Air New Zealand gives children NFC wristbands to track their journey

Airband
BAND AID: Air New Zealand’s NFC wristband monitors children travelling alone

Children travelling alone with Air New Zealand will now receive an NFC Airband wristband that gets scanned at key points in their journey. The band triggers text notifications to up to five nominated contacts, enabling parents and guardians to monitor their child’s progress.

“When checking in at the airport, the child travelling will be given a special wristband,” the airline says. “When they reach certain stages of their journey and their Airband is scanned by staff, contacts provided will receive a text message notifying them where the child is on their journey.

“Up to five drop-off and pick-up contacts can be nominated to receive text messages at the following stages — on check-in at the airport to confirm registration; when boarding the plane; when their flight has landed and they are handed over to ground staff [and] when they are picked up by the designated pick-up person.”

Peace of mind

“The airline’s new service applies to all children aged between five and eleven who are travelling alone, but those aged up to sixteen years can choose to opt-in,” Air New Zealand adds. “The service is being offered on a complimentary basis through until 3 February 2016. Bookings made from this date will incur a fee of US$15 per child for each one way domestic journey, or $40 per child for each one way international journey applies.”

“We know that having your child travel on their own can be a nervous time for both children and their guardians,” says Carrie Hurihanganui, Air New Zealand’s general manager of customer experience. “We believe this is the first time this type of technology has been used by an airline anywhere in the world for the purpose of providing caregivers greater peace of mind when their child is travelling alone.

“We have been trialling it across our network over recent months and the feedback from parents and guardians has been very positive with many welcoming the additional reassurance of knowing where in the journey their child is.”

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