QR Codes in the Sky

BeQRious.com staffers love QR codes so much that they are beginning to notice cloud formations that resemble a little like QR codes.  Just kidding!

The post for today is actually related to an earlier post, “Have QR Codes? Will Travel!” which basically emphasized why it makes sense to use QR codes to improve your travel-related marketing materials.

Here are a couple of airline companies that have used QR codes in their system and their marketing campaigns, to make things easier for us passengers.  

1. QR Code Boarding Passes for Delta

Delta might be the company to look at when it comes to QR code boarding passes.  The airline made use of 2D bar codes to replace paper boarding passes.  Gate agents can scan the bar code and see the details of your flight. 

When you purchase a ticket online, you are given a link via SMS.  When you visit that link, you get your electronic boarding pass.  All you have to do is to show your mobile phone to the gate agent, and voila!

Saves the environment and saves you the trouble of having a misplaced boarding pass.

2. JetBlue’s St. Pete/Clearwater Promotion

JetBlue used a QR code on its posters to let people enter a giveaway, subscribe to their newsletter or get a travel guide.

JetBlue sets an example in two ways.  The good thing is that they put the ads in highly populated areas where people could scan their QR codes while waiting for their trains to arrive.

The bad thing is that they actually put the codes in a place where there is no Internet access.  A big mistake if you’re thinking of running a QR code campaign where the code resolves to an Internet URL.

Someday soon, we hope that airlines could use QR codes in some other ways.  We do know that a lot of airlines have Twitter accounts that also serve as a back-up customer service hotline.  So, say you are at the airport and you encounter problems with your booking, you can look for stickers bearing your airline’s QR codes.  These QR codes could easily take you to their Twitter account or you get a phone number that you can immediately call for assistance.

Perhaps, they could also update you on your travel miles using a QR code.

We could apply these airline companies’ innovative ways of making things run smoothly and of making things more exciting for customers. It would be really nice if more and more people see QR codes as something that could help systems and could help in marketing efforts instead of just a modern version of bar codes and nothing more.