How Airlines Can Reimagine Their Brand with IoT and Mobile
Everyone has suffered waiting to board a flight or rushing to make one and dealing with luggage. It’s just a horrible experience. But help may be on the way.
August 19, 2016
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Waiting for the Flight
Let’s face it: Air travel sucks.
Yet the airline industry can remake the customer experience just like Uber has done for the taxi industry. Poppi, an imaginary airline brand dreamed up by marketers at venerable design consultancy Teague, has come up with creative ways for airlines to do things, well, smarter. Using IoT-enabled luggage and equipment, beacons and a mobile app, an airline can transform customer pain points into delightful customer experiences.
“Airlines need to be much more aware of what passengers are going through in the moment, and then offer them services and products tailored to that moment,” says Devin Liddell, Teague’s principal brand strategist.
Oh, the drudgery of checking in luggage. Passengers must arrive to the airport early just for the luxury of waiting in line to drop off their luggage. This is followed by hours-long anxiety and dread. Please, bag handlers, don’t lose my stuff! Connector flights, flight delays, new flights and international flights make luggage a lot like Schrödinger’s cat: Luggage is simultaneously lost and found during a flight.
Giving passengers the ability to track their luggage at all times via a mobile app, thanks to IoT-enabled luggage, would reduce traveler stress and make flying more pleasurable. Even better, passengers might even be able to drop off luggage early in their trip. Those commuting by, say, a train to the airport could check their luggage at the train station.
We’re living in a smart world, so why would we stand around baggage carousels like a bunch of dummies? That’s a lousy customer experience. Smart luggage means you’ll know when your luggage is ready to be picked up. Airport beacons can help you navigate to a nearby gourmet coffee shop to enjoy a pumpkin spiced latte while you wait.
Airports such as RIOgaleão Airport in Rio de Janeiro and Orlando International Airport (MCO) are already using beacons and IoT on boarding gates and business management system equipment, such as escalators and elevators. In late 2014, MCO purchased about 1,200 Bluetooth beacons from Aruba Networks. Combined with the airport’s mobile app, beacons enable any of MCO’s 38 million annual visitors to find their way to some 1,600 points of interest, such as terminals, gates, restaurants, shops, baggage carousels and elevators.
With worry-free baggage, you won’t have to hedge bets with a lot of carry-ons. You can board the plane quickly and without any hassles. No more fighting for overhead bin space. By eliminating traditional overhead compartments, an airline can also reduce boarding time by as much as 70 percent and remove 4,000 lbs. from the cabin, significantly reducing fuel and other costs, Teague says.
This is the future we’re talking about! Let’s forget baggage carousels completely. Smart luggage and mobile can take your luggage from, say, a train in San Francisco to a hotel room in Paris without ever being seen at the airport. Imagine walking out of the airport, getting into a cab, going directly to your hotel, and your luggage is waiting for you.
This is the future we’re talking about! Let’s forget baggage carousels completely. Smart luggage and mobile can take your luggage from, say, a train in San Francisco to a hotel room in Paris without ever being seen at the airport. Imagine walking out of the airport, getting into a cab, going directly to your hotel, and your luggage is waiting for you.
Everyone has suffered waiting to board a flight or rushing to make one and dealing with luggage. It’s just a horrible experience. But help may be on the way.
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