British Airways plans to roll out iPad customer service to all its flights

British Airways which has been running trials of using iPad for its staff to provide customer service on-board has plans to implement the service onto all its flights very soon. The airline which has been using the iPad customer service app to provide to provide its on-board crew with real-time insight into customers preferences across a whole range of areas, from special meal requests to onward travel plans has found that this has resulted in helping add a personalized touch to their customer service and also deal with specific needs of its frequent flyers.

The app which is configured to run on a 3G enabled iPad2 is based on the British Airways in-house Enhanced Service Platform app, which helps cut down the usage of tonnes of paper for passenger manifest and meal preferences etc. The airline going forward will feed all the necessary info onto the app for the crew to utilize the same and obtain data for the passengers on-board to serve them effectively. The airline states that the data in the app is password protected and hence accessible only to authorized personnel thereby relieving any data privacy fears.

All in all i think this is very good move as it helps the airline cut down on its wasteful expenditure on paper which in turn is a good initiative. also it enhances customer experience by providing the crew with the necessary info to serve its frequent flyers in a much better way by accessing their data online and also take necessary notes which they can use as future reference to make sure issues like broken In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) and other technical or personal issues can be minimized by taking action at the earliest.

British Airways is still trialling the personal iPad usage for its premium customers and plans to take a decision regarding the soon. All these steps may soon turn traveling into an altogether different experience in itself.