Why Virgin Atlantic Chose Google Glass Over Tablets and Smart Watches

Speaking to attendees at SITA's IT Summit in Brussels this past week, Craig Kreeger, CEO of Virgin Atlantic Airways, had a confession about wearable tech. He said that the airline looked at but decided against smart-watches and smartphones in favor of Google Glass for their concierges because both the smart-watches and smartphones made personnel appear distracted when attending guests. As he said, an attendant checking a smart watch for information to provide a passenger came across as impatient because we naturally associate someone looking their watch as eager to move on to something more important. The smartphone also gave the impression that the customer service representative had something better to do. "It was about giving staff better information and freeing them up to be with customers," he pointed out speaking of the tech trials the airline conducted. Only Google Glass permitted the airline's representatives to maintain the critical eye contact which demonstrated they were engaged and interesting it helping. There were side-effects. Some passengers were