Survey Finds Travelers Want More Control Managing Their Trips from Departure to Arrival

6/28/2010

Travelers' demand for self-service convenience is expanding beyond airline check-in. A survey by NCR Corporation finds that a growing number of consumers who now check in for flights online, at a kiosk or on their mobile device are looking for travel providers to help them address unanticipated changes to their itineraries, extending greater personal control and convenience throughout their journeys.

The US Bureau of Transportation Statistics reports that 18 percent of flights have been delayed and 2 percent have been cancelled in 2010 thus far, indicating travelers may experience some sort of disruption in approximately one in five trips. These figures bear out in the NCR survey, in which one in five (21 percent) US respondents indicated that a cancelled or postponed flight negatively impacted other segments of their travel experience, such as hotel or car rental reservations. Of those, 30 percent spent over an hour trying to accommodate the necessary changes and nearly 10 percent ended up missing a planned event as a result.

To ease this inconvenience, 80 percent of respondents would find it helpful if airlines gave them the control to search and select alternative flights in the case of delays and cancellations. With passenger self-service solutions deployed in more than 300 airports worldwide, NCR is expanding its software functionality to help airlines better address their customers' preferences. For example, fee collection, change flight and premium seating modules allow passengers to more easily accommodate changes as they occur.

Furthermore, 73 percent of survey respondents said they would be more likely to choose a travel provider that offered them greater control over managing their entire travel experience through self-service, such as by facilitating searching for, securing, or making changes to flight, car rental and hotel reservations.

Results indicate that airports, too, can impact passenger loyalty by helping travelers make the most of their time while waiting to board a flight by employing self-service technology to download movies and music (24 percent), to receive retail and concession offers based on preference and location (33 percent), and to pass through security using a mobile boarding pass (48 percent).

About the research
NCR commissioned BuzzBack Market Research to conduct this survey among more than 4570 respondents in nine countries (US, Canada, UK, Brazil, India, China, Italy, Germany, and Australia) in March 2010. The results form part of the NCR 2010 study on consumer use of multichannel self-service solutions. BuzzBack LLC is a leading international marketing research firm headquartered in New York City.

Related Topics