Temkin says technologies like auto check-in, along with JetBlue’s mobile app, are steps toward giving customers more self-service options, which is especially important during delays due to weather events or mechanical problems.
“Technology is key to helping people get over some of those disruptive situations,” Temkin says. “The problem with those situations is that they hit a lot of people at once, it’s not like it happens to one or two people, it happens to hundreds at once. You can’t solve that problem with human beings.”
With Apple Pay on board, passengers no longer have to search for their credit cards to make inflight purchases. (Click for larger image.)
Auto check-in also helps to reallocate the availability of JetBlue employees toward more critical interactions, instead of ones that could be completed more efficiently with technology.
“Instead of spending time checking you in, which the technology has now already done for you, I have the time as a crew member to think about how I can be one of three things: helpful, personal and simple,” says Sophia Mendelsohn, JetBlue’s head of sustainability and a key member of the team working on the check-in process.