Three Ideas That Could Change Air Travel Forever

[KamaAina]

https://www.yahoo.com/travel/three-ideas-that-could-change-air-travel-forever-124201386.html

In a great article this week, Fast Company recounts three radical ideas from the innovative air-travel design shop Teague, which played a big part in designing the 787 Dreamliner and which, earlier this week, presented its latest vision at the Airline Passenger Experience Association Conference (yes, there is one, and it’s going on now). These ideas, as Fast Company puts it, “totally disrupt air travel.” If you weren’t at APEX (and we’re guessing most of you were not), herea are the three innovations offered by Teague principal brand strategist Devin Liddell, whose company had the chutzpah to imagine an entirely new kind of airline — a fictional vision they named Poppi — and dared to ask these three questions:

What if planes carried no carry-on baggage?
I know, I know. Your first instinct is that this would suck. Where would you put your bag of crap inflight necessities. But Teague’s point is that you don’t need all that crap necessities with you. You really only need a personal item — really, how often do you really open the overhead bin during the flight to get something? It’s so rare (and so annoying when some noob does it) that it’s frankly amazing that no one ever questioned the need for it before. Plus, so much time is wasted trying to board everyone with their carry-on bags, clogging the aisles while trying find space in the overhead bin. If that entire time suck was eliminated, Liddell calculates we could improve the speed of boarding by 71% — and shave off $25 million in fuel costs each year due to less weight. Teague even has an idea for what to do with the savings: use them to deliver checked luggage right to passengers’ hotel rooms. Of course, no one can promise passengers will see the benefit of that savings, but hey a design studio can’t do everything.

What if middle seats were the best seats on the plane?
Teague suggests turning middle seats into a “promotional class,” instead of the “totally screwed class,” by inviting forward-thinking brands to take over the seats and offer those middle passengers something different. The brands would get a captive audience and the passenger would get an exclusive gift box, or maybe the chance to test out new games, or nab a huge discount off custom items if they purchase them while inflight. Liddell points out that in this scenario, everyone wins: airlines can make money by selling the seats to brands, brands get access to the passenger, and the passenger gets some exclusive swag.

What if airlines offered membership programs?
Teague isn’t limiting its thinking to plain old miles programs. Instead, Liddell asked: What if you could pay an annual fee to an airline and get perks and privileges, the way you do from Amazon Prime, for example, or enroll in a plan to purchase pre-paid flights? “Without a doubt, introducing the membership model in some way to air travel would have the most positive effect for both passengers and airlines,” Liddell told Yahoo Travel. “This concept, which is so important to the Poppi experience, would help airlines escape fare commoditization, and give passengers far more rewarding and meaningful ways to engage with the airline than what airlines offer now.” For instance, in the Poppi exercise, the airline has an app that would allow passengers to resell their seats. A transaction fee would go to the airline (again Teague is always looking to make all parties come out with a win), but it’s the passengers who’d be in control of the swap. “Membership models could totally transform an airline,” Liddell continued, “from its revenue streams to its long-term relationships with passengers. You don’t like our idea for no luggage in the cabin? Fine. But take a long look at what a membership model could do for your brand. For the happiness of your passengers and the happiness of your bottom line.”

[Brickbat]

1. "in this scenario, everyone wins: airlines can make money by selling the seats to brands, brands get

access to the passenger, and the passenger gets some exclusive swag."

Oh, thank god someone finally thought of the brands for once.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

3. Window/aisle seat people lose 'cuz they'll never luck into being next to an empty middle seat again.

[Boomer]

2. Do these people ever fly?

No one brings a carry-on bag because they need the items during flight. We bring it because the airline will probably lose our luggage, so we need some essentials while waiting for them to find it.

And being the target of commercial spam in the middle seat turns it from "totally screwed class" to a new circle of Hell.

[Bluenorthwest]

6. Probably? I've had lost luggage one time in a lifetime of flying. It sucked, but it's not what will

probably happen. It's people dragging a bunch of crap the probably will not need at all into a place where space is limited and access to that crap is difficult. It's like calling the fire department with no fire, insisting that your house will probably burn down when in reality it probably won't.

[ScreamingMeemie]

7. Right? In my 45 years of life (and I have flown a lot), the airline only

"lost" our luggage once... when I was 5... on a blizzard-delayed flight from O'Hare to Rochester. They delivered it to our house the next day. Not a big hardship.

[Gormy Cuss]

16. I had the same bag diverted three times in two years

and since then, had luggage miss flights at least once every 2-3 years back when I was doing a lot of business travel. Not a big deal when I was heading home or n vacation, but waiting a day or two to get business attire and business supplies WAS time consuming and costly.

That said, the main reason that business travelers don't check bags is they don't want to wait or may not have the time to wait for checked bags to come off the carousel. I did a lot of short trips where I needed more than a small personal item-sized bag because of business supplies that could not be shipped to the site far enough in advance. We got off the plane, went straight to the site and worked all day only to fly on late that night to the next destination. A week of these hops and trust me, you're not going to check anything if you can avoid it.

[ScreamingMeemie]

23. I always check my bags for business and pleasure.

It's what I do. What I'm doing when I get there is not of concern to me because I refuse to put my fellow passengers lower than me when it comes to courtesy. If I have something bigger than a laptop bag, I'm checking it. Believe me, it would be bummer if my luggage got lost on a trip, but it hasn't happened outside of that one time.

[Gormy Cuss]

24. >200,000 bags reported mishandled in the first half of this year alone for domestic carriers

That's a rate of 3.6 bags per 1000 passenger trips and that's in spite of the lowered level of checked bags because of fees.

There is nothing discourteous about taking aboard a properly sized bag for the overhead bin (the bins that are now generally configured for maximum storage of rollaboards) and one properly sized personal item.

[ScreamingMeemie]

27. You put it above my head, it's utterly discourteous.

You aren't sitting there when you are 5 rows back. And don't get me started on the idiots who jump up, cut everyone off, hit someone in the face while they are grabbing their houses on wheels... all in order to be the first person off.

Sorry, I am pro check the bag.

[Gormy Cuss]

28. Yeah, because everyone with a rollaboard acts like that.

And if my bag is in the rack over your head it's because there's no room in the bins over my row and the flight attendants were kind enough to point out available spots in the interest of loading the plane efficiently. You know who's slowing things down? The people who don't follow directions on stowing their bags.

[ScreamingMeemie]

30. In other words, I am pro check your bag.

It really IS that simple.

[Laffy Kat]

33. My luggage was lost once on my way to the Keys..

To live on a houseboat for five days. The airline actually tracked me down right outside of Key Largo and delivered it via motorboat, just a day late. I was impressed.

[geek tragedy]

15. Delayed luggage is a lot more common than once in a lifetime.

Delaying luggage by 24 hours can really ruin an entire trip unless people are able to have clothes, etc for the next day or so.

Airlines expressly tell people to not check expensive camera equipment or medications.

Also, airlines are charging outrageous amounts for checked bags. Think that policy is ever going away?

[Retrograde]

18. You're lucky - I was averaging once a year for a while

It's down to about once every other year now. Last time was returning from Europe last December: the trick is to get them to lose the bags on the way home so the airline will deliver them, saving me the hassle of dealing with them on the train home .

I pack prescription drugs and a change of underwear (and, when I was traveling on business, what I absolutely had to have the first day) in a small carry-on that fits easily under the seat - even on tiny commuter prop planes. Otherwise, I can get basic toiletries from the airline/hotel/local store [United had some very nice packages a couple years back] to tide me over until my stuff arrives.

Then there was the time TSA managed to rip all the identifying tags off a bag so that it took the airline 3 days to locate it: going shopping for basics in Florence gives one a very different perspective on the city than tourists normally get.

[Major Nikon]

32. If you fly enough it will probably eventually happen

I think that was the point. I don't check a bag because I can travel on one carry on sized bag and never have to worry about the inevitability of lost luggage or screwing around with baggage claim. 5-10 minutes after I deplane I'm in a cab or rental car.

[yellowcanine]

14. Those things AND charging for checked bags.

My carefully controlled experiments as a passenger conclude that the carry on bags on Southwest are smaller and fewer in number than those on other airlines where there are baggage fees.

[TipTok]

21. All I can think of is my wife and infant...

... with no diaper bag or the myriad of other things an average baby needs on an 8 hour flight.

No thanks...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. Maybe the membership idea might work. The rest? Phooey.

I have one carry-on bag that I always put under the seat in front of me.

It has the stuff I would never trust anyone else to carry. My camera, my laptop, my medications. Nobody touches those.

I don't use the overhead storage because it's a pain to get to.

I will never fly with an airline that tells me I cannot have my carry-on bag with me.

[KamaAina]

5. I think they're talking about the overhead bins.

I imagine you'd still have the space under the seat for the one carry-on.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

10. I hope you're right.

We bought the carry-on with an eye that it must fit under the seat. And it does.

[ScreamingMeemie]

8. That's typically called a "personal item." Carry-ons are the bigger

small-suitcase-sized wheelie luggage that the self-entitled lug on and then shove in the bin above your head, so you can't even stow a coat there.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. Oh, Good. Thanks!

My shoulders don't let me lift anything that heavy over my head anyway!

[oberliner]

11. I don't like any of those ideas

I don't trust checked bags - so often bags get lost or destroyed. I only travel with carry-on if possible.

Middle seats still suck - regardless of any "swag" one might get.

None of those perks of membership seem particularly appealing.

[matt819]

12. Ok

Many people use carry on only because they don't want the delay at baggage claim.

There was a piece on air travel on salon, I think, the other day. Airlines want you miserable so they can charge you fees to make you slightly less miserable.

The bottom line is, well, the bottom line. Airlines don't care about the passenger experience, lip service notwithstanding.

[yellowcanine]

13. If carry on bags are eliminated airlines will stick passengers in the overhead bins.

And don't tell me it can't happen!

[geek tragedy]

17. All it takes is to have one trip where you have nothing to wear the next day

because the bag didn't make your flight before the idea of no overhead bags becomes a non-starter.

[Retrograde]

19. Want to sell middle seats? Make them wider!

Add some other perks like free meals (or those snack boxes that passed off as meals these days) and they may sell.

[olddots]

20. A few of my ideas

passengers are naked so that saves on security procedures

passengers are heavily sedated and piled on the floor thus saving on seating and bathrooms plus oxegen supply costs and food .

No luggage or personal possesions because what we "own " is just slave made crap that can be purchased at destinations .No need for identification because we have all been chipped with data implants .

I would go on but I have to get back to work at the robot factory .

[KamaAina]

22. The NYT's Tom Friedman actually proposed Naked Air in print!

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/26/opinion/naked-air.html

In the wake of the attempted bombing last week of the American Airlines flight from Paris by a terrorist nut with explosives in his shoe, I'm thinking of starting my own airline, which would be called: Naked Air. Its motto would be: ''Everybody flies naked and nobody worries.'' Or ''Naked Air -- where the only thing you wear is a seat belt.''

Think about it. If everybody flew naked, not only would you never have to worry about the passenger next to you carrying box cutters or exploding shoes, but no religious fundamentalists of any stripe would ever be caught dead flying nude, or in the presence of nude women, and that alone would keep many potential hijackers out of the skies. It's much more civilized than racial profiling. And I'm sure that it wouldn't be long before airlines would be offering free dry-cleaning for your clothes while you fly.

Well, you get the point: if the terrorists are just going to keep using technology to become better and better, how do we protect against that, while maintaining an open society -- without stripping everyone naked? I mean, what good is it to have a free and open America when someone can easily get on an airplane in Paris and bring a bomb over in the heel of his shoe or plot a suicide attack on the World Trade Center from a cave in Kandahar and then pop over and carry it out?

This is America's core problem today: A free society is based on openness and on certain shared ethics and honor codes to maintain order, and we are now intimately connected to too many societies that do not have governments that can maintain order and to peoples who have no respect for our ethics or our honor codes.

[NightWatcher]

25. Because the problem with air travel is my bag in the overhead?

Are they sure they want to go with that one?

Don't worry, I only fly as a last resort, and it has nothing to do with my bag in the overhead being a pain in the ass. It has more to do with fascist security, tiny seats with no legroom, late arrivals, cancelled flights, delays on the tarmac....

[Nye Bevan]

26. Why not just make the middle seats cheaper? (nt)

[tanyev]

29. What if they just gave back the seat width and leg room they took away in the last two decades?

I'd be thrilled.

[Matariki]

31. +1000

[Thor_MN]

34. How about boarding in a sane sequence?

Front to back is ridiculous. Those in the back have to maneuver around those that have boarded before them. The plane empties out faster than it fills, because people are able to move faster past empty rows than rows filled with people.

[KamaAina]

35. What airline do you fly?

After the first-class, family, and disabled people have boarded, every airline I've flown does back to front, or a zone system that accounts for window vs. aisle.

[Thor_MN]

36. "After the first-class, family, and disabled people"

Everyone has to trip over them.

Board the plane from the back to the front. Seat the family and disabled towards the front, seat first class last, unless they are forward of the boarding door, in which case if they want to spend extra time sitting on the plane, let them.