How e-travel would change the way we travel

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): I recently received an invitation to a media event in Port Douglas, Australia. I had never heard of the name of the place, but I got extremely excited nonetheless. I love Australia very much, particularly Sydney. Because I didn't have the opportunity to explore this very charming city when I was there more than two years ago, I thought I would be luckier this time. I did not realize, of course, that Port Douglas was thousands of miles north of Sydney.

I found out about it only when I browsed the Internet. Quite a few Web sites provide information on Port Douglas, and it was then that I learned that this tiny town was the closest point to the Great Barrier Reef. All my hope of being able to revisit Sydney and its Powerhouse Museum this year quickly evaporated.

However, through my travel investigation on the Web, I was actually joining a growing number of Internet users who seek travel information online. The Oct. 6 issue of PC Magazine reports that 40 percent of the 41.5 million U.S. Internet surfers last year did the same thing as I did -- and even bought tickets in cyberspace.

Anyway, that was about the full extent of how much that trip took advantage of the Internet. I still had to go to the local IBM office to pick up the traditional airline tickets. Although I enjoyed chatting with the local IBMers, the process still used up some of my valuable working hours. Just imagine if we already had e-tickets available here, it would have saved me two hours and parking money.

The next day, the morning before my departure, the phone was off the hook and I was late in completing an assignment that was due that day. Suddenly it was already 90 minutes before departure time, and the trip from my home to the airport took at least 40 minutes.

So, I called my client, apologized and explained to her that the job was actually finished but I really had no time to print it out and arrange for it to be delivered to her. She said she could wait until I returned from my trip, which was only three days long anyway. So, I dashed out of my house, hailed a taxi, and told the driver to keep his foot on throttle.

Having arrived at Terminal 2, I dashed inside, only to find that there was a long line at the security checkpoint. When I got through, I ran again to Garuda Indonesia's counter -- only to learn that the flight had been delayed for one and a half hours.

How I wished I had known that. My client would have received the material she wanted, and the taxi driver wouldn't have had to risk both our lives and the lives of other airport toll road users.

About 12 hours later, I was in the lobby of the Sheraton Mirage, Port Douglas. Two journalists had joined me from Singapore. I had to stand in line once again. Then one of the porters insisted on helping me with my very skimpy suitcase. Once in the room, he kept explaining where the mini bar was, what the buttons on the TV remote control did, how I could operate the hot pot, etc.

I realized that he was waiting for something from me, but unfortunately I didn't have anything smaller than A$50.

E-travel

Enter e-travel, which will be a boon to frequent fliers -- myself not included, of course. With only occasional paid-for trips outside Indonesia, I certainly wouldn't fit into this category of frequent fliers. But, perhaps an imaginary Mr. e-Z, would.

Now, let us imagine that this non-existent Mr. e-Z runs a flourishing business in Singapore. He always stays at the Oriental, Marina Square, when he is in Singapore. In the era of e-travel, he will book his tickets and room via the Internet -- just as people can do with Air Canada in real life today. Mr. e-Z always prefers an aisle seat, and he can even select his seat on the Web as he reserves his ticket. He can print out the booking confirmation on his computer, if he wishes.

Mr. e-Z never uses a paper ticket. All he has is e-tickets, which a growing number of airlines in North America including Air Canada, United, American and Southwest Airlines are now using.

If his work ties him to his PC on the day he is to leave, Mr. e-Z can check his airline's Web site for any change of his flight departure time. The airline can even send him messages such as "Your flight has been delayed until 5:00 p.m." through e-mail or to his pager. If that happens, he can continue working.

Once inside the airport terminal, he need not stand in line in front of the check-in counters. He can just go directly to any of the self-service check-in kiosks to get his boarding pass. He will insert his smart card into a slot in the kiosk to pay for the airfare, airport tax and departure tax -- if it applies to him. If he happens to bump into a friend who is also flying to Singapore and they want to sit next to each other, he can even change his seat at the kiosk, provided there are still free seats available. All is accomplished by pressing the menus that appear on the touch screen.

The kiosk then prints his boarding pass for him. He may need it if he wants to buy something at the duty free shop. If he has some luggage, he can tell the kiosk to print the tags he needs for his suitcases. He then proceeds to a self-service luggage handling area and drops his suitcases there. In the future, he may even be able to buy suitcases that emit special radio frequencies that will greatly facilitate routing and tracking.

He doesn't have to stand in line at the immigration gate, either. He can go to one of those automated passenger clearing gates, run his magnetically encoded passport through a slot and place his right hand over a screen. This biometrics identification system will enable immigration authorities to confirm whether or not he is actually Mr. e-Z. In most cases, immigration checks will be completed within seconds instead of 10 minutes.

Indeed, bits and pieces of e-travel technology are already in use in many parts of the world. You'll even find Singapore Airlines self-service kiosks in Singapore's Changi International Airport. British Airways passengers can also use them in Europe. Japan has long had these kiosks across the country. At Changi, not many people are using them yet, but, hey, did a lot of people use ATMs the first time they were available?

By the way, during my stopover in Changi on that trip to Port Douglas, a gentleman from Darwin told me that he had lost his ticket and Qantas made him to buy a new one before he could board the plane back to his home town. This wouldn't have happened, if Qantas had already issued a paperless round-trip e-ticket for him.

But that will change. E-tickets are also gaining popularity, although there are still a lot of big hurdles to iron out. It is predicted, as reported in the August 1998 issue of Home Office Computing, that 50 percent of fliers in North America will be using e-tickets by the end of this year.

Self-service hotel check-in kiosks have also been tested by Hilton Hotels Corp. in cooperation with American Express and IBM, and the results are reportedly encouraging. Now, if these self- service kiosks had been available at the Sheraton Mirage, I would have been able to spare myself of the embarrassment of not being able to give a tip. I would have gone directly to the kiosk, touched the screen to answer some questions, picked up the room key that the kiosk churned out for me, and headed for the room.

The biggest challenge, according to David Dingley, the worldwide strategist at IBM's travel and transportation solution unit, is to get everybody to agree to a common practice. Immigration, tax and custom authorities as well as the entire airline industry should all work together to build a seamless e- travel infrastructure. Another big challenge is, of course, security. How do you verify that you are you? But, the challenges will be answered soon. E-travel will mean huge savings for the airlines every year. At the moment, the cost of processing a paper ticket is said to be US$8.00. Just compare that with only US$1.00 per e-ticket!

But, will the e-travel era, where people can get all the information they want about travel through the Internet, compare prices, make reservations and pay for the tickets without leaving their home eventually kill travel agents? Dingley says no, because people would still go to travel agents for assistance.

E-travel would benefit a certain segment of travelers, particularly business road warriors who never have much time at their disposal. At any rate, it is obvious that travel agents should now begin to find innovative ways to serve their customers.