Portable Passenger Processing In Airports

Airports are complex environments that include lots of different devices and processes. One of which is the boarding process. For a passenger to board an aircraft, their boarding pass which can be a paper ticket printed at home, an airport printed boarding card, or a barcode on a phone has to be scanned. On the ticket is a barcode that contains the information that is needed by the airports systems to identify the passenger and validate that they are permitted to board the aircraft. A lot of passenger processing in the airports involves processing this barcode.

The device used to scan the barcode can either be a simple barcode scanner, or a boarding gate reader (BGR). BGR’s are usually positioned on pedestals, or the gate desks themselves. Agents (people that handle boarding operations for the airline) will take the passengers boarding pass and scan it on the BGR. Once a message is displayed to the agent that the passenger is good to board, then they will be allowed to go past and the agent will scan the next passengers boarding pass.

What if… Instead of the boarding gates being fixed to the pedestal or the agent’s desk. That they become portable. Allowing the agents the flexibility to easily board passengers while they are queued up. Even offering a personal service to some who cannot walk.

What if… The agent has the ability to walk down the line checking the passenger’s documents? Or if a passenger asks for help, the agent can check the passenger’s documents by scanning the barcode on their boarding pass.

What if… The airline wants to offer a personal service to their business and first class passenger’s by allowing them to scan a barcode and board the aircraft from the VIP lounge.

What if… The airport wants to be able to help passengers by scanning their boarding passes and being able to determine what gate the passenger should be at from the flight information that is on the boarding pass.

Imagine an airport where the flexibility and portability of using a mobile device that is locked down so that only the airports preferred application can run. Imagine loading a barcode reader on this device. Imagine what would happen if this device could run an application that will either query the airports system allowing the agent to assist the passenger or even board them on the aircraft.

Portable devices are becoming much cheaper and more powerful. For this example, I am talking about Android devices. I am sure that similar features could be implemented with IOS and Windows devices, but for this example I am focusing on Android because they are so easily available, cheap and a custom version of the operating system can be made with relative ease. Google Glass doesn’t fall into ease of customisation, but can be included in this example because of the flexibility that it offers to the airport systems.

Snapshot taken of a Samsung Note 2 running sample passenger processing code. (07/07/2013).

For this example, create an application that can read and decode barcodes. This functionality can be built into the application, or can be a separate application like ZXing (ZXing 2014 [Online]. Available at https://github.com/zxing/zxing [Accessed 06/07/2014]). These barcodes have a particular predefined format that gives the airport the ability to process passenger information and query airport systems. This application will need to be able to connect directly to the airport/airlines systems either through Wi-Fi for maybe even Bluetooth on a local boarding computer.

Snapshot taken on a Samsung Note 2. This is what the user sees when a barcode has been scanned.  (07/07/2013).

To assist a passenger, the passenger’s name and flight information can be extracted from the barcode allowing the airports systems to be queried for information about the passenger and the flight. With this information the agent will have the ability to direct the passenger to where they need to be.

To board a passenger, the application can either connect directly to the airports host system and act as a standard boarding gate reader (BGR) or connect to the hosts system directly using whatever method is available to allow the application to process the passenger’s information and board the passenger. By simulating a standard BGR, the application will be able to operate without changes needing to be made to the airlines application. Minimising changes to the airlines systems will make it easier for the airport to implement.

Graphic created to train the user when the application is launched. (07/07/2013).

Some airports are constantly redeveloping their terminals so that they can force the passengers to go through the shops. The terminals are getting better with more integrated security and passenger processing systems. As you can see, there are multiple ways in which a simple application will be able to improve not only the boarding process, but also the passenger experience. What it requires is innovation and vision. As I passenger I would like to see systems implemented that make airports more flexible in boarding and assisting passengers. Hopefully this type of application will be implemented on one of the flights that I take.

Clever use of frequent flyer points created from your fights

You catch a plane to your destination. All the while they keep telling you to get their frequent flyer points membership. If you are like me, then the first thought that comes to your mind is. Why do I want another company to spam me with mailings and emails? The second thought is then, if I do get a frequent flyer membership with this company. Will I ever be able to fly enough with this company to rack up points that could end up being worth something. Have you ever noticed that there isn't much that you can actually do with the points that are generated by your frequent flyer air miles?

It has recently come to my attention that the SAS Eurobonus points are worth more than just flights. Please note that I am not affiliated with SAS or Eurobonus. I do however have an Eurobonus points membership.

When I fly with different airlines, their frequent flyer mantra is usually that points can only be accumulated by the passenger. So as a family of four, to collect all the points, we have to have four different frequent flyer cards and the points generally don't amount to anything. The Eurobonus membership apparently allows you to pool your points from your whole family (http://www.flysas.com/family-pooling/?nssexc=true). Please note that I haven't tried this yet.

Now they even allow you to make calls with your mobile for free to other members mobiles (http://www.flysas.com/en/uk/travel-info/mobile-services/apps/eurobonusconnect/?WT.mc_id=UKEMtraffic_EB_Big22_FinalCall). And calls to landlines can be made using points. This opens up a whole new market. All they need to do is add text messaging and they will encourage the younger generation the get a membership card and use their app.

I have found from my experience that when booking a flight. I tend to favour the airlines that I have a frequent flyer membership with. This is taken into account when looking at the prices. This is all in the vain hope that the points will at some time be worth something useful. I haven't tried these advertised features yet, but am hoping that these features will continue to develop and expand so that they are useful for both the customer and airline. Well done SAS. Keep up the good work.

Wearable Boarding Experience when flying with SAA

I recently had to fly to South Africa and used SAA for this journey. I am not going to talk about the customer service or how the flight went. This is about my experience using an Omate TrueSmart watch to board the aircraft.

You could ask why I would try and board an aircraft using my watch. My answer is simple. I am wearing it, therefore I don’t need to pull a boarding pass out of my pocket or use one of my hands to hold it. Or because I can. But I have been working with computers long enough to know that you must always have a backup. I also printed out my boarding pass in case the watch failed in any way.

The Omate TrueSmart watch is a very nice Android JellyBean watch that was launched using a KickStarter campaign (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/omate/omate-truesmart-water-resistant-standalone-smartwa). The biggest issue that I have is its battery life which in my opinion is far too short for people who travel.

I installed an application from the Google Play Store called PassWallet (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.attidomobile.passwallet). This application can accept Passbook (.pkpass) files. I selected the option to receive my boarding pass as a Passbook file when I checked in online for the SAA flight. When I received the email on my watch, I opened the attachment and PassWallet immediately imported the file as shown in the picture.

At London Heathrow (Terminal 1), I passed through security using my watch. The document checking gates scanned the barcode immediately.

Boarding the aircraft took a bit more effort as they had to check my passport. They insisted on writing on my boarding pass that they had checked my passport. As I was boarding with a mobile device (phones will also have this issue), they couldn’t just scribble on my watch. For this step I had to produce my home printed boarding pass that I brought as a backup for them to scribble on. But once I got to the gate itself, the watch scanned immediately without an issue.

I really enjoyed using my watch to board the plane. I have previously boarded a plane using my 3G kindle (paper based) at JFK. But I much prefer using my watch to board the plane because it is something that I already have on me and I don’t have to carry a paper boarding pass. The only issues that I experienced when flying from London Heathrow were based on the fact that the procedures used by SAA at Heathrow do not match the functionality that they offer to their customers. If you offer a mobile boarding solution, then your procedures should allow for this eventuality.

I will definitely do this again given the opportunity.