Virgin Atlantic has begun a six-week test program where employees are given extra information utilized to assist the passengers with their experience at Virgin Atlantic. The program, which is currently designed only to aid customer service staff attending to upper class passengers, uses Google Glass and Sony’s SmartWatch 2 to serve up information about passengers and their destinations.
In their own words,
From the minute Upper Class passengers step out of their chauffeured limousine at Heathrow’s T3 and are greeted by name, Virgin Atlantic staff wearing the technology will start the check-in process. At the same time, staff will be able to update passengers on their latest flight information, weather and local events at their destination and translate any foreign language information. In future, the technology could also tell Virgin Atlantic staff their passengers’ dietary and refreshment preferences – anything that provides a better and more personalized service.
Virgin says that this system will replace a sort of outdated system that gave its employees information of its passengers. If successful, Virgin says it could bring Glass or the Sony watches to other airports, though the company did not say whether it might trickle the service down to passengers with lower tier tickets.
Google Glass continues to be available only to those who sign for up the company’s Glass Explorer program, with the hardware running $1,499 a pair (or more if you opt for the new prescription frames). It is however not been cleared out just how many Google Glass and Sony Smartwatches Virgin has bought to carry out its program.