pythonisman

I think this kind of thing can be really useful if used well, and discreetly as part of service. I recently flew EK J for the first time to Australia and back and technology (phones for regular crew, tablets for senior crew/managers) were heavily used by EK during the service.

I don't take it out on the crew, as on a 380 the J cabin is large and the service feels rushed (yet is still slow) - personally though I found it quite offputting whenever someone brought something to me, or was taking orders, that they'd look at me and smile, say "hello Mr..." while they look down at their phone and thumb something "pythonisman, would you be joining us for lunch?".

Yes, they're saying my name, but as the interaction is between me, them and their device it completely lacked any sense of being genuine. I expect it's hard, given the size of a J cabin to make a connection feel genuine, but the devices certainly didn't help with that.

I had a BA flight recently where a CSM prided himself on having excellent name recall - to the point where he greeted us by name several times during the flight without deferring to anything, it certainly felt much more special (and that was in WTP!)

Just my 2 cents anyway. If it can help with misconnects, irrops and service recovery that's a different kettle of fish and I'm all for it.
(And agree the cover in the media piece is not attractive in the slightest)

PUCCI GALORE

Have you met her. Dear? I have. I flew with her VLC - LGW. Whatever her background (which she did tell me) she is certainly engaged in and engaging in what she does. Above all she listens and she wants to know. I liked her and we had a most interesting chat. I repeated a lot of those complaints that I found the most valid and the most repeated here. I added one or two of my own. I liked her a lot. Since a Geek as you rather unkindly describe her is defined as "an unfashionable or socially inept person ". She was beautifully turned out and if she is socially inept, I Pucci am one of the Marx Brothers. I just hope that she never gets to read that. I can assure you that she is doing her best to get the product back where it should be.

As for the phones if they assist customer service and allow a better service for passengers - tight connections come immediately to mind - then I have no problem with this.

alex67500

I've had an interesting experience with them in 2011, flying LCY-AMS-SXB, and of course the LCY-AMS was very delayed, so when I got there the last SXB flight was gone. All this automation meant that I wasn't allowed to speak to anyone until I kicked up a bit of a minor fuss. I wanted to get rebooked to FRA or STR and get someone to pick me up from there. I get that it's reassuring to have your hotel voucher by simply scanning your boarding pass at their machines, but I had options in mind, but as a no-status Y passenger nobody would speak to me, it was "use the computer and don't speak to us". All in all they saved a hotel voucher by re-issuing a boarding pass manually...

fransknorge

Can I help you : do you know what will be the access policy when on duty downroute (nightstops) or out of the plane ? Will they be able somehow to access all customers or just the passengers of the last flight, or nothing at all ?

Ancient Observer

Er, BA, sensitive personal information widely distributed, and IT.
What could possibly go wrong?

Robespierre

jplondon

I hope so too. Not a great thought to have larger teams with full access to all this information.

IAMORGAN

Jimmie76

Where I work we have iPads that can access customer information. To be able to use the iPad you need a login which just unlocks it. Then to actually access the customer information you need to log in to the app. This requires your ID and a password which must be at least so many characters long include numbers special characters etc.

That will allow you access to the app but you still need to have been approved for access to customer info. If not you just see a blank fields that would otherwise show information. You also need to know certain information about the customer to be able to search. If the app isn't used for a certain period of time it logs out and if the iPad locks the same happens. The information isn't held on the iPad but securely on our servers. You can only access it through our iPads using our own dedicated encrypted wifi network. I expect would hope BA had something similar in place.

subject2load

TWEED1A

Whilst this may have changed, my understanding is that only the operating crew can access the PIL for that flight. And I believe that you can only look up flights within a certain date range too - something like -1/+3 days. Presumably long enough so that the crew can access the PIL for legitimate reasons (e.g. to leave notes for the next crew to aid with things like service recovery). That's how the SCCM version of the app works/worked, but it may change for the main crew version.

Likewise, as corporate managed devices, they require both an Apple passcode to unlock the device, and then the individual user's BA credentials to get access to the BA-specific apps. Access will also time out after a pre-determined period of time. If it were lost, the device could then be locked and wiped remotely.

Deltus

None of that is sensitive personal information though, according to GDPR:

I'd be surprised if BA holds much of that about its passengers at all.

SteveF

evacboy

bmibaby737