I was traveling this week and had an interesting encounter.

The first leg of my flight was delayed, and I was going to miss my connection. I was rebooked on another airline, and I went to the desk to get my boarding pass. Since the booking was just made, I wasn’t able to self-check-in at the kiosk. The terminals behind the desk were all being used, and an airline representative was kind enough to step out and offer some help.

So get this… she taps three times on the touchscreen near this particular airline’s logo. She is presented with a login prompt, and the kiosk displays a full touchscreen keyboard. She enters a 4 digit number (which wasn’t masked). Then she’s prompted for the password. She types in a 6 character password that was quite easy to “shoulder surf” given the size of the keyboard and the fact that the letters are animated when touched.

And I think I know the name of one of her pets. Or the street she lives on.

Anyway, on the screen, a full-featured GUI is presented. She mentioned that she is able to do all the things that they normally do behind the desk via this interface. Rebookings, upgrades… it was all there. Amazing! Of course, I joked with her about putting me in for an upgrade, but considering it was a 50 minute flight, it really wouldn’t be worth it.

Anyway…. very interesting stuff. Who, besides Johnny Long, would have thought?!?