Lufthansa Helps You Check In to Gather Customer Information

Frankfurt, Germany - August 23, 2016: Aircraft of the Lufthansa company at the Frankfurt International airport. It is the busiest airport in Germany in terms of passenger traffic (Photo: iStock)

When AirlineCheckins launched, it served one goal: Help flyers get their seats and boarding passes for over 200 international airlines. But the company behind it – Lufthansa Group’s Digital Hub – had another reason for helping all customers. Through the convenience, the airline can find out global airline trends.

On the surface, AirlineCheckins.com appears to be a customer-oriented website: Flyers select their preferred seat and allow the system to check-in on their behalf. However, Skift reports there’s another reason AirlineCheckins and its parent company – Lufthansa Group – want to be helpful.

In an interview with airline executives, the digital arm of the German air carrier revealed the website lets them collect passenger data. Although they are extremely limited in what they can and can’t see, the information allows them to look at bigger airline and consumer trends.

What type of information do they get through flyer check-ins? Lufthansa chief digital officer Christian Langer told Skift Forum Europe the data ranges from which seats flyers want the most, to what they most often request before their flights.

In turn, Lufthansa can use those preferences to determine how to price extras on their low-cost subsidiary, Eurowings. Pricing for premium seat selections could change based on consumer preferences.

At first, AirlineCheckins began as an experiment to see what data they could collect. But as more flyers used it, the Digital Hub started building more features, like automatic check-in. While the convenience helps passengers get a better seat, the group says it’s not popular among competing carriers. Because check-in is an opportune time to offer upgrades or seat auctions, the digital executives say other airlines are tolerant about their work – but not entirely happy about it.

“Everybody is afraid of losing the touchpoint to the customer,” Langer told Skift. “Check in is a very good kind of checkpoint because it’s about 24 hours before the flight.”

[Photo: Shutterstock]