There are two kinds of these useless scanners as of now. There were even three, that third one was at every boarding gate - buti wala na ngayon. The 'first one' actually looks good (high-tech eh), and many passengers think it has significant use. The truth is, it's never needed! Why install it in an airport, when all it does is create a choke-point or another place where the weary passenger has to fall in line again.
No, not the beautiful girl, just the equipment! Those girls are in fact very cheerful, friendly and helpful. Even if I do not know their names, I consider them to be already my friends - because I often see them as I'm a frequent flyer. It's always a relief seeing them genuinely smiling and trying to really be of help.
Let us describe and discuss what happens here:
After check-in (meaning you already have your boarding pass), payment of your Travel Tax (for Pinoys on international travel), and payment of your terminal fee, you queue up here. When it is your turn, you scan the bar code of your boarding pass (face down) on the screen (beside the palm of that beautiful girl), then the glass "gate" opens for you to pass though - if ever it is able to read your boarding pass!
BUT, before it becomes your turn as described above, you'll have to wait in a very long queue!
For everyone's information, it's because of the 'normally' long line here that I became familiar with and befriended those girls! Dinadaldal ko sila, harutan, binakakay, to while the madly torturous wait away!
Now now.., what is that scanner for anyway? Who owns that? Who needs (uses) your personal and/or other information from that boarding pass you just scanned at that scanner? Why and what for?
Answer: Not the airline. Not Bureau of Immigration, Not Bureau of Customs. So who? OMG sino?
Among those I asked, no one is sure - even those girls are not that certain! But people in the know say, the owner or owners of those scanners must either be the MCIAA and/or DOT. I like the AND/OR part!
MCIAA is Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority and DOT is Department of Tourism. And that is the catch! We might be inclined to say "eh AUTHORITY naman pala ang may-ari". But ask yourself.., is the MCIAA and/or DOT authorized to gather your personal information from an airline boarding pass?
Sabihin na natin yes, where and what do they need our names and other information for? Add to that, they are always given a manifest by the airline for every flight that departs. Plus, airlines furnish them with passenger statistics that they need. So bakit kelangan pa ito? Dagdag pasakit lang sa pasahero.
And the clincher: if your personal information on a bording pass is really REALLY needed by airport or tourism authorities, why is it not needed/captured like so in Manila or any other airport in the country?
They might say hig-tech sila. But no other airport in the world does it - erecting additional chokepoints to further encumber passenger flows! Where else on earth do you see a thing like that! Kaduda-duda!
It would also be foolishly "duh" to say "ah sosyal kasi kami dahil CEBU ito". I'll readily answer that with "pa-sosyal kang animal ka, you are just adding more inconveniences to otherwise happy passengers"! Kasagaran mawala ang lingaw ug excitement kay sige ka'g linya. Linya, linya, LINYA, pesteng linyaha!
If other airports can function and do their jobs without an additional bottleneck such as that boarding pass scanner, why have it in Cebu, that is far from being a BEST AIRPORT IN THE WORLD? Kayasa ba!
Unless.., eto ang tsimax.., baka daw me nakikinabang sa "data collected" from those useless boarding pass scanners. Our personal data! Baka ibinebenta or something else? Well, who know.., malay natin!
Verdict: they should take that out and throw it somewhere else! ASAP!
Let us go to the "second one" - as I said above "there are two kinds", right? Here's THE "second one"
Oops excuse me lang ha, I asked her permission and that passenger (with hand and boarding pass at right) if I could take this photo, and both said "okay lang, no need for a signed agreement"! This lovely lady of a blue guard even exclaimed "haaay ma-viral pohon ko ani sir hihihi"! We love her cheerfulness!
After those seats behind Ms. Blue guard, there is the usual immigration-provided table with the forms you need to fill, before lining up at the immigration counters, so you could proceed to your flight gate.
Discussion: same as "the first one" above. You line up so she could scan your boarding pass. But who needs it? Immigration? Eh just a few steps from this corner are the actual immigration counters, and all immigration officers have their scanners each. Why still put this extra bottleneck for passengers?
Besides, if that is really for immigration, why is a guard allowed to handle such sensitive information?
Verdict: Same as above, alisin na yan! Proof that it's not needed: many better airports do not have this useless choke-point, yet they function as expected (even better). Why suffer on another useless line!
Pila ka ng pila, nakaka wala ng dignidad, nasisira ang happy disposisyon mo!
Lastly, all travel-related businesses and services (kasama ang government) are supposed to observe the S2C2 maxim. The S2 means "Safety and Security", while C2 means "Comfort and Convenience".
If they remove those two "scanners" we mentioned above, they won't breach the S2C2 maxim, bagkus, it would improve C2. It won't also breach S2 because, if it will really cause a security breach, why are there none of those in other international airports of our country and the world? Plus: not all boarding passes are scanned din naman. Di ba Congressman? Di ba Senator? Di ba Gov? Sus, 'alang gamit yan!
Eto ang klaro - hindi klaro where the data from those scanners go. Security Risk!
Statistics ba kamo? Asuu, there are better ways to gather data THAN MAKE PASSENGERS LINE UP.
Those two scanners are useless. Period. Amen.
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