United Airlines announced today that its more than 23,000 flight attendants will soon be carrying the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus for company use and servicing customers. The airline says it will be rolling out Apple’s phablet to its flight attendants starting next year during the second quarter and be used for onboard retail transactions, accessing company email and the airline’s website and internal network, and viewing airline manuals for policies and procedures.
United Airlines says deploying the iPhone 6 Plus to its flight attendant staff will allow the airline to replace paper safety manuals in the future as it makes them available on the iPhone. Reporting aircraft cabin issues and receiving follow-up information on repairs will also be handled through the iPhone 6 Plus eventually, United says.
“We are thrilled to make this investment in our flight attendants,” said Sam Risoli, United’s senior vice president of inflight services. “iPhone 6 Plus will enable them to deliver an even higher level of flyer-friendly service and will offer our flight attendants simple, one-touch access to valuable work information, enabling them to better serve our customers.”
Finally, United Airlines announced that it plans to develop multiple “customer-focused tools” for the iPhone 6 Plus following its deployment to its on-board staff. In the announcement, United Airlines shared that it has renewed its iPad pilot program using the iPad Air 2 which it calls “a move toward creating paperless aircraft and flight decks.”
While United Airlines is planning to distribute the iPhone 6 Plus to its flight attendant fleet, Apple and IBM announced earlier today 10 new enterprise applications for the iPhone and iPad including two targeted toward the travel industry called Plan Flight and Passenger+.
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“United Airlines buys an iPhone 6 Plus for all its flight attendants to handle payments…” — Each. Buying an iPhone for each flight attendant is a lot of iPhones. Buying an iPhone for all flight attendants is a lot of sharing of one iPhone.
I came to post just this.
Justification:
On my United flight yesterday the stewardess was complaining how her machine wouldn’t swope!
Yeah, and Delta bought a bunch of Surface RT’s for their pilots and Windows Phones for flight attendants. I’ll keep this in mind when booking flights.
Never mind if their service is great, or they have a poor safety record, or they have fantastic customer service, or they are continuously delayed. None of that matters, as long as the flight attendant is using my hardware of choice.
I mean REALLY?
Of course those things matter, but I see all the major airlines in the U.S. (AA, Delta, and United) being roughly the same as far as service, safety, and customer service are concerned. So, being an owner of a few shares of AAPL, I am going to think about what the pilots up front and the flight attendants in the back are using. From what I read on the Interwebs, Delta’s pilots wanted iPads, but the muckity mucks at the top chose MS products. That indicates to me poor judgment on Delta’s part, so I’ll choose to fly someone else.
So, yeah, REALLY!
Of course those things matter? They are the ONLY things which matter. Now to stop you in case you decide to get on your high horse about me being anti-Apple, read my initial comment. It’s not about Apple, Microsoft or whoever, it’s about basing your carrier choice upon what tech they use.
I just did a search online for Delta Airlines v United Airlines, and the first site I came across (which compares airlines) reckons that Delta have a rating of 67 while United have a rating of 63. Next website I found, Delta have a rating of 3.91 (out of 5), while United have a rating of 3.19.
If my pilot and flight attendants are perfectly capable of doing their job perfectly well using an old Blackberry 8520 I frankly don’t care. When your hurtling towards the pacific at 500mph because the pilot and co-pilot got into a fight over whether the iPad is really much better than the Surface, you won’t either.
This is an emotional issue for you.
Here’s the deal – I can fly any carrier I choose based upon whatever criteria I want to consider when making the decision, and you can fly Delta until your heart’s content.
I can choose to support companies who use Apple products, and you can do whatever you want, plain and simple.
It’s not emotive to me – I’m not American and have never flown United or Delta. I care not one jot if you support Apple, Microsoft, Blackberry or anyone else as my comments allude to.
What I did do though is respond to YOUR emotive comment – something which I am allowed to do incidentally. Not handle it? It’s simple enough to not reply.
I do not understand. My original comment was brief and matter of fact.
Yes, but will it actually improve their flight times and reduce cancellations & delays? Probably not.
I don’t think any of that was up to the flight attendants anyway
For what they are paying to buy these this now, and then train people, and what it will cost them to update it all again in 3 years, they could have just gave everyone a free beer and skipped the payment system all together.
Kind of stupid to pay so much for a simple task. They could have purchased a dozen cheaper micro tablets for the same money as on iPhone 6 Plus. I guess ticket prices aren’t expensive enough these days.
Actually, the security, reliability, portability, and ability to update easily over their network make it a very wise investment. Unfortunately, the only device with the same security is a BlackBerry, which does not offer this sized device. Better, faster customer service, and probably happier crew members make for a win-win situation!