Bots That Collect Airline Compensation For Passengers (venturebeat.com) 10
You have read about bots that fight parking tickets. But what about all those flights that get delayed, canceled or overbooked? Could a bot look into that? From a report: AirHelp, a Europe-based company that assists people in pursuing such claims, today announced two new bots to further automate its operations and sift through the monumental number of requests it receives. AirHelp provides a free website people can use to determine if they are eligible for a refund from their airline. Founded in 2013 as a Y Combinator-backed startup, AirHelp claims to have aided more than 7 million people in processing airline compensation worth almost $930 million in total. The company, which operates in 30 countries, including the U.S., only takes a cut when a customer has been successfully reimbursed by the airline.
Naturally, it receives a high volume of claims. To sift through these, in 2016 it began working on bots to automate parts of its screening and analysis. The company launched two bots -- Herman and Lara -- and today it is adding AgA and Docky to the mix. AgA (short for Agent's Assistant) and Docky will help the company with customer service and automatic assessment of claims. AirHelp says it has been testing these bots internally since last year and that they have already assessed 30 percent of claims it receives with 95 percent accuracy. [...] AirHelp's new bots would complement Herman, which mimics the work of a legal agent and looks after 100 percent of cases requiring legal actions, and Lara, which assesses 60 percent of all cases that get past Herman's virtual desk.
Naturally, it receives a high volume of claims. To sift through these, in 2016 it began working on bots to automate parts of its screening and analysis. The company launched two bots -- Herman and Lara -- and today it is adding AgA and Docky to the mix. AgA (short for Agent's Assistant) and Docky will help the company with customer service and automatic assessment of claims. AirHelp says it has been testing these bots internally since last year and that they have already assessed 30 percent of claims it receives with 95 percent accuracy. [...] AirHelp's new bots would complement Herman, which mimics the work of a legal agent and looks after 100 percent of cases requiring legal actions, and Lara, which assesses 60 percent of all cases that get past Herman's virtual desk.
How long until they get legally banned? (Score:5, Insightful)
How much longer before these sorts of things get the short end of the legal stick for helping people? I can't imagine that the airlines or any industry in general being happy that some third party is helping people cut in on their profit margins.
EU261 forces the airlines to pay out! (Score:2)
EU261 forces the airlines to pay out!
Re: (Score:2)
EU261 has fairly well defined rules that airlines have to follow when determining if a delay requires compensation, but there are still a lot of grey areas in it - there are a lot of questions on the Travel StackExchange for example where people don't understand the rules.
And when weather gets involved, it gets even more messy - until recently, weather was a standard get out clause for denying compensation under EU261. If there were storms or snow fall or whatever, and airlines had to cancel flights, no on
the service already exists but you can get for fre (Score:2)
the service already exists but you can get for free.
their employees are doing basically bot work already only.
Look, here's a guide how to get it free without paying them shitloads of money+vat. you don't need these helper companies.
Find the customer support email address. you might need to ask a facebook bot or whatever to get it. just get it. then send them the information about your flight that was late and say that you want compensation. they will say "no we won't pay it was a technical issue" - then you
Re: (Score:2)
The law actually puts the consumer in a very strong position, so the airlines rely on people not understanding the system or not pursuing their claims after the initial rejection.
The bot works because it reduces the workload for the consumer to near zero. Click a few options, print and send. No amount of unclear wording, trying to sow confusion or grind the consumer down will work.
At first the airlines did try to resist, but doing so has a cost for them. Especially if the complaint gets escalated to the reg
Great... (Score:2)
Doing Gods work, for a cut (Score:3)
If the airlines bothered to spend any time or effort in "Customer Satisfaction" this would have never been needed.
As a self funding solution, it seems like a good business. Until the airlines start deploying bots to ignore requests.
Sex Panther (Score:2)