OM in the News: Tracking Your Bags Online at Delta Airlines

Under  pressure from the federal government to deal with lost luggage issues, airlines are responding with some unique customer service  approaches–thanks to OM. For example, we noted in this blog a few months back that Alaska Airlines has set up new processes that guarantee bags will arrive within 20 minutes after the plane parks at the gate–or else customers get $20 or 2,000 points.

The Wall Street Journal (April 23-24,2011) just reported that Delta Airlines has started a new online service to let customers track the whereabouts of their checked bags. Launched a few weeks ago, passengers can follow their bags from scanning at check-in, to the flight they are loaded on, and then to arrival at baggage claim. Delta says, “Letting passengers see where their bags are can cut down on worries and calls when a bag doesn’t show up on the carousel on time”.

Tracking can be done on Delta’s website with a mobile phone or a laptop. And if a bag is lost, the passenger can now file a claim online at the same site. If you have ever had to wait for a bag that never arrived, then queued up for an hour to file a claim —and who hasn’t— this use of technology in service (see Ch.7) is a clever advancement.

The concept, of course, is not new. FedEx has been tracking packages for decades. United Airlines has for a year used FedEx to offer overnight delivery of golf bags, skis, and suitcases ($79-$99 each way), and allowed passengers to track their possessions online. And Ford used to offer buyers a chance to track their car through the production process.

Delta, by the way, is already well below the industry average for lost bags, and has improved 27% from last year’s 4.04 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers.

Discussion questions:

1. Is this really a critical new service? Or does it resemble the Ford marketing tool?

2. What are some other service technologies the airlines can employ?

3. Why do airlines have vastly different lost baggage rates?