the major sections of the airport) and each terminal has
many gates. The gate is the door you go through to enter the airplane. Here are a few
announcements you might hear while you are at the gate, waiting for the plane to board.

 “There has been a gate change.”

(this means the flight will leave from a different gate)
 “United Airlines flight 880 to Miami is now boarding.”
(this means it’s time for passengers to enter the plane)
 “Please have your boarding pass and identification ready for boarding.”
 “We would like to invite our first- and business-class passengers to board.”
 “We are now inviting passengers with small children and any passengers requiring special
assistance to begin boarding.”
 “We would now like to invite all passengers to board.”
(this means everyone can enter the plane)
 “This is the final boarding call for United Airlines flight 880 to Miami.”
(this means it is the FINAL OPPORTUNITY to enter the plane before they close the doors)
 “Passenger John Smith, please proceed to the United Airlines desk at gate 12.”

Source: https://www.espressoenglish.net/travel-english-conversations-in-the-airport/

A. Before you read, look at the pictures. What is it? Have you seen it before? Where
can you find it?

HOW BAGGAGE HANDLING WORKS

The baggage-handling system has three main jobs:

 Move bags from the check-in area to the departure gate
 Move bags from one gate to another during transfers
 Move bags from the arrival gate to the baggage-claim area
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In this article, we'll work our way through the baggage-handling system at Denver International, focusing
on the United Airlines terminal.

The Denver International Airport has a modern, automated baggage-handling system designed by BAE
Automated Systems, Inc. (In June, 2003 G & T Conveyor Company, Inc. acquired BAE) United Airlines
uses Terminal B at the Denver Airport as a hub, so this terminal has the most automation. This system
incorporates some amazing technology to move bags from the check-in counter to the departure gate in
an almost completely automated way:
1. Destination-coded vehicles (DCVs), unmanned carts propelled by linear induction motors
mounted to the tracks, can load and unload bags without stopping.
2. Automatic scanners scan the labels on the luggage.
3. Conveyors equipped with junctions and sorting
machines automatically route the bags to the gate.

Baggage-handling Basics
A baggage-handling system is kind of like a road system in a city:
The conveyors are like the local roads, the DCV tracks are like the
highway and your bag is like the car. Baggage-handling and road
systems share these properties:
 If a conveyor or DCV track is blocked (a traffic jam, of
sorts), baggage can be routed around the blockage.
 Baggage starts and ends its journey on conveyors (just as you start your drive to work on local
roads), moving to the DCV track to make longer journeys, such as from terminal to terminal or
gate to gate.
 The DCVs never stop, just as there are no stop lights on a highway.

A baggage-handling system makes all of the decisions about where a bag is going. Hundreds of
computers keep track of the location of every bag, every traveler's itinerary and the schedules of all the
planes. Computers control the conveyor junctions and switches in the DCV tracks to make sure each bag
ends up exactly where it needs to go.

The baggage-handling process

1. Check in
When you check in, the agent pulls up your itinerary on the computer and prints out one or more tags to
attach to each of your pieces of luggage. The tag has all of your flight information on it, including your
destination and any stopover cities, as well as a bar code that contains a ten-digit number.This number is
unique to your luggage. All of the computers in the baggage-handling system can use this number to look
up your itinerary.Your bag's first stop (after check-in) is at an automated bar-code scanner. This station is
actually an array of bar-code scanners arranged 360 degrees around the conveyor, including underneath.
This device is able to scan the bar codes on about 90 percent of the bags that pass by. The rest of the bags
are routed to another conveyor to be manually scanned.Once the baggage-handling system has read the
10-digit bar-code number, it knows where your bag is at all times.

2. After check-in, the bags enter the conveyer network.

Conveyors take each bag to the appropriate destination. For example, it routes bags headed out of the
country through X-ray machines and other security devices.The conveyors in the main terminal of the
Denver airport comprise a huge network. There are hundreds of different conveyors with junctions
connecting all of them. The conveyor system has to sort all of the bags from all of the different airlines
and send them to DCVs that are headed to the proper terminal.
Once your bag has been scanned, the baggage-handling system tracks its movement. At any time, it
knows exactly where your bag is on the conveyor system. When your bag comes to a junction, a machine
called a pusher either lets it pass or pushes it onto another conveyor.Through this network of conveyors
and junctions, your bag can be sent to nearly any destination automatically.

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 3. A conveyor shoots bags into moving DCVs.
The last step in the main-terminal conveyor system is a conveyor that loads your bag into a passing DCV.
This step is the equivalent of a highway on-ramp.The job of the Destination-Coded Vehicle (DCV) is to
move your bag quickly to an off-ramp at the gate. DCVs are used at the Denver airport because the
distance from the main terminal to the passenger terminals is quite long, and passengers make the
commute fairly quickly by train.

4. A DCV unloads a bag onto a conveyer.

Unloading a DCV is a similar process. A mechanism on the track engages a lever on the DCV that causes
the tub to tilt downward and dump your bag onto a section of conveyor that runs alongside the track.The
DCVs unload in one smooth motion as they move past the unload conveyer. After your bag has been
deposited, a bar on the track raises the tub back into the tilted position.

5. Loading the Plane

There is an off-ramp at every gate in the United Airlines terminal. The bags make their way down a short
conveyor to a sorting station on the ground at the gate.At the sorting station, baggage handlers load the
bags onto carts or into special containers that go right into the airplane. When loading the plane, bags that
will be making a transfer after the flight are loaded into separate areas than bags that will be heading to
baggage claim. A monitor at the sorting station tells the handlers which bags are going where (remember,
the baggage-handling system always knows exactly where each bag is going).
After the bags are loaded into carts or containers, they are brought the short distance to the plane and
loaded. Some planes are bulk loaded, meaning the bags are brought up one-by-one on a conveyor and
placed into shelves in the cargo hold. Other planes are container loaded, meaning that special containers
are loaded on the ground and then placed into the plane.

6. Making Transfers
Since the United terminal is a hub, most of the people coming through it are making transfers. Again, the
goal of the system is to have the bags keep up with the passengers. Generally, the people can get off the
plane faster than the bags can be unloaded, so for the bags to keep up they need to be able to move
between gates very quickly. The terminal is about 1 km long, and some bags may have to travel that
whole distance. The terminal has two separate DCV tracks that
make loops around the terminal in opposite
directions.The transferring bags are loaded onto conveyors,
where they move through scanning stations and then are routed
onto the DCV track. The DCV takes the bags to the proper gate
and unloads them.If you're not making a transfer, your bag has
to make it to the baggage-claim area.

7. Baggage Claim
Bags coming off a plane that are staying in Denver are loaded
into carts and pulled by tug to the baggage-claim area. Since the bags are already sorted when they come
off the plane, it is easy to keep the transferring bags separate from the terminating bags. When the bags
get to the baggage-claim area, they are loaded onto a short conveyor that deposits them onto the carousel.

Source:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/flight/modern/baggage-
handling.htm

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B. Scanning for detail -- Are the statements correct? If not, correct them.

1. The baggage-handling system has three main jobs.

2. Denver International Airport doesn’t have modern and automated baggage-
handling system.
3. Computers control everything; keep track of the location of every bag, every
traveler’s itinerary, schedules of all the planes, the conveyor junctions and
switches in the DVC tracks.
4. A barcode contains more than ten digit numbers.
5. The baggage-handling system could not track your bag’s movement when it
hasn’t been scanned, yet.
6. There are 5 steps of the baggage-handling process.
7. The goal of the baggage-handling system is to have the bags keep up with the
passengers.
8. A baggage carousel is a device, generally at an airport, that delivers checked
luggage to the passengers at the baggage claim area at their final destination.

C. Group projects -- Find out about the baggage-handling system in Indonesian’s

airports, the passengers’ complaints and the solutions given by the airline
companies. Discuss and report it to the class.

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