The token concept : how to efficiently identify the passenger

At a counter a passenger is usually identified using a picture id. The reference used is the name. The development of self-service has brought in many other options for the passenger to identify himself. In fact, as the reference can be anything, we can call it a token. And this token can have different aspect along the process from check-in to boarding. Passengers can use a frequent flyer card to identify at a kiosk, present a passport at bag drop and use a bar-coded boarding pass at the gate.

When choosing what identification options you propose to passengers at self-service kiosks, your objective should be to reduce as much as possible the time for identification. Current options are name, booking reference, eticket number, frequent flyer number, passport, credit card, barcode.
The slowest options are booking reference and eticket number. These types of identification take between 15s and 45s because they require the passenger to find the paper or email confirmation that was sent and to key in a long suite of characters. There is little chance that he remembers any of these references because they change at each travel.
The first step to shorten that time is to use something that the passenger can remember. Very good candidates for this are the frequent flyer number or name + destination. As a remark, it is better to use the destination rather that the flight number because all passengers know where they fly to, but few remember the flight number. Such an identification method takes around 20s.
A further reduction of the time taken to identify the passenger is to avoid keying in anything. The reference will be read from a media that is presented to the kiosk. This can be a barcode, a card, an RFID chip... Passports will be discussed later. Such an identification is extremely short, below 10s. The difference between these methods is not technical time, but the time that it takes to the passenger to find the media and to find where to place the media on the kiosk. To this regard, special attention must be paid to the ergonomic design of the kiosk : a kiosk should gather all input technologies as close as possible to one another to facilitate finding them by the passenger. Passengers sometimes loose 10s to find and to understand how to use a reader.
Let's look at the behavior of passengers : at the airport, they have luggage, and they probably dress differently than every day. This sounds like a small difference but this makes finding a paper a challenge : you cannot feel a paper in a pocket, and this is worse if the suit or coat is not the one that is usually worn. Finding a paper in a computer case or hand bag is not easier. When you travel, even for short business trips, you usually have more things in you bag than usual : papers to read, news paper, book. All these behavioral aspects explain why approximately 30% of passengers cannot find their home printed boarding pass or booking at the airport.
A remedy to this is to store the token on a media that the passenger will find easily such as a card or a telephone. The card will usually be stored in the wallet, so finding it is quick. In this regard, using a credit card rather than a frequent flyer card is even better, because not all passengers are frequent flyers, nor carry their frequent flyer card with them. The issue about reading a credit card, is to comply with the PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) regulation. We will cover the PCI DSS aspect in a future article.
Last but not least, the cell phone can be used to store the token. This is extremely efficient in terms of process time : virtually all passengers have a cell phone, an use them to send an receive messages. The limitation is that high end cell phones that can receive and display barcodes are not the norm outside business travelers and frequent flyers (this is changing quickly though given that consumers change their cell phone every 18 months in average). But considering that this segment represent a significant portion of the passengers it is worthwhile offering this possibility. The process time in this case is driven by the time it takes to the passenger to find the appropriate message. This is why it takes a little longer than identification using a card. To avoid this, some airlines have designed a physical passive token that can be attached to the phone. This is the shortest identification method, taking only a couple seconds. The way it works is very simple : an RFID chip is stuck at the back of the cell phone. That RFID chip stores a token that can be a frequent flyer number of anything else, provided it is recognized by the system. The RFID chip is a HF (High Frequency) chip that can work in a number of different norms (mifare, NFC,… we will cover these norms in a future article). When the passenger approaches the cell phone close enough to the reader (a couple centimeter, approximately 1") the token is read and activates the check-in. This is a process without any loss of time : cell phone is easy to find and it can stay switched off. The cost of the RFID sticker is a little higher than the frequent flyer card, but the non financial benefits are important : passenger like the speed and convenience. In the future, the sticker might not be necessary as cell phones will probably have that HF RFID function (NFC, Near Field Communication).
At last, the case for passport and picture ids This sounds like a good compromise : all travelers are required to carry one and there is an MRZ (Machine Readable Zone). The shortcomings of passport reading are linked to identifying last names. In some countries, some last names are very common, in most cases, last name is different from maiden name. So reading a last name is not enough. The passenger is required to key another information or select within a list of choice the appropriate ticket. Performing these 2 tasks requires in average 30s.
The choice of the token is not something that can be decided by the IT department. It must be carefully thought of depending at a minimum on the origin/ destination and type of passenger. A tour operator using a CUSS (Common Use Self Service) kiosk will not need the same token types as a shuttle flight between two business cities. The choice should be adapted to make process short and convenient for a majority of customers, not for all. Trying to address 100% of customers deteriorates the service that could be offered to 80% of them.