GMC917

Whether it's to do with ticketing, check in, baggage, flight changes, or anything else, what's a service relating to commercial air travel that you feel is either missing or could be improved upon? I'm interested in hearing any and all ideas, no matter if involves a physical airport location or if it's strictly online/telephone based.

I'm an entrepreneur looking to start a business targeted towards frequent flyers, and I figured the FlyerTalk community would be a great place to ask.

Thanks!

Cholula

GMC917, welcome to FlyerTalk. We're going to move this to a more apropos forum.

Pls follow at its new home.


________________________
Cholula
CommunityBuzz! Co-Moderator

Qwkynuf

Wouldn't a better question be "Frequent Flyers, What's a Business/Service you wish existed, and would be willing to pay for?"

Jasper2009

Welcome to Flyertalk!

I suppose my #1 request would be priority immigration/customs:

- priority immigration for J/F pax is quite common in several Asian countries (as well as a handful of other countries such as the UK and Australia), but is non-existent (or extremely limited) in other countries
- VIP service can be arranged at most airports (outside North America), but the cost varies from "very reasonable" ($50-$150) to astronomical ($2k-$3k)

Otherwise I would love to see a website/database with contact information (phone #, e-mail address, name of general manager and e-mail address) for hotels, or at least chain hotels. I can't say how much time I've wasted trying to locate such information.

s0ssos

Luggage delivery, like Yamato Takkyubin

Terminal return services for airports whose rental car center is far away (via shuttle or something), for those times you have luggage and do not want to have to get to the airport half or one hour earlier because how long it takes to get to the terminal after dropping off the car

mecabq

How about a laundry at the airport, where you can leave your stuff when departing and pick it up when you return or vice-versa? Coupled with luggage storage; imagine having your small garment bag ready to pick up as you're taking a trip, especially in destinations where one takes public transport to the airport.

I realize that the traveler who would spring for such a service is also the one who could afford to pay for express service at the hotel in the arriving city, but even many upscale hotels don't have dry-cleaning overnight since they send it out. And I still don't like paying $40 for express dry cleaning at a major city hotel when it's available.

I remember one airport in Europe (ZRH? VIE?) that had a dry-cleaner in the attached shopping concourse and one in Asia.

Also a 30-minute dry cleaning/pressing airside or at an arrival lounge would be nice, though with more limited applications may not be viable. I am surprised that no airline has added this feature to its lounge (to my knowledge). Like for business trips where it would be nice to drop your suit off before catching your red-eye flight and heading to work the next day or having it done while you shower in the arrival lounge.

Toshbaf

[QUOTE=GMC917;28679990]Whether it's to do with ticketing, check in, baggage, flight changes, or anything else, what's a service relating to commercial air travel that you feel is either missing or could be improved upon? I'm interested in hearing any and all ideas, no matter if involves a physical airport location or if it's strictly online/telephone based.


1. Prepaid futures on airplane tickets. For example, one could buy 5 LAX-JFK roundtrips at a set price good for 2017-2019. If they are not used, tough luck. If they are used, they can be used for any flight (or any flight as long as there is 6 days advanced booking).

2. Guaranteed overhead bin space so that one can board at the last minute.

3. Reliable and instant bookings in case of flight problems. For example, when I was aboard a plane at the departure gate, the flight was cancelled due to weather. There was then a long wait to get off the plane and wait to get rebooked. Instead, I ran to the ticket counter landside, but that took time.

This is hard to promise because some operators are slow.

4. Reminder service to keep frequent flyer accounts and hotel accounts and other frequent traveler accounts active. Alert people of how and when to keep accounts alive.

s0ssos

This one exists already. AwardWallet is one I commonly hear

Annalisa12

More massage services or things to kill time. An airport lounge is great the first few times then it is boring.

s0ssos

Free or paid?
Incheon is like a shopping mall. Singapore has gardens (multiple, butterfly, cactus) and a video game area and movie area and sleeping area.

west49th

Pay as you go shower facilities in public areas so that those of us who can't access premium arrival lounges can freshen up after a long flight.

There's a couple at LHR, Yotel at CDG and one in JFK, but they seem to be few and far between. It would also be good to have the option to just pay for a shower, rather than have to pay for full two hour lounge access if you just want a quick shower before you head off.

AlanInDC

ability to buy groceries like milk, fruit, veggies, bread after arrival. after a longish trip like transcon or europe/asia to dulles, my kitchen is bare. i'd pay some premium but not crazy prices. frankfurt airport has such a market.

Annalisa12

I'm happy to pay if it kills the time. In Singapore we've left The Private Room to have an hour massage.

mdkowals

A layover app that reads your pulls information from your itinerary and gate information from flight tracker and can quickly provides information useful to your layover (highest rated restaurants on path from gate A to B, best ways to get from A to B, alerts if you need to do something unexpected like leave and re-enter security, or if the commuter system between terminals is down). It can provide you a quick report to look through while you've landed and are taxiing into your arrival gate to make for an efficient, informed, layover.


You can set your preferences before getting on your first plane so it gives you a text alert when you land.


"i.e. Welcome to DFW. You are arriving at gate E24 and your next plane departs from gate D17. It should take 8-10 minutes to get there, including time on the Skylink. You requested that you would like wine and a currency exchange during this layover. The currency exchange closest to your route is at gate D22, the highest rated restaurant serving wine on your route is Viva Vino at gate E20" ,


You can then open the app and there is a map with the route and places that perform your desired services highlighted.

sbm12

Many major European airports have this IME. I love it.
Not perfectly what you're looking for, but take a look at https://getgrab.com/, at least for the airports it supports the ability to do the restaurants along the path (and even pre-order) is pretty slick.