British Airways Flight Attendants Using iPads to Improve Customer Service

[MacRumors]

Earlier this week, it was reported that Delta Air Lines was testing iPads to improve real-time communications with flight crews. Now, British Airways is giving iPads to cabin crews to improve customer service in the air.

The iPad lets crew quickly identify where each customer is seated, who they are travelling with, their Executive Club status and any special meal requests. It gives cabin crew a whole library of information at their fingertips including timetables, safety manuals and customer service updates. It also means 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.

BA is testing the iPad with 100 cabin crew and aims to roll out the program to all senior crew members in the next few months.

(Photo by Flickr/BriYYZ)

Article Link: British Airways Flight Attendants Using iPads to Improve Customer Service

 

[ade2bee]

Love the idea of the iPad being used like this, it can be used for loads of stuff... British Airways need all the help they can get after the 4 dreadful flights i had from them, the one from Hong Kong being the icing on the cake!

Do they have an app for giving people the ability to have good customer service, common sense, keeping the aircraft interior tidy and giving a damn though!

 

[rickdollar]

Why not use the TouchPad? It has a dual-core processor and can view Flash based websites. That gives you the FULL Internet! Not like that iPad toy thingy.

Kidding aside, this sounds like a great use of the iPad.

 

[Xenc]

Awesome! I've seen the "scroll of passenger names" and its not pretty. It's printed on paper with perforated edges in a fixed width font. Very old school.

 

[nutjob]

If only they invested this money in better food, which is truly awful on BA, even relative to all other airlines. An iPad won't make the attendants any less disagreeable either. I avoid BA like the plague.

 

[xionxiox]

Why not use the TouchPad? It has a dual-core processor and can view Flash based websites. That gives you the FULL Internet! Not like that iPad toy thingy.

Kidding aside, this sounds like a great use of the iPad.

Why not? HP is probably putting them all in the garbage by now anyway. They'd get them for free

 

[jonnysods]

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Just teach them how to smile.

 

[blyan]

If only they invested this money in better food, which is truly awful on BA, even relative to all other airlines. An iPad won't make the attendants any less disagreeable either. I avoid BA like the plague.

I disagree. The food in first class (and the service) is great

 

[EnergonCube]

Pfffbt! Old news. EasyJet has been using refurbished Newtons for years.

 

[Luap]

A business is using a small portable computer!? Wow! Epic news MacRumors!

 

[winston1236]

Why not? HP is probably putting them all in the garbage by now anyway. They'd get them for free

yea im going to check behind the best buy for employees offloading them from the truck directly into the dumpster

 

[andreiru]

And we are being asked to switch off all our devices, while the crew will have their iPads to play with? My friend's dad is an airline pilot and he says mobile phones don't interfere with pilot's communication system, but they ask passengers to turn these off to simply not disturb other passengers..?

 

[eastercat]

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I had a great vegan meal of curry from BA from London to Dallas. OTOH, AA's vegan meal was a sad veggie meatloaf.

I hope the iPad works out for BA's attendants.

 

[hundleton1]

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How foe this work? I thought all sw had to go through the app store, how does an enterprise make software for there own use only without JB.

 

[myjellyass]

If only they invested this money in better food, which is truly awful on BA, even relative to all other airlines. An iPad won't make the attendants any less disagreeable either. I avoid BA like the plague.

Contrary to what many people think, companies don't do this sort of thing to look cool; it does save them money - in the long term at least. I think we all know that printing something out and handing it to somebody takes considerably more time and effort than having an automated system do it for you, and automatic transfer is (usually) more reliable than the more outdated systems.

So don't panic, the money that goes into this will no doubt be returned in the form of an extra olive on your plate. (see point 5 in the link)

http://bit.ly/oOHZkK

 

[vvswarup]

Hopefully, this will go a long way towards making people shut the ******* up about the iPad being nothing more than a useless toy.

 

[AdrianK]

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I had a great vegan meal of curry from BA from London to Dallas. OTOH, AA's vegan meal was a sad veggie meatloaf.

I hope the iPad works out for BA's attendants.

Wow, since when did airlines cater to vegans? That's basically my main issue with long flights >.<

Hopefully, this will go a long way towards making people shut the ******* up about the iPad being nothing more than a useless toy.

This x1000.

 

[nylonsteel]

re flight attendants with ipads and mini skirts

flight attendants with ipads are sorta cool - ok
what i want is to bring back the hot flight attendants (female) in mini skirts
like the girls from natioanl airlines circa 1971

"fly me..." - national airlines ad - 1971

 

[The Past]

It is not what you know or what information you have access to. It is what you do with it. They should first learn to care.

 

[Porco]

There is something strangely amusing to me about knowing that flight attendants will have the capability to play Angry Birds HD when they aren't busy.

 

[bushido]

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dont tell my sis about 3g being used on a plane. shed scream her soul out. she nearly punched a business lady once for using her pda on take off

 

[danpass]

re flight attendants with ipads and mini skirts

flight attendants with ipads are sorta cool - ok
what i want is to bring back the hot flight attendants (female) in mini skirts
like the girls from natioanl airlines circa 1971

"fly me..." - national airlines ad - 1971

only this one person noted what was genuinely important?

 

[d4rkc4sm]

If only they invested this money in better food, which is truly awful on BA, even relative to all other airlines. An iPad won't make the attendants any less disagreeable either. I avoid BA like the plague.

i may be only one but i love airplane food.

 

[kdarling]

My first thought was that the iPad is too large for this. A smaller 7" tablet would be easier to carry in one hand or in an apron pocket.

My second thought was that even that's too large and gets in the way. Will they have iPad stands on top of the serving carts? That would work. Or they could use iPads while in the galley, and...

For moving about the cabin, they should have a more subtle wrist computer that reads out info as the attendant passes each passenger row. A quick glance while talking or serving would give personal info and preferences / orders.

 

[nutjob]

Contrary to what many people think, companies don't do this sort of thing to look cool; it does save them money - in the long term at least. I think we all know that printing something out and handing it to somebody takes considerably more time and effort than having an automated system do it for you, and automatic transfer is (usually) more reliable than the more outdated systems.

So don't panic, the money that goes into this will no doubt be returned in the form of an extra olive on your plate. (see point 5 in the link)

http://bit.ly/oOHZkK

Not on my plate it won't, I don't fly BA, and I don't fly first class.