Airlines may soon know more about you than your spouse

Data being collected by airline customer relationship managers will be used to ease travellers through every stage of a flight experience from ticket and ancillary product purchase, airport check-in and departure, and the flight itself.

“There will come a time when sophisticated airline systems will know much more than a passenger’s name, address and frequent flyer number,” says David Chambers, regional vice president of Sabre Airline Solutions, Asia Pacific.

“They’ll know how much the passenger paid the last time he or she flew, whether they purchased a meal, a lounge pass or for advanced boarding.

“All this will be cooked into a real-time pricing and customer relationship management (CRM) equation, so that when that travell er next books an airfare, the airline will have tracked the customer’s preferences and will come up with a price and seat that meet his or her needs.”

Chambers said the shackles were coming off as airlines moved forward with CRM to tailor the flight experience to the individual traveller.

He said that when low cost carriers first came to market in the industry, comparisons between their offering and that of full-service carriers focused squarely on the onboard product – whether they served food, provided blankets, amenity kits, etc, and of course, the air fares.

“However, these days, conversations revolve not just around the in-flight experience, but also the pre-flight experience, and how seamlessly these two experiences merge.”

He said with the help of technology, LCCs are finding themselves very much on a level playing field with full-service carriers.

“LCCs are able to harness the latest in technology to provide customer services that even some full-service carriers have not embraced.

“Many LCCs are early adopters of new technology solutions that are developed to improve the entire customer experience for travellers – that is, from point of booking to point of boarding.

Chambers said LCCs had taught network airlines a lot about simplified airfares, branded airfares and multiple channel distribution.

“But technology works both ways, and the LCCs have had to take on more of the network carriers’ capabilities.”

The LCCs, he added, were at different stages of development but some, like Virgin Blue, were keen to attract the business market.

“Virgin Blue has not fully evolved to where it wants to be, but network development and ways to court the business traveler are priorities,” Chambers said.