Over the past year, Facebook added a personal assistant called “M” to the standalone app, opened the app up to developers and added tools for chatting with businesses, peer-to-peer payments, voice and video-calling and ride-hailing via Uber and Lyft. Now for the first time, Messenger can also be used to manage flights.
Today, Facebook Messenger and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines announced a partnership that allows KLM travelers to check-in, receive flight confirmation, access boarding passes, receive check-in reminders, get flight updates and make flight changes through live customer service chat without leaving the Messenger app. The feature will be available to all KLM customers who purchase their tickets on KLM.com. Facebook FB -1.26% said the new services begin rolling out today and will be available broadly in the coming weeks. The tools will work wherever KLM and Messenger operate, Facebook said. Facebook plans to partner with additional airlines down the road.
“This is one that I’ve been personally eager to solve for a while: Removing stress, and complication from air travel,” vice president of Facebook messaging products, David Marcus, said in a post. “We think Messenger is the best place to talk to the people and increasingly, the businesses, people care most about. Now, KLM customers will be able to have fast, contextual conversations about their flights, all from the comfort of an app they already know and love.”
Marcus noted that about 80% of passengers on any given flight in the U.S. have the Messenger app. KLM is also expanding its customer support on Messenger to let users chat live with KLM staff, for example, to make last-minute travel plans or resolve booking questions. The live chat support will be available in more than 12 languages. KLM said it has about 200 customer service agents in total. Some of the other companies that have used Messenger as a customer service tool include retailers Everlane, Walmart and the hotel chain Hyatt.
Forbes