EXPERT OPINION
A comfortable journey begins
long before the flight
Flying becomes an increasingly popular way of traveling, allowing us to quickly travel long
distances. Whether we are on vacation or on a business trip, sometimes simply arranging the trip
creates too much stress for us.
It is required to be at the airport a few
hours before your flight, in order to
wait in a queue for registration and go
through other processes and formalities.
After that, you are in a waiting room
often crowded with people. The intense
movement of fellow passengers and
all the aviation noise quickly causes a
feeling of fatigue, which makes being at
the airport a source of additional stress.
Emre Bitik,
General Manager,
Amadeus Central Asia
and Caucasus
Fortunately, many airports have lounges
that are designed to provide a quiet
place for customers apart from the
passenger flow, creating the most
comfortable conditions for them during
the pre-flight processes and waiting
time. These comfortable lounges are
the perfect solution for people who
value their time, preferring to travel
with comfort or for those looking to
make the hours at the airport more
comfortable for the families and people
they love.
Usually a lounge is the property of the
airport, airlines or carriers’ alliance.
The first and business class passengers
may use these spaces as well as those
passengers who hold platinum, gold or
silver cards for the loyalty programs
initiated by the airlines and alliances
or the Priority Card Pass holders. Some
banks offer their customers a package
of benefits and privileges including
access to VIP airport lounges, which
means that access to the lounge area is
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world monitor
not open to the general public. However,
not everyone is aware that any passenger
is eligible to use these services by
booking it through a travel agency.
The agency may have direct agreements
with airports to book lounges for
their customers and to undertake
the settlements with each airport
individually. This model of work
assumes direct contractual and financial
relationships, the hands-on work when
booking and confirmation of the lounge
by both the airport and the agency. But
modern travelers expect more flexibility
than ever, and they expect from travel
agents the prompt and efficient
processing of booking requests. For an
agent to manually book reservations can
take up to 20 minutes – a waste of time
and labor, a costly process that could
be greatly simplified by using modern
automated tools.
Amadeus in Kazakhstan has created
the Amadeus Airport Lounge solution
allowing for a significantly sped up
process for lounge bookings that
includes the booking confirmation.
Those agencies that already offer
the lounge booking services to their
customers can significantly save time
on the booking process. Those agencies
that do not yet offer such service may
expand their range of services by using
this system, which will only increase the
level of their customers’ loyalty.