As airline technology leaps forward and impacts Hawaii-bound travelers, one of the latest developments is coming to the second bellwether Hawaii carrier, innovative Alaska Airlines. It goes like this.
“Alaska Airlines has become the first US airline to adopt Ditto’s Intelligent Edge Platform as part of its new flight attendant enterprise app,” the company said. Ditto said, “It’s essential for them to access real-time safety data and passenger preferences.” There we go with passenger preferences again. We wrote about marketing to passenger preferences yesterday in Is Hawaii Flight WiFi Really Free? | 5 Hrs Of Marketing.
Alaska Airlines’ Ditto Intelligent Edge Platform.
A fascinating new comprehensive toolset will soon be rolling out on Alaska Airlines Hawaii flights. It will provide real-time communication between cabin crew without requiring in-flight Wi-Fi connectivity.
The goal is to enhance crew collaboration wherein Hawaii flight attendants can communicate and delegate efforts during flights without running back and forth between galleys.
“Ditto will synchronize all sales, crew, and passenger data in real-time, ensuring consistency, merging with the cloud when the internet is available.” So what does that mean? Read on.
1. Onboard ordering. With connectivity to the Alaska Airlines travel app, this will provide passengers with real-time food and beverage ordering in-flight. If there’s no more ginger ale, that should become obvious to the passenger and flight crew.
2. Passenger information. No details are on the vendor website, but all current and past flight and frequent flier information should be available. We can imagine a variety of possibilities that might yield, including such things as “Passenger in 12D became inebriated on their last flight” or the person in 2A spent $X with Alaska Airlines last year. It could also alert the crew to a potential issue or health problem with a passenger.
Another way it could be used is to personalize the experience for premium passengers. For example, your preferred name, special requests, and more.
What do you think about this new in-flight technology?
Introduction to Ditto.
Ditto says it is “A cross-platform peer-to-peer database that allows apps to sync with and even without internet connectivity. Install Ditto into your application, then use the APIs to read and write data into its storage system, and it will then automatically sync any changes to other devices.
Unlike other synchronization solutions, Ditto is designed for “peer-to-peer” synchronization, where it can directly communicate with other devices even without an Internet connection.
In addition, Ditto automatically manages the complexity of using multiple network transports, like Bluetooth, P2P Wi-Fi, and Local Area Network, to find and connect to other devices and then synchronize any changes.”
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Bill M says
Bad Idea.
Another opportunity to use personal data to become even More intrusive into our private lives.
I want the opportunity to “Opt Out” to sharing any and all data!
Better yet..they should be forced to require passengers to”Opt In” first.
Lui, K says
Just another excuse to reach deeper in the customers pocket!!!
haolenate says
Some of ya are reading Way too far into this. Alaska Airlines FAs already get a LOT of information on each passenger:
– frequent flyer status with Alaska or One World Partners
– connecting flight
– any problems in the past, not necessarily behavior related. eg cancelled flights, missed bags, etc.
– preferred name
– # of flights taken, etc
Hotels do this *right now*. When you check in at a Hilton/Marriott/etc, there is a “GSR” score for each of you – Guest Service Recovery – they keep track of problems you’ve had, along with your point balance and status.
so yeah, Not a violation of privacy, but its a better way to serve you. Sounds like the new app will also keep track of your drink orders & food purchases.
MJ says
I only have one request about this:
We need a federal regulation stating that any such data retained about a passenger should be available to that person upon request, and a method of correcting errors provided.
Sherri S says
While I think “alerts,” particularly about a passenger’s potential unsafe behavior, might be helpful to a flight crew, it might also lead them to look for and find trouble where there is none. Frequent flyers should also not receive more attention and preferential treatment than the rest of us. We’re all paying customers, whether it’s our first flight or our 100th.
haolenate says
Then don’t fly Alaska. MVP Golds and higher get a free complimentary drink in main cabin, and 100Ks get a free small snack item.
Top tier frequent flyers spend more time in the air than most, more hassles than most folks, and its one of the few rewards they get (because the upgrades have dropped to abysmal levels!)
Tony says
Having been that frequent flyer and if you think it is glamorous you have to not been traveling. So understanding those that fly more vs the infrequent flyer is important. More revenue is generated by the Frequent Flyer and getting a bit more dialed in to what the preferences are of those fliers generates more revenue. Nothing wrong about flying 3 or 4 times a year. Just understand that the routine of flying every week means we got the process down and want to simply get home or to our next meeting with not a lot of hassle..Give those a little perk if you want to call it. Or just pay for first class….
Janet H says
Big Brother. I don’t like it. I can see a benefit to identify problem passengers. That’s a safety issue. Aside from that, it’s an invasion of privacy. Stores do it, I know. Google monitors us to target ads it sends out. I don’t want the airline to know my spending habits or what I had to eat on my last flight.
Eldo R. says
Purely speculative, short on facts, and, with all due respect, much ado about nothing.
Looking forward to all of the outraged complaints about airlines’ flight attendants violating passenger privacy, when all of this info and more is readily available to any ticket agent or TSA agent. Personally, I couldn’t care less if the flight attendants keep a database on which type of soft drink I ordered, and how many times I ask for a refill on my salted nuts allotment.
Sherri S says
Ticket agent and TSA agents are different than flight crews as are their job focus. I don’t want flight crews having my background info.
Roy says
I agree with you. This info keeping thing happens all the time anyway like it or not. It’s just part of living in our world.
Eldo R. says
Indeed. Reading through some of these comments, people are getting hysterical. They should all go back and read the original article. It’s all speculation. So far, all we really know is that the flight attendants will be able to communicate amongst themselves more quickly, to provide passengers with the drink and food selections that they desire. That’s it. But my God, everyone’s already yelling about “big brother.”. Fascinating…
Janet H says
You seem to be very willing to let us all know that we’re over reacting to this. Isn’t that just what you’re doing to the rest of us? Your comments are really condescending. You seem to be questioning our reading comprehension. We aren’t idiots. We all read the article. We are entitled to our opinions. That’s just what they are – our opinions. Personally, I don’t like this intrusion from any company. It is my right to feel this way. You only needed to say it once. We get your drift.
TonyD says
Wish government would restrict data collection and use, and simply take possession of any company which violates the law. I’m a lifelong computer guy, and, for example, one project was with WalMart. They have cameras and audio pickups well hidden throughout the store. They use facial recognition on everybody and look up everything about you. Phone bills, credit card records, utility bills, address, every store visit, purchases, Twitter and Facebook posts, as well as lots of data that is collected by the NSA data collection subcontractors (used by NSA since, by law, the NSA itself can’t spy on you.) They build webs of connections between you and other people, and give you “grades” in various categories. This is just too easy to abuse.
Dee D. says
That is more intrusive than I would like. If crew want to communicate about inventory or problems, fine, but forget any overarching identifying information.
patrick says
It’ll be to disruptive! How will the flight attendants be able to catch on all the gossip if they can’t hang out in the galley with constant interruptions from the passengers ordering stuff. 😉