Chatbot, payment, biometrics, WiFi: Air France presents its latest digital innovations

Yesterday, Air France presented its latest digital innovations to enhance the customer experience and make the journey smoother.

Some already seen elsewhere, some really interesting new things, some things on which we have more detailed analyses to come…in short, here is a quick overview and we will put some points in perspective soon.

An improved Air France application

First step: the Air France application, the point of contact that customers always have in their pocket, now includes some new features.

– One can now pay securely with Google Pay and Apple Pay.

– You will be able to enter your passport data only by…scanning your passport with the “Scan Passport” button.

– The indication of travel times in real time to the airport but, above all, the guidance of the passenger within the airport itself. It remains to be seen if all airports are covered…

– Real-time baggage tracking: each customer is informed, via a notification, of the different stages in the processing of his or her baggage and the number of the conveyor belt where it can be picked up on arrival. The long awaited project that was announced years ago and that we despaired to see coming. In any case, experiencing it on the Lufthansa application for a few months we can tell you that when it works it is really appreciable.

Biometrics for a smoother airport experience

Air France is currently experimenting with biometric boarding passes at baggage drop-off and with facial recognition.

In order to reduce airport waiting times, Air France is currently experimenting with biometric boarding passes at baggage drop-off and boarding using facial recognition.

When checking in via the Air France application or at a self-service kiosk at the airport, customers will be asked to scan their passport. The issued biometric card will then contain the passenger’s encrypted data in connection with his photo, while respecting the use of personal data. When dropping off luggage or boarding, the customer will only have to scan his boarding pass while an automatic machine will film him and identify him with facial recognition. Thus, within a few months, the reconciliation between biometric data and the customer’s image will make it possible to authorize the customer to drop off his or her luggage and to board.

A really fashionable subject on which there are many announcements these days and on which we will come back soon. Here again, behind the announcement effect, we have to see the time needed to deploy in a sufficient number of airports so that the passenger finds it convenient. That the airline makes it possible is an excellent thing, but it remains dependent on the airports and even on national legislation.

Finally Wifi on Air France

So Wifi on Air France is a running joke at TravelGuys. The authors actually met in 2014 on an Air France flight to New York on which we had been invited to test a Wifi device on a “pilot” aircraft. The lessons were learned from the experimentation, but since the time we wondered if it would ever happen.

Joking aside, Air France offers an offer called Air France CONNECT through which can now access three Wi-Fi plans from their own devices (smartphone, tablet, computer):

A free “Message” pass

It allows customers to send and receive messages from their smartphone or tablet for free during the entire flight. They can also access the airfrance website and the Air France application to consult or modify their reservations.

A “Surf” pass

It allows you to browse the Internet and to consult or send emails. Customers benefit according to the following offer:

– 3€ for the duration of the trip on short-haul flights;

– From 5€ for the duration of the trip on board medium-haul flights;

– 8€ (2700 miles) for one hour or 18€ (6000 miles) for the entire trip on long-haul flights.

A “Stream” pass

Available on all long-haul flights, it includes the benefits of the “Message” and “Surf” passes. The “Stream” pass allows you to benefit from high-speed Internet access for streaming and downloading during the entire flight for €30 (10,000 miles).

Wi-Fi is already available on Boeing 787s and will soon be available on Airbus A330s equipped with the new cabinand Boeing 777s. Wifi will also be available on all medium-haul aircrafts before the end of 2020.

We find the offer very well priced, especially with a message package that will delight a category of passengers who do not have the means or the desire to spend more.

There remains the speed at which it will be massively available and there the delay taken in the past makes that it does not matter when it will be necessarily late.

By the way….I was still at the time when AF Connect was the automated and multi-channel customer alert service in case of irregularity on his flight. Wording collision?

If in 2019 you don’t have your chatbot you’ve failed in your life

Air France joins the long list of businesses that rely on a chatbot for their customer service. And so after AVA at AirAsia, we present you Léa. And yes! Lea rhymes with hazard.(at least in French…)

This virtual assistant allows customers to stay in constant contact with the airline, and to assist them until the end of their trip. Available in French and English on Messenger, Lea is accessible from a link sent directly to customers by SMS or email. Customers can quickly receive information about their flight. Depending on the event, Lea sends them information on the proposed accommodation, certificates of delay or cancellation and compensation vouchers (meals, accommodation, transportation, etc.). The food voucher can be used directly as a means of payment with the boarding pass to be presented to the partners.

At any time, customers can ask to be put in touch with an Air France agent who will then resume the conversation.

Innovation is good but…

A nice announcement with some things you want to say ” well done ” and others… “finally…!”.

As geeky and technophile as we are at TravelGuys, we still have a strong sense of the importance of the human element in customer relationship. Technology speeds things up, allows for scale effects, but in the end there are humans who have a part to play.

To resume only the baggage tracking, and as we lived it just yesterday on a Frankfurt-Paris. Knowing that the suitcase was not taken on board is good, having an agent waiting for you at the exit of the plane to solve the problem is going to the end of things. And yet while traveling in eco on an airline on which we have no status! And out of its hub what is more!

Allowing the customer to bypass the chatbot to switch back to a human is a good idea rather than waiting to detect that the user is getting angry on his keyboard.

Biometrics if the equipment of the stopovers does not follow, wifi offers if the planes are not equipped ….

Digital innovation is a start, it is on the execution and the contribution of technology to a quality experience that the customer will judge. Because when robots are just gadgets, they also end up getting fired.