1. Aeromexico’s reservation and check in platform upgrade
By Ana Maria Barquin
December 15, 2011
Aeroméxico, Mexico’s largest transcontinental airline, is very well aware of the importance
of digital marketing and technologies for its present and future business. They have been
actively engaging through digital channels for two years focused on creating two-way
and long-lasting relationships with their passengers and in improving their travel experience
before, during and after their trip.
That is why they decided to expand their services and offers with the use of new
technological developments. On May 22, 2011 Aeromexicomigrated its reservations and
airport check in systems to its new Sabre technological platform. The Sabre system would
improve Aeroméxico’s customer experience at all points of contact throughout the
reservation, ticketing and check in processes. Among other things, the four most important
benefits that consumers would get out of the platform over time were:
1. Web check-in: passengers would be able to check in online prior to their flights and
print their boarding passes in the Aeromexico’sprinting machines in the
airportwithout having to get there earlier or stand in line. A baggage drop line
would also be in place to assist web check in passengers.
2. Buying tickets everywhere: the new system allowed to expand Aeromexico’s online
purchase engine outside their website to mobile, Facebook and any other web
applications such asblogs. Passengers couldnow buy tickets in a faster and more
convenient way.
3. E-Tickets: users could now use their phone as a boarding pass. Once you check in
online, you can choose to get your boarding pass as an e-ticket in your phone and
scan it in the airport without having to check in or print anything else. This service
has other implications with airports that the airline would have to examine and
solve before its implementation.
4. Virtually there: this application would allow passengers to access their itinerary,
flight information, get reminders via email or mobile about flight status and other
valuable information such as travel guides or weather in their final destination.
The new platform would change how check ins and reservations were handle in the
organization, so all employees would have to learn to use the new platform, specially all
airport personal. The company did some training sessions and some of the company
employees were ready (unfortunately, not everyone was prepared). All company staff was
alerted of the launching date, but the users were not informed. The company planned to
have a soft launch, without making big announcements other than a press release two
days earlier. After giving the platform and team time to learn and stabilize, a proper
marketing campaign with the new benefits would be launched. Marketing and
communication teams were ready and customer service teams throughout all contact
channels (in person, call center, social media) were aware of the new platform and were
alert for customer inquiries.
As May 22 (launching day) arrived so did caos. As with all new technological platforms, not
everything was smooth. The platform went through several problems, it was on and off all
the time, it had saturation issues, and was really inconsistent. On the other hand,
employees were not properly trained for the use of the platform, only a few of the airport
check in staff new how to operate the platform to its full. These two factors together made
it really difficult to check in passengers on time for their flights. Most of Aeromexico’s flights

2. were delayed and finally cancelled because of the operation failure at the airport, and
most important, no one gave any information about it.
Smartphone, tablet and computer use by the passengers at the airport reporting the
incident started immediately. The media picked up the story right away and in hours,
everyone knew what was going on. All customer service channels were flooded with angry
passengers looking for information about their flights and the word was spreading fast. All
the digital space was crowded with anger towards the brand and negative comments
started to arise. Aeromexico’s social media channels, Facebook with 100,000 fans and
Twitter with 42,000 followers were especially busy and they weren’t enough hands to
answer to everyone. These two channels promise a 20 minutes response time, they have a
good response rate and customers know they can get fast answers here, so a lot of people
were turning to them, but no one in the organization seem to have information on what
was going on and how it would be solve.
Aeromexico’s directors got together immedialty to assess the situation and to put together
a crisis action plan. They clearly weren’t prepared for something like this to happen and
were taking forever to take some action. They knew that the system would take at least
one week to stabilize, that it would take time for the staff to learn the platform and that
they did not had enough people in the customer service channels to respond to all
inquiries. Digital media was a clear solution to both, communicate with passengers in real
time, give statements and information and to revert the image the operation failure was
creating for the brand when the platform was intended to give a better service. But what
should they do? What would they have to communicate, when, how would they respond
to the tons of answers coming their way in social media? How should they manage a
situation this big that would affect thousands of people? They also wondered how they
could have been prepared for a crisis like this, what they should have done different.
About Aeromexico
GrupoAeroméxico, S.A.B. de C.V. is the holding company for a group of subsidiaries
engaged in the commercial airline business in Mexico, and the promotion of passenger
loyalty programs. Its fleet includes Boeing 777, 767 and 737 aircraft, and next generation
Embraer 145 and 190 jets.
GrupoAeroméxico operates its main hub out of Terminal 2 in the Mexico City International
Airport. The Group offers 450 daily flights to different cities in Mexico, the United States,
Canada, Central and South America, and Europe and Asia. They operate 119 routs and fly
11.6 million passengers each year.
Aeroméxico is a founding member of SkyTeam, a global airline alliance partnering 13
airlines: Aeroflot, Aeroméxico, Air Europa, Air France, Alitalia, China Southern, CSA Czech
Airlines, Delta Air Lines, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Kenya Airways, Korean Air, TAROM
Romanian Air Transport and Vietnam Airlines. SkyTeam offers all partner airline passengers a
large global network with more destinations and frequencies and improved connectivity.
Passengers can earn and redeem miles with the different partners’ loyalty programs and
enjoy the 415 airport lounges around the world. SkyTeam offers its 384 million annual
passengers more than 12,500 daily flights covering 898 destinations in 169 countries.