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Quick Boarding with Lufthansa

August 27th, 2010

Lufthansa is one of the airlines which launched a self-boarding process in early 2008, one of the pioneers with SAS. Let us take a look how it works :

When you are travelling with etix® – Lufthansa’s electronic ticket– and have received a boarding pass with a printed barcode, you have the option of boarding your aircraft quickly and conveniently with this boarding pass. Just use our Quick Boarding machines at selected gates at Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin-Tegel, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Hanover, Hamburg and Bremen!

Place your boarding pass, with the barcode face down, onto the scanner. After a short verification, the gate will be released. Please remember to take your boarding pass with you. If your seat has changed at short notice, the Quick-Boarding-Gate will print out a new coupon with the latest details, which you can pick up as you pass through.

You can now enjoy even more relaxed boarding at Frankfurt and Munich airports. Easy to use and with gates that open automatically, the so-called ‘Quick-Boarding-Gates’ (QBGs) at Munich Airport already facilitate much quicker and more convenient access to the aircraft at all Lufthansa gates. QBGs are becoming increasingly available at Frankfurt.

Via lufthansa.com …

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PatentlyApple reported today that Apple has filed a patent for a travel app called iTravel that books flights, hotels and car reservations, as well as providing ticketless check-in using Near Field Communications (NFC), a short-range wireless technology.

Apple has already indicated its interest in the ticketing space by filing a patent for “Concert Ticket +”, an event ticketing system linked to iTunes. But this is the first indication that the company is actively looking to target the travel vertical.

The patent suggests that, as well as buying travel products, travellers will be able to use the app to pass through airline check-in and security without paper tickets or even a passport. The app could be used to wirelessly check in the traveller at the ticket counter, and using a combination of fingerprint or retina scan, identify them to airline and security personnel. The app with also allow travellers to check themselves in at the boarding gate and help them find their RFID-tagged luggage at the other end.

iPhones don’t currently have in-built NFC capabilities, but the technology is already widely used in Japan for mobile ticketing and payments. There are rumours that the next 4G iPhone will include NFC, and the filing of the iTravel patent certainly suggests the thinking at Apple is rapidly moving in this direction.

The ticketing function would need to be handled by a technology partner – something that a GDS, for example, would be keen to support.

In fact, a GDS could in theory handle the entire thing for Apple. Such developments like this at Apple Corp begin to shed some light on why a company like Google is potentially interested in a company like ITA Software.

But the point to make here is that whatever Apple does with iTravel it potentially changes the landscape once again.

A single piece of functionality like iTravel pretty much puts the search, buy, and trip management (such as check-in, security) experience direct into the user’s hand through one entry point.

It would be attractive to many users and therefore significant amounts of travel distribution would start to go through such adevice.

To be a part of that search and booking ecosystem is attractive to those involve, but not for those that are squeezed out.

It is now possible to imagine a digital travel sector dominated (even controlled) by just a handful of powerful players – those that run the devices and/or the distribution.

Read more on www.patentlyapple.com and www.tnooz.com …

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Trendwatch : Why simple, small & cheap appeals to all

April 12th, 2010

Source: www.trendwatching.com. One of the world’s leading trend firms, trendwatching.com sends out its free, monthly Trend Briefings to more than 160,000 subscribers worldwide.

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Ten reasons why 2010 is NOT the year of the mobile in travel

April 10th, 2010

Timothy O’Neil-Dunne wrote an excellent post on tnooz.com explaining why 2010 is NOT the year of the mobile in travel.

Read the post on tnooz.com …

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Ten reasons why 2010 is NOT the year of the mobile in travel

Jetstar airline to trial iPad hire with passengers

June 1st, 2010

Tnooz reports that Australian low-cost carrier Jetstar is the first airline in the world to announce a pilot project to give passengers a new Apple iPad for in-flight entertainment.

The trial, beginning later in June 2010, is not driven entirely by a slurp of the iPad Kool Aid – passengers will have to fork out $Aus 10 (£5/$8) for the privilege, meaning the airline stands to add something to its ancillary revenue target once costs are met.

The airline is working with Bluebox Avionics and Stellar Inflight to provide the software and iPad handsets. Bluebox recently announced an airline would using its system soon.

Passengers on Jetstar will be able to access movies, music, TV shows, games and e-books as part of the in-flight system for the airline.

Restricted to a handful of routes around Australia initially, Jetstar chief executive Bruce Buchanan says if successful the service will be extended across the airline’s domestic and international network.

Apple says around two million iPads have been sold since the product launch in April. The device went on sale in countries outside of the US last week.