The Travel Experience in 2022

I have long thought that the aviation industry has been falling short of leveraging technology to streamline the experience of the flyer, but I’ve never actually put any effort into diving deeper into the topic and assessing this assumption in any detail. So, let’s review this together.

I flew to Hyderabad in 2020 just before Covid, since then I’ve travelled to Portugal and back a couple of times, I’ve flown between the London, Gibraltar and also London and Malaga, and I’ve been to Malaysia and back. And at no point could I rely on the any of the airline’s apps to even even check-in without having to leave the app to complete the process for one reason or another. And if I had been interested in being able to order food on board, access the duty-free stores while cruising at 30,000 feet or upgrade my seat, I wouldn’t have been able to rely on the device I spend about three hours a day using to do this.

I understand that we’ve just come out of a global pandemic, however the technology allowed us to what I just described in 2015… before I start questioning why airlines may not be prioritising the creation of pioneering apps, lets look at what an ideal, app-based, travel experience could potentially look like.

1. Before I book my ticket, I set a notification in a notification centre so I can be informed if and when the price for my desired flight falls below a certain value.
2. in addition to this, I may have been suggested a trip based on previous journeys, any in-app surveys I may have completed, or data relating to my profile.
3. I book my ticket using the app (this can be done)
4. I receive a notification when I am able to check-in based on an algorithm which staggers notifications to avoid saturating seat selection vs users already checked in.
5. I check-in using the app and upload my ticket to the Wallet on my device (this can be done)
6. My app’s home screen now shows flight status details, my destination’s weather’s forecast and local and destination times.
7. My homescreen can also upsell me products and services based on my booking, including car hire, hotels, travel insurance, seat selection, meals, raffles, window seats, etc…
8. As my flight nears (and business class populates), I am able to view my upgrade options, and bid on available seats. An algorithm will eventually allocate upgrades to winning bids, clearing up space in economy for additional flyers, who will also receive push notification if the price point falls below the value defined in their notification settings as per point 1.
9. When on board I can connect to Wi-Fi after referring to the app as to how this can be done (either free or paid).
10. While cruising, I am able to call cabin crew from the app, order food, control the media sterminal in business and first class, request blankets, blindfolds, earplugs and upgrade my seats.
11. Before landing I am able to book a taxi or rent a car using one of the airlines preferred suppliers.
12. In the event of a stopover I can book access to a lounge in the airport I’ll be stopping-over in.
13. I can access destination airport information where available, such as carousel information, and passport control queue times.
14. Upon landing, I can access an airport map in the app, to find my way to where I need to go, such as car parks, taxi ranks, train stations or ferry terminals. This could also be surfaced as an augmented reality layer.
15. Having completed my flight, I am invited to take a survey in the app, rating my satisfaction of the various experiences relating to my journey, and asked to provide areas for improvement.
16. I am able to to donate to the airline’s charity while waiting to leave the plane.
17. Upon the completion of a successful journey, and while waiting either for passport control or for my luggage, I am invited to rate the app via a primer, and upon a positive interaction, am taken to the relevant app store to provide a review.

So, why hasn’t an experience like this been built? At first glance it looks as though an app which would facilitate the experience described above would at the absolute, very least, pay for itself. I expect though that considering how many upsell opportunities this would offer, as well as containing a loyalty programme layer, adverts and potentially exclusive offers delivered via push or IAM, the product would generate a profit which more than justified it’s creation.

A cursory search of LinkedIn suggests that Emirates have just two product managers working on their aviation tech products, and that the focus appears to be on the Skywards and Business Rewards Loyalty app and their Retail & Contact Centre Agents portal.

Another factor is obviously the fact that airlines took a massive financial hit during the Covid-19 pandemic, there’s no doubt that in one way or another this is going to impact the business’s investment and financial decisions.

Obviously I can’t make any statements with any certainty, and any I say here is mere speculation, however I can only presume that these areas of focus are expected to deliver a higher ROI than developing an app capable of offering an experience akin to the one I described above.

From the outside looking in, observations such as these will always be speculation in the absence of data and business objectives. However that doesn’t stop me from being curious as to the prioritisation process within the company in regard tot heir app strategy.