June 19, 2007
Labas!
Vilnius airport Wi-Fi experience
1. Pay Lithuanian Airlines about 200 quid for economy ticket.
2. Sit in uncrowded area near power socket.
3. Fire up laptop.
4. Select “Zebra” free network.
5. Surf happily.
Heathrow airport Wi-Fi experience
1. Pay British Airways about 4400 quid for business class ticket.
2. Sit in crowded lounge with insufficient power outlets.
3. Fire up laptop.
4. Select BT Openzone.
5. Fish out wallet from bottom of laptop bag where left from security screen.
6. Recount life history — name, address, email, email again, favourite colour.
7. Copy and paste access code into Outlook note in case of problems.
8. Log on.
9. Surf briefly.
10. Drop network.
11. Re-open Outlook.
12. Re-authenticate.
13. Surf briefly.
14. Drop network.
15. Try to re-authenticate. Credentials refused. (Cut’n’pasted — no typos)
16. Try again to authenticate. Credentials refused.
17. Call BT Openzone helpline from mobile at 35p/min.
18. Spell out user ID to agent.
19. Credentials now accepted.
20. Surf.
21. File away emails with account code and receipt.
22. To-do note to print receipt.
23. Print and file receipt when returned home.
24. Submit expense claim.
Ultimate in people transport, crap for data transport.
Is this really the brand experience BT wants to project on the world’s business travellers? Was it really worth ten pounds to them? Or could they have used the splash page to promote goodwill to BT with some free access and an advert for BT business services?
And I’ve got a great money spinner for BA to try: coin entry toilets on planes. You’ll make a fortune! Go on, I dare you…
(Have you ever had the feeling of different profit centres colliding somewhere in the heart of the customer experience?)
Posted by Martin Geddes at 10:02 AMTrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.telepocalypse.net/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/mgeddes/MT/mt-tb.cgi/873.
Don't Ryan Air already charge for the loo?
Posted by: at June 19, 2007 01:45 PMIt's lovely to finally read some positive feedback about Lithuania and travelling to/from Vilnius. As the population is rather small (3,6 million), it's not surprising that the airport doesn't get too overcrowded. Lithuanian people are generally embracing new technologies with enthusiasm therefore they make sure that visitors get both - great hospitality and excellent services.
Posted by: at June 19, 2007 03:16 PMIsn't this sort of thing usually due to compartmentalization within a company? The Wi-Fi department needs to report profits to justify its existence while marketing is throwing money away, hoping to win back customers lost through cost cutting in other areas.
Posted by: at June 19, 2007 04:36 PMin regards to the caption on your picture...
airplanes do pretty good with data transport actually. If you figure 1 out of 10 of every traveler has a laptop with an average sized 40Gig hard drive, that's 300-600Gigabytes traveling at 350mph...or for a one hour flight, thats 13Gbps. Not too shabby.
Of course the flaws of my calculations are that the one-way latency doesn't include time spent waiting in the security lines nor luggage lines, and round-trip latency is measured in days if not weeks. :-( oh well, nothings perfect.