Seamless Luggage Experience

Abstract

This master thesis is part of the Horizon 2020 funded research project Personalized Airport Systems for Seamless Mobility and Experience (PASSME). The goal of this research project is to reduce door-to-door travel time for passengers (PAX) traveling within Europe by 1 hour and at least improve the overall travel experience for 70% of all PAX.

Earlier research has indicated that by eliminating traditional luggage actions and processes from the PAX’s journey, an average of 32 minutes can be saved. Through the introduction of a door-to-door luggage service, PAX are enabled to send their luggage ahead of their journey. Thereby, eliminating the need to travel simultaneously with their Check-In luggage and bypassing all traditional C.I. luggage processes. This research focused on which customer segment should be target, how this service could be realized from a hospitality perspective, and how a marketing strategy can be designed to drive service adoption.

The adoption of new product and services are dependent on certain risk and acceptance criteria (Evans et al. 2013). Through qualitative research, it was found that the most important risk and acceptance criteria related to the door-to-door luggage service, where the level of compatibility, trialability, relative advantage, financial risk and functional risk.

Research showed that the majority of PAX have a specific booking order when it comes to booking their trip, in which they first arrange their flight and ancillaries after which they will book their accommodation. Combining this problem with the lack of general awareness concerning door-to-door luggage services means that the chances that a PAX will book a luggage ancillary through the accommodation supplier is slim to none.

An analysis of the hospitality sector showed that Tour Operators are hospitality establishments that are fully vertically integrated and manage their own booking flows. Moreover, as families traveling with young children is an important customer segment for such establishments makes them the perfect hospitality business to offer the service.

A study in ancillary strategies identified that more expensive ancillaries can be seen as extravagant and too expensive far from the use state (Travelport, 2017). Thus, the question arises how to convince PAX to make use of a more expensive luggage ancillary, without prior experience or knowledge, and far from the use state.

Instead of trying to sell PAXs an expensive luggage ancillary without any prior knowledge or experience, it is suggested to offer PAXs who have bought regular luggage ancillaries with the ability to have their luggage shipped back-home on their return journey. Therefore, the initial experience with the service is seen as a priming tool to drive returning purchases for the next holiday. Thereby, creating a more loyal customer base.

To realize this back-home service, a new online customer journey was designed which acts as an extension of the current app and online platform of the Tour Operator. Additionally, a set of offline touchpoint were designed to approach PAXs who were not able or reluctant to make use of the online touchpoints.

Furthermore, to create more awareness and drive recurring sales a referral strategy was designed in which both the sender as the receiver of the referral are rewarded. Thus, stimulating further ancillary sales and create brand loyalty. To help implement both the back-home service as well as the referral strategy a blueprint explaining the necessary resources and processes is developed.