United Airlines is adding a new feature called “How’s My Flight Tracking” to its mobile app which will allow guests to track several elements of their flight in real-time.
New United Airlines “How’s My Flight Tracking” Option In App
United’s app already offers a flight tracking function which allows you to pinpoint the precise location and altitude of an aircraft while in-flight.
Furthermore, the app notifies you when boarding has begun for your flight, which is particularly helpful if you wish to avoid crowded gate areas or wait in another part of the airport prior to boarding.
This new feature will provides real-time updates in two areas, aircraft ground location and aircraft cleaning status.
- Location of their aircraft: the tracker will update when the aircraft has arrived at the gate, and provide a reminder asking customers to not crowd the gate area
- Cleaning status: the tracker will update with the status of the aircraft being cleaned and provide additional details on United’s cleaning and safety procedures
This new feature will also incorporate the pre-exiting boarding notifications and consolidate it to a single screen, available as an option when viewing the status for your flight.
United tested this new app feature on flights out of Houston throughout the month of January. It will now expand to all of United’s hubs and then to “additional line stations” next month.
CONCLUSION
The United app remains my favorite airline app and keeps getting better. While the ability to easily book, check-in, modify, upgrade, and view flight status still mark the essential features, the additional information provided will help better manage time and keep customers informed.
United’s app is incredible. I recently tried booking an award flight on the AA app and eventually gave up and logged into my laptop. UA’s usability blows others out of the water. I love that everything (at least based on my experience) is native in the app and pull in pages from the normal website.
Matthew, if I recall correctly (we’re coming up on the one year anniversary of my last flight :(), the United app already had the capability of notifying you when one’s flight was ready for boarding. But what I really need is to know when that is about to happen with a reliable pad (~5 minutes). If I’m in the United Club or grabbing food at a restaurant and get notified that my flight is boarding, the boarding process is well under way by the time I arrive at the gate.
So, does the new feature tell you when boarding is imminent or has started? I’d prefer the former. I mean, either is better than nothing, but I’m hoping that this is a real improvement.
I’m glad that United is using this time to make improvements where it can. It seems like this is the perfect time to do that sort of thing.
In the past you could track the incoming aircraft that was scheduled to operate your flight thru the Flight Status function. One could track your aircraft to the start of the day and see any delays building, sometimes before Gate Agents had any idea. So, nice to see further improvement.
Impressive.