Why do Air Canada check in machines require you to type in your first?
It's been a few years since I worked at the kiosks assisting passengers, but I think I may have an answer. The kiosks are designed to speed check-in for those passengers that are able to check-in without requiring certain doc/visa checks, special assistance etc. I've been able to check-in and process passengers 5x as quickly as the desk check-in. International, US-bound, domestic, Caribbean. You name it, if the passports have a barcode, it will speed things up. I think (and again, I think) what could be happening is that when you are checking in with other people, the kiosk sometimes gives you the opportunity to select only one or two of the groups files to make changes to. Something else to keep in mind is that different kiosks around the world will operate slightly differently. There is always a possibility that the machine you used is/was glitchy. But give the machines the benefit of the doubt in terms of how it was programmed. They were designed with security in mind and any extra name-verification steps would be mandated by whatever security protocols that country has. Between local security protocols and choosing individual passengers to make changes to, I think that should cover the 95% of the times you would put your first name in.