With a goal of having every in-flight crew member armed with a tablet by April of 2015, JetBlue Airways on Thursday announced an ambitious plan to begin using iPad minis on-board as a point of sale and document management device.
The project will begin with crew members who will be working flights for Mint - JetBlue's new premium service offering between New York (JFK) and Los Angeles (LAX) and, shortly, San Francisco (SFO).
Joanna Geraghty, Executive Vice President of Customer Experience for JetBlue, said the innovation was the next logical step in service.
"It's clear the connected cabin is the next big thing," she said, "and with the introduction of iPad minis, our inflight crew members will be able to know more about our customers onboard and will have a better sense of real time opportunities and challenges on the ground as we look for ways to enhance our customers' experience with that information. With this new tool, the possibilities are endless."
In addition to deploying tablets, the airline is also debuting the In-Flight Service Assistant (IfSA), a purpose-built application and crew portal through which crew members can access key business applications. JetBlue also plans on releasing other core business applications that will provide crew members with easy access to any forms, manuals and other resources that will streamline its operation and enhance the airline's award-winning service.
Currently, JetBlue's inflight crew members can use the IfSA app on their iPads to access an electronic manifest that not only shows if there are customers with special needs onboard, but also identifies TrueBlue and Mosaic customers. The iPads also assist crewmembers in completing onboard purchases as a point of sale device and contains translation technology that can translate questions, comments or concerns from customers in any language.
In addition, by the end of the year JetBlue hopes to potentially provide crew members with limited access to customers' JetBlue flight and onboard purchase history in an effort to personalize the onboard experience for better customer relationship management.
"By giving our crew members tablets to use onboard, we can increase our product offerings and marketing capabilities," said Rachel McCarthy, JetBlue's Vice President Inflight Experience.
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