Enhancing Passenger Airport Experience With Just Key Basic Phrases

Are you a passenger service agent at the airport?

This is for you!

Possessing proficiency in a foreign language is crucial when working as a frontline representative in customer service.

But do you really need to take a full language course to enhance the passenger experience?

In my perspective, a full 30-hour course isn't necessary. It could be considered a time-consuming endeavor. Personally, if I invest 30 hours in learning a language, it doesn't necessarily equip me to engage in fluent conversations with passengers. Therefore, for a customer service-oriented approach, focusing on key words and phrases is sufficient to make a positive impact.

Customer Relations and Commercial Aviation Industry

Language is a vital aspect of our identity, and a single word can profoundly impact a passenger, creating a sense of familiarity, especially when they are in a foreign country where the unexpected acknowledgment of their language can be comforting.

I remember witnessing a Turkish interpreter assisting at the Turkish Airlines check-in counter at São Paulo Guarulhos Airport in Brazil. Similarly, Air France arranged interpreters for its French-speaking passengers in Manila back in 2001 (I was one fo the two interpreters). These instances add a delightful touch to the passenger experience.

However, for check-in agents with proficiency only in English, the question arises: How can they bridge the language gap?

How Languages Enhance Customer Experience- Philippine Setting

Let's have a specific example: Portuguese.

There are Brazilians, Portuguese, and Portuguese-speaking Africans who visit or work in the Philippines. Additionally, our country is connected to several destinations in the Portuguese-speaking World through online carriers such as Turkish Airlines, Qatar Airways, Emirates Airline, KLM, and others, including offline carriers like Lufthansa, Air France, and SWISS.

Now, how can we enhance the airport experience of passengers?

In practice, when a passenger realizes you know a word or a sentence in their language, they might assume fluency and initiate a conversation. This would result in you switching back to English, and the opportunity to use the learned language would be lost. If you lack sufficient knowledge of the language, full-fledged conversations may not be possible. 

However, the following tips can add a "nice touch" to the overall passenger experience, even if conversing extensively is not within the scope. If you are not fluent in the target language, you only want to know when to say the simple and basic "magic words".

Above is how the Philippines is connected to the Lusophone World / Portuguese-speaking World (2019). Map generated through www.gcmap.com

At The Check-in Counter

In Portuguese, this is what a 'typical' conversation at the check-in counter goes (reference: Portuguese With Carla):

CA: Boa tarde! Passaporte e bilhete, por favor?
PSP: Boa tarde. Aqui estão...e também aqui está o meu cartão de fidelização.
CA: Tem bagagem de porão?
PSP: Sim, tenho.
CA: Ponha a sua bagagem aqui, por favor...
...corredor ou janela?
PSP: Corredor, por favor...
CA: Com certeza...
PSP: Obrigado.
CA: De nada. O embarque é às vinte e vinte na porta quinze. Muito obrigado e boa viagem.
PSP: Obrigado eu.


I translated it into English:

Check-in agent (CA): Good evening! Passport and ticket, please?
Portuguese-speaking passenger (PSP): Good evening. Here they are...and here's my frequent flyer card too.
CA: You have any luggage?
PSP: Yes, I have.
CA: Please put it here...
...aisle or window seat?
PSP: An aisle seat, please.
CA: Sure...
PSP: Thank you.
CA: Welcome. The boarding time is at 8.20PM at gate 15. Thanks so much and enjoy the flight.
PSP: Thanks to you!



Here's The Catch

The real scenario if you are not fluent in the target language would be different from above. In this case, you just have to memorize some phrases. That said, you do not want to say "Boa tarde, passporte e bilhete, por favor..." to a random passenger before checking his passport, unless you have the talent to magically identify his nationality through his looks. Most likely, you would instinctively greet with "Good morning" or "Good evening," depending on the time of day. 

If you're observant and you notice that the passenger has an Israeli passport, you could personalize the greeting by saying "Shalom! Boker tov/ Erev tov" when he gives you his passport.

But if you think you missed the chance to do this at the start of the check-in process, don't fret. Another opportunity arises at the end of the check-in process, where you can say:

At the end of the check-in process simply say: "Toda raba venesi'a tova"

I remember a gate agent in Europe saying to me in broken Tagalog "Magandang biahe sayo". 

When I was at the airport in Palma de Mallorca, the Spanish security guy, when he saw my passport, said "Mabuhay"....

It may not be perfect but it's a nice touch. And until now, I do still recall these interactions.

But that's it. The limited time you have to engage with a passenger in a foreign language, especially if you're not fluent. To extend the interaction, achieving conversational proficiency is essential. However, even a full beginner course falls short, at least in my experience.

The key takeaway is, in these types of passenger interactions, fluency in a language isn't necessary. Just expressing a few basic phrases can go a long way, and I'm confident that any passenger would appreciate the effort.

If you want to know more, let me know.

- Moses