The United Airlines app now offers a potential power-up for passengers dealing with an interrupted itinerary: the option to get an earlier flight than the departure they were rebooked on after a delay or cancellation. This new feature, announced Tuesday, lets customers add themselves to standby lists for up to three flights leaving earlier than a rebooked reservation.
The airline will then send a text advising them when a seat opens up on one of those earlier options, allowing passengers to decide whether the time saved is worth a possible trade-off, such as losing a window seat or extra legroom, or if they should stick with Plan B.
That is the sort of flexibility that you could traditionally only get by bringing your case to an airline representative with time to work the problem for you. Otherwise, you’re stuck with whatever flight was immediately available after your scheduled flight got scratched. (Literally as I type this, my brother is looking at a five-hour delay in Philadelphia as a result of a rebooking after an unexplained flight cancellation.)
United’s press release says more than 85% of its passengers use its apps on their travel days. Once useful for not all that much more than watching streaming video in-flight and scanning in a passport before an international departure, the app has become a key part of the airline’s push to raise its tech altitude.
United’s announcement notes such recent additions to the app as support for Apple Wallet’s digital ID option, sharing tracking info from an AirTag in a lost checked bag, estimates for wait times for TSA screening at its US hub airports, and tips for connections that include estimated walking times and notifications if the airline is holding a departure to let people with delayed arriving flights make that connection.
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Should none of your standby attempts for earlier flights pan out, United’s app offers one way to while away the time that Tuesday’s release doesn’t highlight: the simple Boeing 787 flight-simulator game that it added four years ago.
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Rob Pegoraro writes about interesting problems and possibilities in computers, gadgets, apps, services, telecom, and other things that beep or blink. He’s covered such developments as the evolution of the cell phone from 1G to 5G, the fall and rise of Apple, Google’s growth from obscure Yahoo rival to verb status, and the transformation of social media from CompuServe forums to Facebook’s billions of users. Pegoraro has met most of the founders of the internet and once received a single-word email reply from Steve Jobs.
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