Customer Service
Portland Airport opens bike station to let flyers (dis)assemble their bikes more easily
22 July 2010 | Portland, Oregon is known as one of the most bike-friendly cities around. In fact, it has recently been named the world’s second best cycling city (after Amsterdam and before Copenhagen). For travelers and airport staff, the city also makes it easy to take a bike on the light rail train that runs to and from Portland International Airport (PDX). Furthermore, PDX is one of the few airports with a bike path that connects to the airport.
As many travelers visit Oregon and the state of Washington for bike tourism or to participate in the region’s popular bicycle races, PDX recently has opened a ‘bike assembly station’ where travelers can assemble and disassemble their bikes before and after flights. The new service helps cyclists more quickly prepare their bikes for travel, whether it’s away from the airport on the PDX bike path or for a return flight home. The bike station is also available to airport employees who bike to work. As an extra service, basic bike tools, such as a pedal wrench and air pump, are available for check-out at the Travel Oregon welcome center in the bag claim area. Read full article »
Cathay Pacific and Asiana publicly share their service expertise
21 July 2010 | Asia-Pacific and Middle Eastern carriers have been dominating the Skytrax World Airline Awards for years. In fact, in the past decade, British Airways (2006) has been the only Western carrier to capture the ‘Airline of the Year’ award. Skytrax surveys passengers on their opinion on 38 different items for each airline’s products and services. Two recent winners of the ‘Airline of the Year’ award, Cathay Pacific (2009) and Asiana (2010) have recently been sharing their service expertise with the outside world. Both airlines are also two of just six airlines in the world that have been awarded a ‘5 star’ status by Skytrax.
Cathay Pacific has just launched a new book, called ‘Service in the Sky’, in which it shares its expertise in training cabin crew. Written by training instructors from the Cathay’s Inflight Services Training & Development department, ‘Service in the Sky’ includes 24 real case studies depicting difficult situations and recommended approaches, articles on different aspects of Cathay Pacific’s service beliefs and its training philosophy and techniques. The book also contains the airline’s cabin crew training modules, and cabin crew job requirements and application processes. Cathay says passengers expect more when they fly than when they travel on other modes of public transport, and while the articles are largely related to the airline’s operations, the underlying principles can easily be applied to other service-related industries. Proceeds from the book will be donated to the Sunnyside Club, a charity launched by Cathay Pacific staff. Read full article »
‘Flying Families’: Kids are getting their own airline lounges
16 July 2010 | Many airports offer playgrounds for kids to keep them entertained while waiting for their flight. For example, Singapore Changi features several children’s playgrounds and even a 4-storey slide, while Schiphol Airport has a ‘Kids Forest’. Airports have also teamed up with brands to offer ‘brand spaces’ for kids and babies. At Amsterdam Schiphol, baby food brand Nutricia runs a ‘Nutricia Babycare Lounge’, while at Paris’ Orly and Charles de Gaulle airports kids can play at the ‘Gulli area’, a playground povided by Gulli, a French children’s TV channel. Jetblue’s T5 terminal at New York JFK features a ‘Fisher Price Play Space’.
Besides these public facilities, airlines have recently began opening their own dedicated lounges for kids. Air France just launched its first lounge for unaccompanied minors at Paris-Orly airport, which the airline mainly uses for domestic and regional flights. Nearly 380,000 unaccompanied minors travel on Air France every year, and approximately 70% of them travels within France and to the French Overseas Departments. Under the watchful eye of Air France staff, children can play, rest, read or watch DVDs in the new 40 sqm lounge. Air France has also opened a summer-only 200 sqm lounge At Paris-Charles de Gaulle during the school vacation period for kids traveling alone. Airlines such as KLM (‘Junior Jet Lounge’), Lufthansa (‘Kinderlounge’) and BA (‘KidZone’), Emirates and Etihad have also been operating similar unaccompanied minors lounges for several years. Read full article »
American Airlines equips customer service agents with mobile ‘YADA’ device to help travelers on the spot
2 July 2010 | At a time that airlines are finding more ways to reduce face-to-face contact with travelers, customer service agents are reappearing at airports in the U.S. Equipped with handheld devices, they are trained to be pro-active, showing up without waiting to be called upon. We have reported before on Delta Air Lines’ ‘Red Coats’ service agents (now numbering 800 agents at 13 airports across the U.S.), and United Airlines’ ‘LineBuster’ device (rolled out at Washington and Denver airports after an earlier trial at Chicago O’Hare).
American Airlines (AA) began experimenting with a mobile device — called Your Assistance Delivered Anywhere (YADA for short) — in July 2009 at Boston Logan airport to prevent long lines at check-in counters and self-service kiosks. The YADA handheld let’s AA staff check real-time flight status, provide connecting information, display maps of other airports and print boarding passes and baggage tags for customers checking in. The device, the size of a large cellphone, is attached to a small printer that hangs from the belt of the airline employee. Read full article »
Flybe launches ‘volcanic ash insurance’ to let travelers book with more confidence
4 May 2010 | Following the massive ash cloud disruption which led to the closure of the airspace over much of Europe for five days in April, as many as 150,000 British travelers were left stranded overseas and thousands more were forced to cancel their trips and remain in the UK. The Telegraph reports that in the past week package holidays bookings in the UK have increased 20 percent, and bookings made through high-street travel agents have risen by 12 percent. A major reason for this may be that during the disruption most stranded holidaymakers who booked a package holiday with a licensed tour operator were offered free accommodation and meals until flights resumed. Many independent travelers, however, were left to cover the cost for hotels, food, and transport home themselves.
In a move to restore confidence among travelers (for example, today flights in and out Ireland have been grounded again), UK low-cost carrier Flybe has just introduced a ‘volcanic ash insurance’, which it says is the first in the world. The GBP6.99 (EUR8, USD10.50) per person policy is underwritten by travel insurer Chartis and will reimburse passengers for costs for delays of more than 24 hours caused by closure of airspace. If passengers are stranded away from home, Flybe will pay for any reasonable unplanned-for costs incurred for additional accommodation and travel expenses up to GBP150 (EUR170, USD230) for each 24-hour period with a maximum of GBP1,050 (EUR1,200, USD1,600). The option to purchase the insurance is available with online bookings made between 28 April and May 10th 2010 for travel up to October 30, 2010.
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Alaska Air ups checked baggage service guarantee to 20 minutes
28 April 2010 | Alaska Air Group, parent of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, just reported a profit of USD5.3 million for the first quarter of 2010, which was largely helped by revenues of USD23 million in baggage fees. Since July 2009, Alaska charges passengers USD15 for their first checked bag, USD25 for their second and USD50 for their third piece of luggage. Charges for the first two bags are waived for business class customers and upper tier members of the airline’s frequent flyer program.
As passengers are now paying extra for their checked luggage, Alaska and Horizon Air guarantee their luggage will reach the baggage carousel 25 minutes or less from the time their airplane has parked at the gate. If it isn’t, passengers will get USD25 off a future flight or 2,500 frequent-flier miles (compensation will be given per passenger though, not per bag). Alaska Airlines said it checks about 20,000 bags per day and in the first three months since the start of the service guarantee only a few hundred claims have been made. Alaska says it is the only carrier offering such a service guarantee.
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Travel companies offer free services to make life easier for stranded travelers
22 April 2010 | The volcanic ash cloud that erupted from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajölull volcano stranded hundreds of thousands of travelers across the continent and throughout the world, as authorities imposed flight restrictions amid fears aircraft engines would be choked by the ash. Despite the usual taxi companies and hotels taking advantage of stranded travelers by raising their prices (name and shame here), many others gave discounts to affected travelers. And stranded guests in Marriott’s London Grosvenor House hotel were even being treated to a movie night and free cleaning of under garments.
In fact, many companies in the travel industry showed empathy and generously offered passengers free services such as Wi-Fi, guided tours, and admission to museums and theme parks. Schiphol Airport offered free Wi-Fi to stranded passengers in its terminals, Frankfurt Airport set up an Internet lounge, while Wi-Fi provider Boingo gave away 10 access passes to travelers in need via Twitter. The most generous offer came from voice-over-IP provider Skype, which offered free access to 100,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in cafes, hotels and airports worldwide so people could make Internet phone calls using Skype and surf the Internet.
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Europcar’s interactive surface tables help customers plan their journey
11 March 2010 | Europcar Europe will install Microsoft Surface interactive tables at a number of its car rental stations to provide its customers with a new and fun way of planning their journeys. Those who rent an Europcar vehicle can use the Microsoft Surface tables to find points of interest and route options, plot their trip on an interactive map and have it printed out. Alternatively, customers can plan a trip based on a theme, such as gastronomy or history. The application also displays special offers from Europcar’s partners such as Accor hotels.
Europcar says that with the new service it aims to make car rental a more pleasant experience for our customers, and that it will hopefully trigger a new wave of interaction between the company and its clients that goes beyond the moment when a customer picks up a vehicle at the rental desk. The first Surface tables will be installed at Munich Airport and the service will be availabe at several Europcar outlets across Europe from summer 2010.
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Next in passenger self-service: DIY lost luggage recovery
9 February 2010 | Self-service has been progressing rapidly in the airline industry in the past decade, providing passengers with more control, choice, and efficiency. Airlines such as KLM and Air Canada even let passengers print their own baggage tags, attach it to their baggage and place their bags on the conveyor belt at the drop-off area. Lufthansa lets passengers board independently. A scanner reads the bar code on the boarding pass or cellphone and flaps on the gates open (like in the subway) as each passenger is cleared by the airline computer.
Next in line is self-service baggage recovery. Announced mid-2009 by SITA, two kiosks are now up and running at Copenhagen Airport in a test by Star Alliance to improve service to customers whose bags didn’t arrive with them. Now when bags are lost, the passenger has to spend considerable time filling out forms and making arrangements with the airline for the return of the missing cases. SAS and six other Star Alliance airlines (bmi, LOT, TAP, Blue1, Adria Airways, and Thai) are participating in the project. The kiosks will be tested for three months after which a decision will be made whether to expand the kiosk programme to other airports. In August 2009, ground services provider Swissport in partnership with SkyAssist introduced a similar ‘Lost & Found self-service kiosk’ at Geneva Airport.
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LineBusters, Red Coats and Tourist Angels: The return of customer service agents
26 November 2009 | At a time when airlines are finding more ways to reduce face to face contact with customers at airports, as they are expanding the number of self-service options with do-it-yourself baggage check-in and self-boarding turnstiles, customer service agents seem to be reappearing at airports.
During this week’s Thanksgiving holiday rush in the U.S, United Airlines is equipping United service agents with so-called ‘LineBusters’ devices at Chicago O’Hare airport. The handheld touch-screen device displays which customers have been automatically rebooked on another flight after a cancellation or missed connection. Agents in the post-security area will pro-actively approach customers standing in line to determine if they are better off going directly to a kiosk to print a boarding pass, thereby reducing the line and the time spent waiting for information. Read full article »
