Maxi-suite service solutions: two bells, more screens?

Late last year we wrote about some of the issues that the new generation of high-walled maxi-suites in business class raise. That article spurred much discussion, including at last month’s RedCabin summit in Tokyo, where your author had several fascinating and wideranging chats with industry thinkers about how to solve the inherent problem of how to enable the service airlines craft so carefully, despite suite barriers that quite physically get in the way — because the answer can’t just be “ring the call bell”.

Indeed, one question your author has been asking recently is whether it’s time to split the flight attendant call bell into two separate bells: one an emergency call bell, and one a passenger service.

The newest maxi-suites are well above crew eye level. Image: John Walton

Think of the two-bell solution as the sort of difference between dialling 911 and 311/511 in the US, or 999 and 111/101 in the UK, where people use a separate non-emergency number for something for which they nonetheless need assistance.

This split could end the thorny #PaxEx debate about when it’s appropriate to ring the call bell, with at one end the North American model that leans more towards the bell being for emergencies only, and woe betide the passenger wanting a refill, and at the other end many east and southeast Asian airlines whose crews are trained to provide passengers privacy and solitude without bothering them, safe in the knowledge that they will ring in the event of the slightest need — and many in the middle somewhere.

With more and more airlines taking action to seat flight attendants during turbulence, separating service calls from emergency calls could have safety benefits as well. Flight attendants safely belted in wouldn’t be notified (or would see a service-only notification on their phablet or wearable) of a service call, while a passenger pressing the passenger service call bell could be shown a message on their seatback screen that passenger service is presently suspended but to press the emergency call bell in the event of any urgent safety-related issue.

Linking this call separation into the growing number of screens that passengers are using would indeed be a useful move, although it would require airlines, seatmakers, inflight entertainment system providers and airframers to work even more closely together.

Relatedly, expanding screen-based ordering as part of the experience is a strong option — and not just from the seatback screens, but from the secondary attached tablets that are increasingly seen in premium classes, as well as from passengers’ own personal electronic devices.

Adding extra use cases into the additional tablets is an option. Image: John Walton

Using screens to order brings other benefits as well, like surfacing different options from what can be an extensive menu, and enabling airlines that might not already offer on-demand dining to start doing so. Around the drinks service, passengers served early who might like a refill can peruse the menu at their leisure, spotting interesting options, and simply have their choice slotted seamlessly into the list of cocktails being stirred up in the galley. After the main meal service, the system can show options for snacks, hot beverage options for sleep (or indeed to wake up after a nap), wellbeing choices like fresh fruit and juice shots, and so on.

Could the widget idea from the Panasonic-Collins MAYA concept help here? Image: John Walton

In many ways this is a process question rather than a product question: there’s little fundamental reason, for example, why a chilled first course option, warming soup choice or fresh fruit plate from a first meal service shouldn’t be available later in the flight for a snack.

While these concepts stem from our thinking about maxi-suites, of course, they’re also very applicable throughout the aircraft. In many ways, delivering consistent service to a passenger in a window seat two other passengers away from the aisle is as complicated as the dance of the maxi-suite doors. 

Where high suites were once the province of first class, now they’re in business. Image: John Walton

Related Articles:

• Panasonic Avionics in advanced talks to bring Astrova Curve to market
• Reimagining airline passenger service in the age of maxi-suites
• Collins AirLounge exceeds Finnair business class promises
• Recategorising business suites into the mini-suite and maxi-suite

Featured image credited to John Walton

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