Things I Love About My Favorite Airline App: United Airlines

Every major airline has an app. And after having used many airline apps (American, Delta, Alaska, Air Canada, Qantas, and more), I have decided that my favorite and most functional app has got to be United Airlines'.

Here is what I wish all apps had:

1) An easy introduction page with all the vital (and bonus) information

Of note, there's access to your membership number (greyed out), one's account balance, one's status tracker (to always show you how close or how far you are from your next status goal), and how many upgrade points you have available, if you choose to use them.

What is unique about United's app is that they include your lifetime miles. If any program's million miler status is actually important to the program itself, it should make one's progress towards that aspirational status clear. I am, apparently, over 700,000 miles away from that goal. 

2) Future flight bookings and the ability to check in by clicking on the booking

I don't have an upcoming flight and so I can't really demonstrate. However, it is easy to access all of my upcoming booked flights. One can view details about the flight and make changes to or cancel the flight. One can check into the flight and store boarding passes for flights.

3) Flight arrival times and departure times are easily found and easily interpreted.   

Flight information is bold and clear. If there is a delay, there's typically a small message above the flight information telling you what is happening or why it is delayed. You can click "where is this aircraft coming from" to help you decide when it is time to go to the gate: obviously if the incoming flight hasn't arrived yet when it is officially boarding time for your flight, there's no point in leaving the lounge to go to the gate. Grab another drink in the lounge. Not every airline has this feature.

4) Accurate, clear information about where you are on the standby list and upgrade list and

5) A seat map that is always up to date and always viewable, even until two days after the flight. 

There is no question about where you are on the standby list and the upgrade list. Unlike other airlines, once the flight is closed, you can still see what the list looked like. You can use this information to let you know how likely the flight is to be full when you're flying this route in the future. If you're into seeing who is non-rev and upgrading, you can figure that out easily (everyone from And, R. and below are are non-rev). Furthermore, the seat map is always active and up to date which is also a nice source of information.

I quite like that once the flight is closed, you can pull up the seat map to see if that empty seat beside you really is free -- you can move your baggage from under the seat in front of you one seat over to increase legroom. Very hand to know.

6) Ability to book flights and check out award seats

Like with virtually every airline app out there, you can book either award seats or revenue seats. If you lived in America, you could purchase and pay for the seats right on the app itself. What I wish was for the ability to pay using other currencies; Canadians aren't allowed to buy tickets because most of us do not have an American address (for the credit card) nor a USD-funded bank account. 

It seems pretty basic, but all of the features make the app very functional to me. If it could allow me to book things in Canadian funds, I think this app would be kind of perfect. Now I just have to wait for the other airlines to catch up ...

links from the web -- US News' rankings of hotel and airline programs, airmiles onyx, united app changes, american frequent flyer non-changes

1) gary from view from the wing breaks analyzes the results of the US News' rankings of hotel and airline points programs. i agreed that they are flawed, and he takes a look at the actual score breakdown. for both, it seems like the majority of the points go directly to domestic travel, how large the domestic network is, and how big their presence is in various american cities. it says little about upgrades and bonus perks, amenities, the ability to earn top tier, etc. i think it's important to look at the finer details of how they come up with these rankings. some people buy into these rankings, and i'd hate for people to be misled.

2) airmiles announces a new level in their earnings program as reported on flyertalk. the official website from airmiles is here. to reach this new level, one requires 6,000 airmiles a year. i find it hard to even get myself excited about reaching airmiles gold. when i was airmiles gold, i didn't really take advantage of the 40-50% off reward miles for flights because they were only between odd destinations (prince george to regina, for example), or were only valid for times in the very near future (e.g., how often does one begin to plan a trip to europe 3-4 weeks before actual expected departure date?). i'll probably do a more thorough review in a bit.

3) despite delta and united transitioning to a revenue based frequent flyer program, american airlines has noted that it will not make that transition yet. they still have to merge their programs first, which is expected to start sometime in 2015.

4) united is set to start allowing passengers to check in and scan their travel documents using their mobile app. i've downloaded the latest update but haven't had time to try this out. as someone who definitely flies internationally on united, this is something that would help me to avoid the kiosks at airports.

7 free FlightTrack pro codes from starbucks, in case you didn't get it before ...

i wrote about flight track pro in a previous post. they were offering free codes at starbucks for canadians. i don't think americans can use these codes as these are all linked to the canadian app store.

i grabbed a whole deck of them when they were about to be chucked by starbucks, and i started handing them out to friends. but now i'm out of friends who want them, and i'm left with a whole bunch of codes that all expire on september 24, 2013.

so if you're interested, go ahead and grab the codes for yourselves. it's for flight track pro, normally a $9.99 value, for free. and free is the best word in the universe. i took a picture of the instructions as to how to download and install. please let me know if you've used a code ...

1) WLM46FYREHN
2) E7KJ6EPP3K6M
3) 7PEY7XMENRK6
4) J96FF7LYLFYE
5) ERWWYP6N6PXK
6) 73464FJJM3TP
7) YL7JMXPWX6PM

flight track pro -- for free at starbucks

my friend had recommended flight track -- a free app for the iphone. he actually recommended flight track pro for $9.99, but i was way too cheap (heck, i even list my home address in alberta to save on the pst!). i've been using it ever since because it's a quick way to look up flights, find delays, and keep track of flights that other people are taking. yes, you could get it all on the airline or airport website. and in the case of united airlines, you could get even more useful information on the united app. but flight track combines it all.

then today, at starbucks, i found out that it was the app pick of the week. it is free!

 

what i like most about flight track is that it is a searchable database of flights for virtually all the airlines that one would care about. it does not include charter or private flights, obviously. so for example, i searched for ac1 today, and it popped up. it told me when it actually departed and its estimated time of arrival. i have noticed that on flights that i take prior to departure, it updates me with regards to delays. it even has a tool which can use its previously gathered data to tell you its on-time performance. you can interpret that data however you want.

 

the fun feature is tracking where the plane is now. it's not the exact flight path ... or where the flight is at the exact moment. at least i don't think it does. i suspect that it has to do with expected location given the estimated departure time, arrival time, and flight time. but you can take a screen shot while your friend is in flight so that you can show them later. "see! i did think of you as you were in the air!" for some reason, you can zoom in and out on the map in the free version, but not with the paid version.

according to the app store, and you get push alerts, airport delay predictions, and synced flight itineraries. i haven't actually played with those yet. in fact, i was perfectly happy with the free version. but why stick with free version when you can get the paid version for the same price?