A missed flight, meaningful connections & a wedding. Why airlines need Causr?
Last summer I was invited to my friends wedding up in Inverness in Scotland. Arriving at the airport in Luton with all the building works there was a build up of traffic so a bit delayed but I got to the departure gate in good time.
Having met Andrew another friend of the groom, Guy, I knew he was on the same flight but no sign of him yet. I messaged as I got to the gate and then when we were boarding and he was still in his car stuck in the traffic. It seems there were a lot of people missing from the plane likely for the same reason but there was nothing I could do. Much to his frustration he ended up parking — rushing over to Heathrow and getting another flight to arrive in time.
That left me disappointed with noone to share flight or the the journey with to the venue at the other end in Inverness. It always frustrating when the transfer to or from the airport ends up costing more than the flight!
After takeoff and the fasten seatbelt sign turned off I walked the aisle of the plane to see if I knew or recognised anyone. No luck. Attending a Jewish wedding I then spotted someone with a Kippah, a jewish head covering. I asked if he was attending a Wedding and it happened to be Guy & Gabbi’s — he was and as it turned out he was part of the band! I asked about sharing a car but unfortunately he was with another person and it would be full due to instruments.
With no other obvious people attending I told the air hostess what had happened and as my friend had missed the flight was she able to ask if anyone else was attending the wedding. She kindly made the announcement and asked if anyone else attending would raise their hands. Brilliantly, towards the front of the plane 5 people’s hands went up waving. I explained that Andrew had missed the flight and again suggested to share a car when we landed — all agreed and we convened by the exit shortly after landing.
Arriving at the venue the taxi journey cost just more than £50, almost more than the price of the flight return. Very kindly one of the bride’s relatives refused to let us pay even a small amount or part payment.
Had the air hostess never said anything I’d be at least £50 worse off. Not only that on the way to the venue speaking with the others it turns out an older couple travelling were related to the bride and live in Vienna. Vienna is where my Grandparents were originally from and we’d been saying as a family for ages that we would go and visit. When I returned from the Wedding I spoke to my dad and shared the story and sharing the car, this set in motion a trip with my dad and my brothers and sister, 5 children to go to Vienna together in November revisiting where my grandparents used to live. Whilst we had spoken about it for a while it finally happened and to coincide it would have been my Grandfather’s 100th birthday.
It’s clearly not practical for an announcement to be made for every passenger for every scenario, connection and opportunity.
KLM for a number of years have had the function to be able to see on a flight who is sitting where with Meet & Seat. Causr is the next evolution providing people the ability to connect, meet and collaborate in real time, before, during & after a flight.
The 3 key benefits for Airlines to enable customers to connect using Causr:
- As with this example cost savings helping people continue to their final destination.
- Connecting people to benefit their career and do a business deal or even get a new job.
- Connecting visitors to local people to help share local knowledge.
There are unlimited possibilities from the connections that can happen. The good will & PR for stories like this around connecting people can be leveraged and hugely valuable. It’s these stories that an airline can own due to the company literally being the vehicle to enable these connections to happen.
If you’re an airline and you’d like a group to enable your community to connect feel free to be in touch.
Causr is a location-based app that introduces its users to others within the local area. It makes finding nearby professionals with similar jobs, interests and ambitions easy. Scroll through a network of users, see who’s free, meet for coffee, share business advice or simply connect. Causr plans those chances encounters, and makes missed opportunities a thing of the past.
Download the App to see who’s nearby and start connecting today. Now available on the Apple App Store. Pre-register for our Android release here.
