With the ongoing pandemic altering nearly every aspect of daily life, it comes as no surprise that the travel industry has been largely impacted by the lasting effects of COVID-19. In an effort to decrease physical contact between travelers and airline representatives, United Airlines created a new feature, Agent on Demand, to increase contactless service throughout the travel experience.
Agent on Demand is an initiative that connects passengers with customer service representatives via phone, video chat, or live chat from their mobile device in order to provide contactless answers to travel questions. Travelers will simply scan a QR code in the airport, and then they will be transferred to a website where they will input their information and choose their medium of communication.
The service is currently implemented in Chicago and Houston, but it will become available in Denver, Los Angeles, Newark, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. by the end of the year.
With Agent on Demand, customers can ask any question they’d normally direct to a gate representative, such as questions about upgrades, standby lists, and rebooking. Additionally, the service improves communication accessibility for those who speak languages other than English. Within the chat feature, customers can utilize translation functions to translate conversations to more than 100 different languages.
This touchless initiative, Agent on Demand, marks just one of many Covid-era travel improvements. In June, United implemented touchless kiosks at 219 airports throughout the U.S. The kiosks intend to limit contact between travelers and representatives through the use of mobile device scanners. Travelers simply pull up their boarding pass on their mobile device and scan the bar code. For passengers checking bags, luggage tags will print immediately and in a contactless manner.
By utilizing contactless features, customers no longer have to wait in long lines and can maintain proper social distance and adhere to safety guidelines throughout their travels. If contactless services are here to stay, travelers will see fewer long lines in their future airport experiences, ultimately making air travel less stressful and a lot less crowded.
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