Customer Service

Airlines in Brazil open ‘mini travel stores’ at subway stations to engage emerging middle class

30 January 2012 | Brazil, the largest South American country, has recently enjoyed a tremendous growth of its middle class, resulting in increased demand for aviation. In fact, the Brazilian middle class grew from 30 percent of the population in the 1960s and ‘70s to 55 to 60 percent in 2011. In 2010, the lower-middle class accounted for 34 percent of domestic tourism, almost double that of 2002. In the last 10 years, the demand for air travel in Brazil has increased by 194 percent. Much of this increased demand comes from the members of the new Brazilian middle class, many of whom are entirely new to air travel. TAM estimated that in 2011 there were going to be 10.7 million first-time flyers.

Brazil’s airlines have been developing innovative strategies as they compete to win over this new market. In the past, airlinetrends.com discussed marketing strategies adopted by TAM to target this first-time flying segment. TAM, and its low-cost competitor GOL, have continued to target the emerging middle class with novel sales channels, including sales kiosks at subway and bus stations.

GOL
During 2011, GOL opened kiosks in subway stations where they provide not only information, but also the option to book, change and/or cancel a flight. The first kiosks were opened in Sao Paulo’s Itaquera, Sé and Luz subway stations in March 2011 and GOL subsequently opened additional kiosks in Sao Paulo’s Tatuapé station, Rio de Janeiro’s Central do Brasil station, Porto Alegre’s Estação Mercado do Metrô station, and one in Salvador.

The main goal of this new distribution channel is to engage the new Brazilian middle class in aviation. According to GOL’s Market Vice President, Claudia Pagnano, “The new identity comprises items referring to airports, as well as illustrations showing the main phases of a flight.” In order to provide better service and meet the needs of a ‘typical’ subway user, GOL’s kiosk teams completed 20 days of specialized training courses that focus on the habits of the emerging middle class, selling techniques, and language skills.
Read full article »

European airports roll out the red carpet for Chinese travellers

25 January 2012 | Rising disposable income in emerging economies such as the BRICs and the N-11s has allowed the rapidly growing middle classes in these countries to start travelling by air. According to IATA estimates, the number of air travellers worldwide will grow with 800 million to 3.3 billion in 2014 (up from 2.5 billion passengers in 2009), with China alone accounting for more than a quarter of this growth. Although air travel in China is still mainly on domestic and regional routes, an increasing number of leisure and business travellers are flying overseas.

‘Red carpet’
With Chinese outbound tourism recording more than 20 percent annual growth in recent years and overseas spending by Chinese tourists in 2011 expected to total around USD55 billion, airlines, airports and tourism destinations around the world are rolling out the red carpet to make Chinese travellers feel more at home.

Says Reinier Evers, founder of trend agency trendwatching.com, “China is the new emperor, and outpaced companies, flailing nations and even broke monetary unions are looking to the Chinese to bail them out. No wonder red carpets are being rolled out wherever Chinese politicians and CEOs currently set foot. In 2012’s global consumption arena we see a similar picture: department stores, airlines, hotels, theme parks and museums, if not entire cities, around the world are going out of their way to shower Chinese customers with tailored services and perks, and in general, lavish them with attention and respect.”

Since there are around 160 cities in China with populations of over 1 million people, airlines such as KLM (Chengdu, Xiamen, Hangzhou), Lufthansa (Shenyang, Qingdao), Air France (Wuhan), Finnair (Chongqing), Qatar Airways (Chongqing) and Etihad (Chengdu) have opened routes to second-tier cities in the country. These airlines also employ Asian cabin crew on board and offer localized amenities such as Chinese food and beverages, movies, music, newspapers and magazines.
Read full article »

ANA to provide cabin crew with iPads as a training manual

7 October 2011 | Following earlier initiatives by Alaska Airlines and United who are supplying all their pilots with company iPads, ANA will become the first airline in the world to provide all its cabin attendants with the device. The Japanese carrier said it will arm each of the company’s roughly 6,000 flight attendants with an iPad tablet in a move to reduce training costs by about JPY200 million (USD2.6 million).

E-learning
The use of iPads instead of traditional paper training manuals will cut down on printing and distribution costs for ANA, as well as make sure that staff will be able to access the latest information. During training, ANA flight attendants are required to constantly carry the bulky training manual with them (also on flights), which weighs about 2.1 kilograms and consists of around 1,000 pages over three volumes. The manuals also have to be updated and reprinted several times a year.

Furthermore, with the roll-out of the 0.7kg iPad, ANA will move away from centralized training and provide self-taught lessons on the iPad instead. For example, cabin crew will be able to download videos teaching the correct way to serve a meal to travelers and how to handle emergency situations.

ANA says it anticipates that cutting the need for staff to physically gather for tutorials will significantly slash training time, as e-learning will make the training process easier and shorter because crew members can study at any time and in any place.

Approximately 700 cabin attendants will begin trialing the iPad from October 2011 before full roll out in April 2012.
Read full article »

BA and KLM first airlines to equip cabin crew with iPads

27 August 2011 | We recently published an overview of how airlines and airports around the world have made Apple’s popular iPad device available to passengers in their lounges, rent them out in the air, or use them as self-service kiosk, customer survey tool, and food ordering tool (see: “11 ways how airlines are deploying the iPad”). In the past week several new initiatives have been announced by British Airways, KLM and Changi Airport, using the device to improve customer service on the ground and in the air.

British Airways
British Airways has just equipped its cabin crew with iPads to enable them to have prior awareness of customer preferences and a greater understanding of each customer’s previous travel arrangements, allowing them to offer a more personalised service. The iPad lets BA crew identify where each customer is seated, who they are travelling with, their frequent flyer status, any special meal requests, as well as customer service updates. The latter means that any issues can be logged with ground-based colleagues around the network prior to departure, so solutions can be delivered while the flight is airborne. When all the passengers have boarded and just before the doors are shut, cabin crew are currently handed a long scroll of paper, listing up to 337 customers. With the new iPads cabin crew will simply refresh their screen when the doors have closed through wireless 3G networks and they will have a complete list of passengers on board. The iPad is currently being trialled with 100 cabin crew with the aim to roll it out to all 1,800 senior crew members across the airline in the coming months. More images here.

KLM
On a similar note, KLM will provide a group of 50 senior pursers with iPads on board as part of a 6-month trial project starting in October 2011. KLM says it feels it is essential that cabin crew have easy access to the latest information in the air, as personal contact with passengers on the ground is becoming rarer due to the increased deployment of self-service kiosks. As part of the same ‘pilot’, KLM will also equip 50 pilots with iPads, providing them with an extra tool during flight operations that is more efficient than the large volume of forms, briefing documentation and manuals they usually take along.
Read full article »

Airports experiment with the latest virtual technologies to improve customer service

22 June 2011 | Airports around Europe have recently introduced new virtual technologies such as augmented reality, video-conferencing and holograms, which besides their novelty factor, aim to improve customer service at the airport.

Augmented reality
Copenhagen Airport’s latest version of its ‘CPH iPhone’ application features ‘augmented reality’ technology that can be used as a wayfinder inside the airport terminals. Augmented reality combines a camera, GPS and compass in a smartphone to enable the phone’s camera to recognize an object or place that a user is pointing to. Developed in cooperation with airline technology provicer SITA, Copenhagen Airport’s app lets users ‘scan’ the terminals with their iPhone camera and then shows their distance to shops, restaurants and gates and in which direction they are located.

Because GPS signals cannot penetrate concrete structures, it can’t be used to determine a location inside the terminal buildings, so instead the airport is using its finely meshed Wi-Fi infrastructure to provide positioning accurate down to a few metres.

Copenhagen Airport claims to be the first airport in the world to incorporate augmented reality in its iPhone application, and says it hopes to “make it even easier and more fun for passengers to find their way.” Says the airport’s Head of IT Christian Poulsen, “This is a first version of this new technology and we already have many ideas for further development. However, we are launching it now to get an indication from passengers of whether they agree with us that this could be one of the ways of improving wayfinding at the airport”. The ‘CPH iPhone app’ is available for free from the iTunes app store.

Video conferencing
Also aiming to improve passenger way-finding around the airport are Munich Airport’s new ‘InfoGates’. Passengers can use one of six InfoGates to get connected directly to a ‘real’ information service representative via videoconference for a live conversation on life-sized screens. According to Munich Airport the InfoGates will help passengers get their bearings more quickly and allow them to request individual directions in areas of the airport where there was previously no opportunity for face-to-face contact with airport staff.
Read full article »

Delta lets passengers track their checked luggage in real-time

26 April 2011 | Online tracking and tracing of packages shipped via parcel delivery companies such as FedEx and DHL has been possible for years, and has even spread to services like pizza delivery. For example, Domino’s Pizza ‘Pizza Tracker’ lets customers track their pizza from the moment they place the order until it leaves the kichen en route to them. Examples from the airline industry include Yapta, which offers alerts when fares drop for specific flights or hotels, and FlightStats, which notifies passengers on flight delays and cancellations. Says consumer trends agency trendwatching.com: “Tracking and alerting is the new searching, as it saves consumers time, makes it impossible to forget or miss out, and thus ultimately gives them yet another level of control.” 

Delta checked bags tracking
In a move to make the baggage process more transparent for customers, Delta Air Lines is now bringing ‘tracking and alerting’ to checked luggage. The airline has just launched a new ‘Track Checked Bags’ service in order to give passengers a sense of confidence that their luggage has made it to the same aircraft. As Delta scans the bag tags during each part of the journey, passengers can track their baggage in real-time as it makes its way through the Delta system. Available for domestic flights, Delta passengers can go online – for example via their smartphone – to track their checked baggage with the bag tag number that they received at the time of baggage check-in. 

Furthermore, as Delta has equipped all its 549 mainline domestic aircraft with GoGo’s in-flight Internet – and is currently installing the service on 223 Delta Connection jets as well – passengers may even check up in the air whether their bag has made it on their flight. 
Read full article »

San Francisco International Airport installs water bottle refill stations after security

7 March 2011 | Since security rules were tightened several years ago, passengers are not allowed to take more than a tiny drop of water (3 fl oz / 90ml in the U.S. and 100 ml in Europe) through security. This has been a nuisance for the travelling public, as many people have to purchase a bottle of water again beyond security to replace the one left behind.

Alternatively, passengers can bring an empty bottle through security and fill it up from a tap on the other side. However, as the Economist last year blogged, surprisingly few airports have made water fountains available or have hidden them in hard to find corners (by the way Amsterdam Schiphol Airport’s new ‘Ambient Gate’ is a welcome exception). Furthermore, bathroom sinks and public drinking fountains are often not in a very hygienic state, and many aren’t designed to allow for a easy fill of a bottle.

Global Tap hydration stations
San Francisco International Airport (SFO), already one of the most environmentally active airports in the U.S., has come up with an innovative solution to solve this situation and to reduce plastic waste. The airport has installed two tap water ‘hydration stations’ in the ‘airside’ part of the terminal and encourages passengers to carry their emptied plastic containers through security.

The water bottle refill stations were designed by IDEO and developed by a company called Global Tap. Users place  their bottle under a spigot, press a button and tap water flows vertically into the container. The blue slender question mark-shaped hydration stations are also easy to be recognized by travellers and have been installed near the food court in SFO’s Terminal 3 (used by United Airlines) and at the airport’s International Terminal. More pictures of the Global Tap stations at SFO are available here and here. Read full article »

Iberia equips customer service agents with iPads

11 February 2011 | Apple’s versatile iPad is currently being used by airlines as inflight entertainment device, self-service kiosk, customer survey tool, or as a food ordering tool. Now Spanish airline Iberia has equipped its customer service staff at its Madrid-Barajas hub with iPads that provide them with real-time access to the information they need to make decisions and to keep passengers informed.

Iberia IBPad
Iberia’s so-called IBPad is loaded with 30 different applications which together put the entire airport in the palm of the employee’s hand. Constantly updated with real-time information from Iberia’s Barajas Hub Control Centre, the IBPad enables agents to access a wide range of up-to-date information. Iberia says the IBPad will improve everyday operations and dealings with customers, boosting communications and staff decision-making autonomy while eliminating the use of paper. See here for a video of the IBPad functionality.

Information available to to staff via the IBPad includes:
- Information on passengers at risk of missing connecting flights and their status as customers.
- Information on passengers on intercontinental flights that have not yet checked-in.
- Flights at risk of being delayed or cancelled and any other incident that would impact on customers.
- The list of passengers on each flight who need assistance.
- List by departure zone of the status and progress of boarding procedures.
- Baggage remaining to be loaded on each flight, with passenger name.
- Incoming flight with baggage incidents, along with the number and names of affected passengers. Read full article »

Airlines take care of passengers’ winter coats until their return

9 February 2011 | In our recent “Innovative Airlines” report we identified airlines that are putting an effort to differentiate themselves with inventive and relevant services. On the 11^th spot of our ranking was South Korea-based Asiana Airlines, which has been covered several times on airlinetrends.com because of thoughtful services such as ‘PreMom’ and ‘Happy Mom’.

Asiana ‘Coat Keeping Service’
Since 1999, Asiana also has been offering a ‘Coat Keeping Service’ at Seoul Incheon Airport during the winter season (December to March) so passengers can travel light to sunnier destinations. Asiana’s First and Business class passengers as well as members of its frequent flyer program (including Star Alliance members) can use the service. Passengers can check their coat with Asiana for free for 5 days, after which 100 miles will be deducted per additional day. Asiana has set up a keeping room at Incheon which can store four thousand coats simultaneously and says that in the past 12 years around 150 thousand passengers have left their coat.

Korean Air ‘Coat Storage Service’
Rival South Korean airline Korean Air has been providing a similar ‘coat storage service’ since 2008 for passengers leaving South Korea travelling to warmer destinations such as Hawaii, Australia and countries in South-East Asia. Korean Air provides the service to all passengers travelling internationally from Korea with either Korean Air or a code-sharing flight. However, after a five-day complimentary storage, a fee of KRW2,500 (USD 2.25, EUR 1,65) per day applies.

Korean Air has contracted the coat storage service to Hanjin Express (part of the same Hanjin conglomerate as Korean Air) and arranged a room to store 2,500 coats. Passengers’ coats will be hung on a sturdy plastic hanger wrapped in plastic sheet during storage. According to Korean Air, an average 250 passengers per day have used the service during the winter of 2009, up from 130 in 2008.
Read full article »

Innovative airlines: #9. Cathay Pacific

5 January 2011 | At number 9 we find Cathay Pacific, winner of the ‘Airline of the Year’ award in 2009, and also one of the just six 5-star airlines in the world. Cathay was hit hard during the financial crisis as it is heavily exposed to business travellers from the financial sector. Cathay responded by parking aircraft, reducing routes and frequencies, and asked its staff to take unpaid leave. The airline also reconfigured its business class cabin on a number of aircraft and introduced a fee for extra-legroom seats in Economy. 

Seats
As its performance has improved sharply recently, thanks to the economic growth in Asia, Cathay is investing again in its product and has launched an USD129 million upgrade program that includes a new Business Class cabin. Cathay’s new full-flat seats have a novel feature called ‘Bed Extension,’ which significantly increases the bed width (more details here). 

Cathay Pacific earlier also announced it will introduce a Premium Economy product by 2012 as such a cabin would help capture passengers trading down from Business Class. Not all seating innovations turn out well however. The airline’s ‘fixed shell’ economy seats, which were introduced between 2007 and 2009, proved to be uncomfortable when put into the recline position, and following passenger complaints Cathay is changing them for a new economy seat.

Service
To emphasize its service expertise, Cathay Pacific launched a book called ‘Service in the Sky’ in mid-2011. Written by training instructors from the airline’s ‘Inflight Services Training & Development’ department, the book contains cabin crew training modules, including 24 real case studies depicting difficult situations and recommended approaches, as well as articles on different aspects of Cathay Pacific’s service beliefs and its training philosophy and techniques. 
Read full article »

Innovative airlines: #11. Asiana Airlines

3 January 2011 | Completing our ‘11 innovative airlines’ list is Korea-based Asiana Airlines, the ‘Airline of the Year 2010,’ and one of the just six ’5-star airlines’ in the world. Asiana has been covered several times on airlinetrends.com, for example because of its introduction of thoughtful services like ‘PreMom’ and ‘Happy Mom,’ which make life easier easier for expectant mothers and families travelling with infants. Since 1999, Asiana also offers a ‘coat storage service’ at Seoul Incheon Airport during the winter season for passengers travelling to sunny destinations.

Cabin crew as differentiator
Other innovative services from Asiana include an onboard chef and sommelier, introduced in November 2010, as well as a sushi chef on select flights to Los Angeles. During summer holiday season of 2009, Asiana cabin crew offered in-flight make-up services and performed magic shows for kids. In fact Asiana’s service standards are so well regarded the airline was asked by the Korean government to share its service expertise with Korean restaurants in Japan, China and the United States in a series of education seminars.

Seats and AVOD upgrade
Besides its focus on the softer human-side of the travel experience, Asiana in June 2010 started an USD70 million upgrade program, introducing new flat-bed seats in Business Class – which reduced the number of business-class seats from 32 to 24. The upgrade program also includes a new AVOD IFE system on both long and short-haul aircraft, making Asiana one of the few airlines to offer free AVOD on short-haul flights. 

A380
Although the airline is currently facing some serious liquidity problems due to an overly ambitious acquisition by its parent company Kumho of a logistics company, Asiana just announced it will buy six A380s as it challenges larger rival Korean Air on intercontinental routes. Deliveries of the A380s will begin from April 2014, and Asiana in 2016 will also receive the first of 30 A350s it has on order.

Airlines in the U.S. team up with brands to offer travellers free amenities during the holiday season

15 December 2010 | Faced with ever more experienced consumers, who routinely ignore the commercials and ads thrown at them, brands have to find new ways to break through the advertising clutter to reach and engage consumers. In the spirit of the holiday season (which in the U.S. starts at the end of November with Thanksgiving), airlines in America have partnered with brands such as Google, Microsoft and Chase Cards to offer their customers free, sponsored services that make life a little bit easier. Ofcourse, the brands hope that offering some ‘generosity’ will get them a bit of sympathy in return. 

Virgin America, Delta, Airtran & Google Chrome
From November 20 through January 2, 2011, Virgin America, Delta, and AirTran offer free inflight WiFi on all domestic flights, courtesy of Google. Google offers the free WiFi to promote its Chrome Internet browser and it projects that 15 million passengers will use the free service this holiday season. The carriers were chosen because their entire domestic fleets are outfitted with GoGo’s inflight WiFi. Passengers can use any browser they wish while surfing the Web but will be invited to download Google Chrome upon landing. As part of the promotion, Delta has also just introduced ‘Delta Embark’, an online travel guide available as an Google Chrome ‘web app’.

In a similar initiative, Google last year teamed up with Virgin America to offer free WiFi on the airline’s flights from October 2009 until January 2010, and footed the WiFi bill at 54 airports across the U.S. Last year, Delta also partnered with eBay to offer free inflight WiFi during the week of Thanksgiving. 

Southwest & Microsoft Windows
From December 2 until Christmas, Microsoft and Southwest Airlines’ ‘Holiday Photos on the Fly’ campaign offers passengers travelling on Southwest a free holiday photo that is captured, edited, e-mailed and/or printed using Microsoft’s Windows 7 and Windows Live Photo Gallery. A pro photographer snaps passenger’s portraits with Santa Claus or a holiday backdrop, and ‘Windows 7 elves’ show how to edit, share, and store their photos. Flyers can then print their photo at the Southwest/Microsoft photo booths or visit freeholidayphotos.com to access and share their photos online. The ‘Holiday Photos on the Fly’ promotion is held at 26 airports across the U.S. and also showed up at New York City’s Bryant Park at the end of November, where besides having their picture taken, visitors could also play with Microsoft’s new Xbox Kinect gaming console and the latest Windows-based smartphones. Read full article »

Asiana extends ‘Happy Mom’ service with ‘PreMom’ package for expectant parents

4 November 2010 | Last year, we reported on Asiana’s ‘Happy Mom’ service, which aims to make life easier for families traveling with infants by offering dedicated check-in counters at the airport, and free breast feeding nursing covers, baby slings, and car seat-like baby seats in the air. South Korea-based Asiana Airlines says the Happy Mom service has proved to be very popular so it decided to extend the service to couples who are expecting a baby. 

PreMom Service
Started at November 1^st 2010, Asiana’s new ‘PreMom’ service aims to solve the inconveniences that expected mothers face at airports and inside cabins during traveling. Services of the PreMom package include an exclusive check-in counter at the airport to minimize waiting time and an electric cart service to transport expectant mothers (and companions) to the departure gates 50 minutes before takeoff. 

At the gate priority boarding is offered in order to give pregnant women the maximum amount of space to move through the aisles of the aircraft. Onboard, front row seating is also provided to minimize the walking distance and to allow for easier access to the toilet. Asiana also hands out sleeping socks to keep expecting mothers warm and to help their blood circulation. A brochure with information on cabin stretching and airline regulations for travelling when pregnant is also handed out. Finally, Asiana Airlines has developed a special priority tag so checked luggage will be delivered more quickly upon arrival. In a clever commercial move, the socks, brochure and luggage tags are sponsored by Korean baby brand PreBebe.
Read full article »

Singapore Changi Airport lets travellers rate service on the spot

4 October 2010 | As part of its ‘Changi Experience’ program Singapore’s Changi Airport, one of the world’s most-awarded airports, is aiming for even higher service standards with the launch of several initiatives. New services include Care@Changi, which provides priority queue lanes at security checkpoints and taxi stands for expectant mothers, passengers with infants in arms and reduced mobility travellers, and iChangi, which making flight and airport information available via kiosks located around the terminals and a dedicated iPhone app.

The most eye-catching ‘customer-centric initiative’ the airport has launched, however, is an ‘instant-feedback system’, which is installed at selected check-in desks, immigration counters, retail stores, dining outlets and washrooms. Passengers can rate frontline service staff or the level of cleanliness on a five-point scale using interactive touchscreens. They can also indicate what they like or dislike. 

For example, Changi Airport’s cleaning-service partner would be able to fix a problem within 15 minutes of receiving feedback, which is transmitted via personal digital assistants carried by cleaning supervisors. They would then dispatch a cleaner to perform tasks such as mopping a wet floor or replenishing toilet paper. For DFS duty-free stores and two restaurants in the airport’s Terminal 3, ratings and feedback can tell managers which employees are their top performers. Read full article »

Airlines create innovative guarantees to ease passengers’ booking worries

27 September 2010 | Airlines have come up with innovative ‘guarantees’ to let consumers book with more confidence. The schemes are intended to take away anxiety from consumers, caused by for example fears of job loss or weather conditions at their destination. Other airlines aim to drum up sales during the traditional slow fall travel season or are using guarantees as a new source of ancillary revenues. For example, JetBlue and Flybe last year offered a refund if a customer would lose his or her job after booking a flight. Flybe also offered a ‘volcanic ash insurance’ to let customers more peace of mind when booking during the Iceland volcano disruption in the spring of 2010. Lufthansa in July 2009 offered a ‘Sunshine Guarantee’, offering passengers who booked early EUR20 (up to a maximum of EUR200) for every day of at least 5mm of rainfall. 

SmartWings ‘Weather Guarantee’
To increase advance bookings and generate additional revenues, Czech budget carrier SmartWings offers passengers a ‘weather protection insurance’ for EUR15 in order to receive EUR30 per day (with a maximum of 15 days) when more than 10mm of rain falls at their destination. The insurance has to be purchased 20 days before the actual travel date. The airline is providing the package, dubbed ‘MeteoBonus’, in partnership with ancillary revenue developer Airsavings, which says the product is based on similar services used in the agricultural industry to hedge against poor weather. 

airBaltic ‘Delayed Arrival Warranty’
airBaltic from Latvia lets passengers bet against a late arrival of their flight. For a non-refundable fee of EUR17 per passenger per one-way journey, the airline’s ‘Delayed Arrival Warranty’ option gives passengers a guaranteed double refund of their ticket price (including fare and fuel surcharge) if the airline delivers them to their final destination more than 1 hour later than promised on their ticket. The refund is in the form of a  gift voucher which can be used to purchase future flights with airBaltic. Valid reasons for receiving a refund exclude bad weather conditions at departure and/or arrival airport, strikes, terrorism, and war. On a similar note, Polish low-cost carrier Wizzair offers a, less generous, warranty delay option, and refunds EUR100 to passengers who bought a warranty for EUR10 in case of a two-hour delay. Read full article »