Check in and board with a duty free QR code

Airline passengers will soon be able print their boarding pass, scan, check-in, board and also buy duty free goods, when QR codes start appearing on their custom delivered boarding passes.

QR scanning apps are now widely available for mobile devices as they facilitate the ease of transfer from the printed word to a web page which can provide comprehensive product information. They are a huge success in the Far East, especially Japan and South Korea and now leading retailers, like Tesco in the UK, are using them to enhance promotional offers.

Simply, consumers see the QR code on a poster, news or journal page and scan the code to gain more knowledge directly on the web.

Securidox believe that the inclusion of a QR code on their securely delivered airline boarding passes will not only enable the passengers’ smooth transit through their airport, but also it will take them immediately to the airline’s onboard sales portal.

When asked about the test, Mark Scott MD of Securidox said, “ID is essential, but a boarding pass is the one piece of paper that every passenger must have to travel. We will add web page specific QR codes to each of our boarding passes, so that the mobile traveller can then scan for pre-flight offers. We are exploring and developing this idea with Ivor Smith of dutyfreeonarrival.com who has secured QR codes and duty free web page data for every world airline.”

Ivor Smith Founder of dutyfreeonarrival.com said “we have a multi-lingual webpage for every airline in the world and we receive hundreds of search strings every day asking for links to in-flight duty free catalogues. The consumer wants to buy and he wants to buy through technology, but he is having difficulty finding his way to the store. This is why he asks us. With the Securidox initiative, he can now print, scan and buy through a simple link affiliation mechanism.”

The QR code demo will be introduced to the airline trade at the Airline Information “Mega Event”, which takes place in Miami, Nov 29/30 and conference participants will be asked to test the technology with their devices and make a purchase.

Mark Scott added, “The hidden benefit of these codes is that (not only) can they be targeted to a specific offer, but also detailed analytics can be collected from each user. Longer term, the facility could be linked to a passenger’s Loyalty account. But the real benefit is that the passenger starts thinking and searching how to ‘buy-on-board’, before he arrives at the airport.”

The current Airline share of the world duty free market is only 7%, so the parties to this test believe that an initiative which will take the passenger direct to the airline shop before he flies, can help to increase sales.

Onboard sales, check before you fly… scan, board, buy and fly!