Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Qantas Customers Discover Apple Watch Doesn't Fit Under Airline's Boarding Pass Scanners

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
68,196
38,988



One of the most talked about new features of the Apple Watch is its ability to sync with an iPhone's Passbook app, displaying a user's credit cards and boarding passes easily on the wrist. Australian-based airline Qantas, however, has been facing a bit of a sizing issue with Apple's new wrist-worn device, with multiple users pointing out since the wearable's launch that a wrist wearing the Apple Watch simply doesn't fit under the gate scanner for boarding passes (via Brisbane Times)

qantas-watch-app.jpg
Qantas's new Apple Watch app​
​
Like other boarding pass experiences, Qantas's app generates an individual QR code to the Passbook app for users boarding a flight. While the scanners were initially designed for simple paper barcodes before smartphone apps came about, they were able to handle scanning the QR code from an iPhone or other smartphone. Now, with the introduction of the Apple Watch, Qantas's scanners face the hurdle of being unable to accommodate an entire wrist along with the Apple Watch.

Pointed out initially by a few Twitter users, one of which "wasn't allowed" to take a picture of the terminal in question, Qantas has since acknowledged the issue. Unfortunately, while it's looking to "access" the problem, there is currently no planned fix.
@taufiqz Hi Taufiq, currently we re unable to scan boarding passes from the Apple watch, our team are aware of this and assessing. Kristyn - Qantas (@Qantas) April 26, 2015
Click to expand...
Qantas's predicament serves as a sort of warning for developing an app for the Watch before actually having the device in hands to test. Qantas's lead app designer, Gabriel Santos, echoed a similar sentiment of difficulty in developing the app, describing the entire ordeal of building and creating the app without the Watch "a scary process."
"We initially locked in a concept but when trying it on the actual device, it didn't work as well as I thought it would," he said.

"It proved that designing without testing on the actual device can compromise the user experience. Good enough just isn't acceptable. I wanted to bring the Apple Watch experience to a whole new level."
Click to expand...
As Brisbane Times points out, the introduction of a smaller, more handheld scanner could alleviate the issue, but would undoubtedly be extremely costly to introduce in every airport the airline supports. Given that the Qantas app includes a host of other features besides supporting Apple Watch, from boarding times, departure gates, and delays, the company could also decide to leave the QR code functionality solely to the iPhone and introduce the Apple Watch's Qantas app as more of a companion experience.

Article Link: Qantas Customers Discover Apple Watch Doesn't Fit Under Airline's Boarding Pass Scanners
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/04/29/qantas-customers-discover-apple-watch/
They're not alone. Jetstar are in the exact same position also.
(Although technically they are owned by Qantas).

I could barely get my iPhone under one of the scanners, in a very slim-wallet case without having to use two hands to fit it in there. There's 0 chance of an :apple:Watch fitting in one of them.
 
Sure, they didn't have a watch to test it with, but Apple did display the dimensions on the website well before the Watch was released. No one thought to look for the dimensions and do a quick measure for the scanner?
 
"I wanted to bring the Apple Watch experience to a whole new level."

Well he sure did. Subterranean level. Like in the sewers.

A company this size releasing an app without testing on the device? That's not an app designer. That's somebody posing as an app designer.
 
You needed the watch in hand to anticipate the thickness of someone's arm with a watch?!?! Really. About the same thickness as a regular wrist with watch. And with the varying sizes of people's wrists this is simply not thinking on their part. They developed the app without ever clueing into this hurdle.
 
I can understand some things being difficult to account for without having the actual product, but they had a team develop the app for :apple:Watch and didn't at any point think about the scanner when they were implementing the QR code? If fitting a phone under it only just works, how did they ever think a wrist with a watch on would fit under??
 
This is all too funny, yet totally expected. There are those scanners that scan up, that would require your to twist your arm into a wierd position, and there are those scanners that scan down, but require enough space to fit your arm. From what I have seen few airports have prepared for the watch implementation. I still carry a paper ticket in addition to the phone app, because I have run into issue on occassion.

It will take a year or two for the airlines to figure this out. TSA, on the other hand.....
 
I don't understand

Couldn't they have just worn a watch and tried to "scan" it under the scanner? It doesn't take a genius to pretend they're wearing an Apple Watch and decide if it's a good user experience.
 
While not having a device is certainly problematic...it should have been obvious that their wrist would not fit under the scanner in the first place.

----------
stiligFox said:
Can't you just, you know, take the watch off for a second while they scan it and put back on?
Click to expand...

No, the wrist detection would lock the device and put it back on the watch face. Unless you go into your phone and turn that off...but then you are holding your phone...
 
You can display a QR code on a Pebble. Would have been easy to do a quick guerrilla usability test to validate the concept. Sounds like their Tech team is just checking off boxes: iPhone app CHECK watch app CHECK
 
Lauren Goode from Re/Code reported the same thing on Virgin America in her review of the Apple Watch: http://recode.net/2015/04/08/a-week-on-the-wrist-the-apple-watch-review/

"You can also use Passbook on Apple Watch, though my one attempt was clumsy: After readying my Virgin America boarding pass, I found I couldn’t fit my wrist under the scanner at the airport boarding gate. I ended up holding up the line while I dug around for another copy of my boarding pass."
 
Qantas's predicament serves as a sort of warning for developing an app for the Watch before actually having the device in hands to test.
Click to expand...

No, it really doesn't. It serves as a sort of warning that you shouldn't leave the hard-of-thinking to design end-to-end solutions.

The Apple Watch's physical properties were well publicised months and months in advance - the fact is that the Qantas project team were obviously too intent on the cool and trendy software development for a new gadget they totally neglected to think about/examine the real-world requirements and the constraints of their own already in-place systems.
 
MacRumors said:
Unfortunately, while it's looking to "access" the problem, there is currently no planned fix.


@taufiqz Hi Taufiq, currently we're unable to scan boarding passes from the Apple watch, our team are aware of this and assessing. Kristyn - Qantas (@Qantas) April 26, 2015​
Click to expand...


You mean assess not "access" the problem
 
barkomatic said:
What drama. I suppose it might seriously injure some people if they just pull out their iPhone to get scanned.
Click to expand...
Yes, from what I read it would ruin their day. :cool: They bought the watch to save them from extracting their phone from pants or purse, and like-you-know, like-become-like-more-efficient. This will totally drain their psyche, shatter all self esteem.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back