British Airways buys 15,000 iPhone XR units for cabin crew
As part of a major investment in customer relations enhancements, British Airways on Wednesday announced plans to outfit its 15,000 cabin crew employees with an iPhone XR loaded with personalized in-flight service apps.
According to the airline, each of the 15,000 phones will contain a selection of apps designed to provide travelers with additional assistance during flights.
Crew can use their iPhone XR to access customer information, including previous flights and meal preferences, enabling on-the-spot care and service personalization. British Airways employee Bradley Smith said the device is already proving useful at serving customer needs.
"Recently, when a customer realized that he had forgotten to order a special meal, he was really impressed when I quickly took out the phone, logged onto ba.com and ordered a meal for his return journey - all within a matter of minutes in the middle of the flight," Smith said.
The iPhone XR rollout is part of a 6.5 billion pound investment in upgrading the airline's customer service experience and follows a pilot program that equipped senior crew with iPads. Whether the tablet-based initiative will continue is unknown.
British Airways also relies on iPad at Heathrow Airport, where customer service agents use the device to answer customer queries. The airline on Wednesday announced an additional multi-million pound investment in training for airport staff.
Air carriers around the world are turning to Apple products and services in efforts to modernize operations. United was among the first when it replaced bulky flight manuals with 11,000 iPads in 2011. The same airline equipped more than 23,000 flight attendants with iPhone 6 Plus units to handle onboard transactions and view internal documents.
More recently, Delta in June became the first airline to adopt Apple's Business Chat feature to interface with customers via iMessage.
According to the airline, each of the 15,000 phones will contain a selection of apps designed to provide travelers with additional assistance during flights.
Crew can use their iPhone XR to access customer information, including previous flights and meal preferences, enabling on-the-spot care and service personalization. British Airways employee Bradley Smith said the device is already proving useful at serving customer needs.
"Recently, when a customer realized that he had forgotten to order a special meal, he was really impressed when I quickly took out the phone, logged onto ba.com and ordered a meal for his return journey - all within a matter of minutes in the middle of the flight," Smith said.
The iPhone XR rollout is part of a 6.5 billion pound investment in upgrading the airline's customer service experience and follows a pilot program that equipped senior crew with iPads. Whether the tablet-based initiative will continue is unknown.
British Airways also relies on iPad at Heathrow Airport, where customer service agents use the device to answer customer queries. The airline on Wednesday announced an additional multi-million pound investment in training for airport staff.
Air carriers around the world are turning to Apple products and services in efforts to modernize operations. United was among the first when it replaced bulky flight manuals with 11,000 iPads in 2011. The same airline equipped more than 23,000 flight attendants with iPhone 6 Plus units to handle onboard transactions and view internal documents.
More recently, Delta in June became the first airline to adopt Apple's Business Chat feature to interface with customers via iMessage.
Comments
Makes me wish Apple took iPod more serious for restaurants and retail.
Using your example of a volume discount of 46.5% off, BA would pay $282 for each iPad mini with cellular (from $529), instead of $400 for each iPhone XR (from $749). That is over $1.7 million difference.
The screen size provides more practical real-estate for apps used to check off the passenger manifest as they board, update the cabin maintenance log on the go, capture reportable incidents using the rear camera, do all their on the pre-flight and in-flight admin, check passengers into connecting flights, use multiple apps side by side, and a whole lot more on a hand-portable device that has the same processor internals as the XR but has a more usable 7.9" screen.
The problem with your argument is that you assume you know better than BA when it comes to the needs of its cabin crew, which of course you don’t.
You also assume sure that the main driver behind the decision is money, which it wasn’t, or they could have just given everyone a cheap Android phone.
You also assume that Apple would be willing to offer the same discount on all devices.
Yup, usual problem: mistaking assumptions for facts.
There might have been better ways to use that money to make for a better experience. “How to be nice to customer” courses maybe. Or “A smile once in a while won’t kill anyone” stickers.
Or maybe start by treating employees fairly by paying them a decent salary.