????旅客搭乘美國聯合航空公司（United Airlines，簡稱“美聯航”）的班機時，通常還會涉及一連串潛在的附加服務，比如升艙、是否有權進入貴賓室等等。

????美聯航電子商務與經營副總裁斯科特?威爾森介紹說，按照公司過去采用的“收集與分析”數據法，美聯航會把旅客選擇這些服務的信息匯總到一起，來看“什么才是最成功的產品，然后據此進行營銷。”

????現在，這種方法已經發生了變化。自從今年年初起，美聯航已經把“收集、探測、行動”定為新的數據收集三步曲，同時還在革新服務旅客的方式。

????威爾森介紹說：“現在我們會研究旅客是誰，以及他是否有購買我們某種產品的傾向。”現在美聯航為了實時評估一名旅客的可能動向，會加入150多個影響旅客消費的變量，以及旅客之前的旅行目的地進行計算，而不再只是把大量旅客數據匯總到一起。

????計算結果大概在200毫秒后就會得出，可以說它是根據一名旅客的實際情況量身打造并動態生成的服務建議。另外，它的服務條款、頁面布局、拷貝和其它因素也會根據旅客的具體信息而有所不同。采用新的收據分析法后，聯合航空的副業收入年增率超過了15%。

????“航空業催化大數據”

????歡迎來到航空業的大數據時代。從很多方面來看，航空業都是大數據最早的參與者之一。

????R.W. Mann & Co公司的行業分析師鮑伯?曼恩指出：“航空業是一個浸泡在數據中的行業，其中有大量數據是無組織的。直到最近，各大航空公司才能依靠大數據技術來“解決如何識別和提高旅客價值以及如何培養高價值的旅客等問題。”

????美聯航的威爾森指出：“航空業一直在收集數據上做得很好，但他們在利用數據上卻并不是一直都很擅長。”現在盡管各大航空公司收集的數據越來越多，但存儲和處理數據的成本卻已經顯著下降，因此也降低了航空公司運用數據的難度。聯合航空公司的系統中無論任何時候都在處理著1兆兆字節左右的數據。威爾森說：“我們不會保存所有數據，我們必須有選擇性地攫取有用的數據。”對于被選中的數據來說，會有一個實時決策引擎負責相關的處理工作，將它們變成有用的信息。

????從行李傳送帶開始

????大家可以在處理旅客行李方面清楚地看到大數據技術的效用。達美航空（Delta Air Lines）發言人保羅?斯科貝克說：“我們花費了好幾年的努力，在行李跟蹤上投入了數百萬美元的資金。它是我們為旅客提供的核心幕后服務之一。”

????達美航空每年都要處理成百上千萬件行李。斯科貝克表示，2014年，達美航空預計總共將處理1.3億件行李，而且，“每名旅客都有托運完行李上了飛機之后，擔心行李是否會丟失的經歷。”

????When a customer checks into a flight with United Airlines UAL -0.30% , there is typically an array of potential add-on offers to navigate through: flight upgrades, access to the airline’s United Club, and more.

????Under United’s old “collect and analyze” approach to data, the airline would use information about customers’ choices about those items, in aggregated fashion to “see what the most successful products were, and market with those [insights] in mind,” said Scott Wilson, the company’s vice president of e-commerce and merchandising.

????That approach has changed. As of the beginning of this year, “collect, detect, act” is United’s new data-focused mantra, and it’s changing the way the airline serves its customers.

????“Now we look at who the customer is and his or her propensity to buy certain products,” Wilson explained. More than 150 variables about that customer—prior purchases and previous destinations among them—are now assessed in real time to determine an individual’s likely actions, rather than an aggregated group of customers.

????The result, delivered in about 200 milliseconds later, is a dynamically generated offer tailored to the individual. Its terms, on-screen layout, copy, and other elements will vary based on an individual’s collected data. For United, the refined approach led to an increase in year-over-year ancillary revenue of more than 15 percent, he said.

????‘Airlines evolved big data’

????Welcome to the big data era in the airline industry, which in many ways was one of its earliest participants.

????“Airlines are awash in data, much of it unstructured,” said Bob Mann, an industry analyst with R.W. Mann & Co. But only recently have airlines been able to use big-data techniques “to solve, among other objectives, how to recognize and enhance customer value, and how to cultivate high-value customers,” he said.

????“Airlines have always been very good at collecting data, but they haven’t always been good at using it,” United’s Wilson said. Now that the costs of storing and processing data have dropped—even as airlines collect more and more of it—it’s becoming easier for a company to act on it. At United, roughly a terabyte of customer data is floating around at any given time within its systems. “We don’t keep it all,” Wilson said. “We have to be selective about what we grab.” For the data that is selected, a real-time decision engine does the crunching to turn it into something useful.

????It starts at the baggage carousel

????One area in which the effects of big data technology are visible is in the handling of customers’ luggage. “We have over a number of years invested millions of dollars in baggage tracking,” said Paul Skrbec, a spokesman with Delta Air Lines. “That was one of those core, behind-the-scenes services for our customers.”

????Millions of bags are checked each year with Delta DAL -0.33% —a total of 130 million are projected for 2014, Skrbec said—and “every customer has had the experience of boarding a plane after checking their bag and wondering if it was there.”