United Airlines Introduces Upgraded App

WHY IT RATES: Travel agents and advisor with clients who fly with United Airlines should be showcasing the carrier’s improved app.—Donald Wood, Breaking News Senior Writer.

United Airlines is introducing a reimagined mobile app to customers around the world. Already the top downloaded airline app for Apple and Android phones, the refreshed app now features a more dynamic experience that updates customers at each step of their travel journey, making it the perfect travel companion.

The app includes features customers know and love from the previous version, while adding enhancements that make managing travel easier from booking to landing.

MORE Airlines & Airports

Amsterdam Airport Cutting Flights Due to Global Warming

Off-Duty Pilot Steps in After Southwest Pilot Suffers Mid...

Hawaiian Airlines to Increase Summer Frequency

"Every day we are using technology to improve our customers' experience and making more information available to our customers at the swipe of a finger," said Linda Jojo, executive vice president of technology and chief digital officer at United Airlines. "With this updated app, we set out to bring improvements that are meaningful to all our customers, whether they travel every week or only once a year."

Customers' favorite features, such as bag tracking, will continue to be available in the updated app, and new highlights include:

—A navigation bar that gives customers quick access to some of the most popular tools such as flight status, and some new handy features like My Trips.

—A My Trips tab in the navigation bar that allows customers to easily access information about their upcoming trip and stores boarding passes when customers are checked in for their flights.

—An inbox that stores important push notifications United sends customers about their flight, such as if a flight status changes, gate changes and alerts about when boarding for a flight has begun.

—Dynamic boarding times will be updated throughout the app in the event that departure times change to give customers the latest information even when they are not at the gate. This builds on the airline's recent addition of boarding notifications, which were added when United rolled out its Better Boarding process.

One of the biggest updates to the app comes during the travel period, when the home screen updates to give customers the most helpful information for each step of their travel journey. The home screen will begin to update starting 48 hours before a flight, and will continue updating throughout various phases all the way through arrival at the final destination with the most useful information. For instance, customers connecting will find a screen that allows them to easily access airport maps so they can easily navigate to the next gate. Bringing the most useful information to the forefront will make the entire journey less stressful and more intuitive.

The app also includes an updated design with more engaging content. When a customer does not have an upcoming trip, the app will open to a beautiful destination image to provide travel inspiration. Content on the home screen is also more personalized to each user; for example, customers who recently passed loyalty milestones will be recognized on the home screen, and the app will also celebrate customers on their birthday.

United's in-house digital team spent over a year designing and creating this updated app, including eight months during which customers and more than 18,000 employees provided feedback to create the final version that rolls out worldwide today. United issued seven releases during the beta test, making numerous changes based on user feedback. There were more than 13,000 check-ins during the beta test period. The airline will continue soliciting feedback on the app and expects to roll out additional features later this year to further improve and ease travel for our customers.

As a technology leader, United was the first carrier to offer mobile boarding passes and became the first to introduce boarding passes and flight information in its app for partner airlines. Customers can access boarding passes and flight information for flights on United's Star Alliance partner airlines when flights are booked with connecting travel on United on the same itinerary. The airline also made it easier for customers to search for fare classes available in the app with Expert Mode, a popular feature from united.com.

For more information, reach out to your local travel agent.

SOURCE: United Airlines press release.