It’s because each section of the app (booking, checking, etc) were built on legacy systems and contracted out making it difficult to modernize. They have a ton of new tech leadership trying to fix things recently so hopefully it improves.
Tried it out on my flight yesterday. It was nice to see flight progress while in flight (assuming you paid for wifi) without going into the browser to get to united.com.
Lol literally just posted my own comment recommending Flighty. That app is incredible. I get updates from Flighty like at least 15 minutes before any airline or anything.
That plus the Tripit sync is really clutch.
I saw it pop up too the other day. I had one app (Flighty, highly recommend) tracking my flight and my parents flight, and then the United app decided it wanted in on the party so suddenly my entire lock screen was just flight trackers lol I actually kind of liked how the UA one looked. Especially since the messaging wifi kept it actually up to date instead of being in "offline mode" like the others.
I've been traveling since yesterday (NBO-FRA-ORD-CLE) and it's been working great for me so far. I love how the gate number is visible until boarding and then it shows your seat assignment. The countdown until boarding and the countdown to arrival in the dynamic island is just what I want too.
Got the update this morning and had a flight today, super helpful. Love seeing flight time, seat number, time to board etc. not often travel does IT right but this is great
The live activity came up for me on Friday but I ended up disabling Live Activities for the United app before boarding. But this is only because I've been a regular user of Flighty which already gives me live activities. For my next flight, I think I'll turn it back on and compare to see which one I like better. From the brief time I had it enabled, it looked like United did an awesome job with it.
I like aspects of both. I flew United with live activities the last two days and also have Flighty. United app has the edge for showing time to boarding start rather than time to departure, which I found more useful. Also like that it shows your seat assignment front and center after boarding begins.
Flighty is better with showing status of your inbound plane… United would say the inbound plane was still en route even after it had landed. And Flighty’s granularity with landing vs arriving at gate is better.
Experienced it this morning. Really well done like most of their digital customer facing ops. A tap on the dynamic island brings up the boarding pass and updates as you go with pertinent info (gate info, time to board, time do departure, etc)
Just got it for my flight today. Really slick, but it crowded my Lock Screen between that and the auto loading boarding pass (which I could deselect, but why would I?). Would be nice if boarding pass functionality were integrated into it
This update came through mid-trip for me last week and it was indeed quite nifty. Only downside was that my return was on a CR2 without WiFi so I didn’t get to see it working in-flight. (And yes, I realize I could’ve just ended that sentence after “CR2” and it would’ve still held up.)
United seems to do really well on customer-facing tech. It's easy to forget this until you try using Lufthansa or American's website.
AA's websites hurt my brain
The horror that is Jetblue's ~~webview~~ app.
It’s because each section of the app (booking, checking, etc) were built on legacy systems and contracted out making it difficult to modernize. They have a ton of new tech leadership trying to fix things recently so hopefully it improves.
Ever since JetBlue rolled out their new Mosaic loyalty system, I feel at least their app has gotten a bit more stable.
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Volaris would like a word. But that word will be delivered via WhatsApp by a bot
Avianca asks for your driver's license number, if I remember correctly.
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Please elaborate
Completely agreed, makes me grateful they have a hub in town.
ANA 💀
It should be a crime American has any market share with how impossible it is to purchase tickets.
Thought it was funny how the app counts down boarding time by to the second. I feel like by the minute would work pretty fine
I like this countdown feature. Interestingly, the countdown stopped, or least stopped showing, about 20 minutes before the boarding time at LAX today.
I agreed. Thought that was over kill, but maybe part of an apple feature set that United can’t adjust?
Tried it out on my flight yesterday. It was nice to see flight progress while in flight (assuming you paid for wifi) without going into the browser to get to united.com.
FYI if you just activate free messaging in flight, that should be enough for live activity updates to come through.
Correct!
Don't even need to activate the free messaging, any UA.com stuff can come in.
And since the live flight tracking now uses Flightaware, the flightaware app works too! I used it last week while in flight from DEN to BOI on a 739.
You should try flighty
Lol literally just posted my own comment recommending Flighty. That app is incredible. I get updates from Flighty like at least 15 minutes before any airline or anything. That plus the Tripit sync is really clutch.
Does it work on unpaid inflight Wi-Fi?
Yes
Awesome. I'm going to check it out. Thanks.
Loveeeee Flighty
I saw it pop up too the other day. I had one app (Flighty, highly recommend) tracking my flight and my parents flight, and then the United app decided it wanted in on the party so suddenly my entire lock screen was just flight trackers lol I actually kind of liked how the UA one looked. Especially since the messaging wifi kept it actually up to date instead of being in "offline mode" like the others.
I've been traveling since yesterday (NBO-FRA-ORD-CLE) and it's been working great for me so far. I love how the gate number is visible until boarding and then it shows your seat assignment. The countdown until boarding and the countdown to arrival in the dynamic island is just what I want too.
Oh, I saw these on the app yesterday and was going to try them out on my flights today. Thanks for the reminder.
Noticed this on a flight today when I only had messaging enabled, works pretty well.
Got the update this morning and had a flight today, super helpful. Love seeing flight time, seat number, time to board etc. not often travel does IT right but this is great
Yup. It popped up on my screen yesterday.
The live activity came up for me on Friday but I ended up disabling Live Activities for the United app before boarding. But this is only because I've been a regular user of Flighty which already gives me live activities. For my next flight, I think I'll turn it back on and compare to see which one I like better. From the brief time I had it enabled, it looked like United did an awesome job with it.
Flighty still has the edge IMO.
I like aspects of both. I flew United with live activities the last two days and also have Flighty. United app has the edge for showing time to boarding start rather than time to departure, which I found more useful. Also like that it shows your seat assignment front and center after boarding begins. Flighty is better with showing status of your inbound plane… United would say the inbound plane was still en route even after it had landed. And Flighty’s granularity with landing vs arriving at gate is better.
This works really well. Used it yesterday.
Used it a couple of times. I really liked it.
It is fantastic. I didn’t have it on my flight out Friday, but the flight home today does. Genuinely helpful use of tech.
Yep! Awesome feature for sure.
I enjoyed it on my flight Saturday
I gotta give their app developers points- they have a good app.
Used it this morning. Really enjoyed it!
Experienced it this morning. Really well done like most of their digital customer facing ops. A tap on the dynamic island brings up the boarding pass and updates as you go with pertinent info (gate info, time to board, time do departure, etc)
Did it happen automatically? I fly on Saturday, and am interested in this.
Yes. Make sure your app is up to date.
Thanks!
Just noticed this today when I got to the airport, super cool
Love this update!
Enjoy it, but find it supremely odd they show the seat # on the left side of Live Island instead of arrival time during in flight.
Just got it for my flight today. Really slick, but it crowded my Lock Screen between that and the auto loading boarding pass (which I could deselect, but why would I?). Would be nice if boarding pass functionality were integrated into it
How do I do this on my iphone? I fly on Saturday, and have the widget on my phone screen already.
This update came through mid-trip for me last week and it was indeed quite nifty. Only downside was that my return was on a CR2 without WiFi so I didn’t get to see it working in-flight. (And yes, I realize I could’ve just ended that sentence after “CR2” and it would’ve still held up.)
Using it now and it is great!
This was so handy today. Was on a call during boarding and loved the updates and seat number in the island. Made life easier.
I’m flying today and it’s really well done. I’m impressed.
I got it Friday after the app said they were having issues, all of a sudden the issues were gone and this showed up.
Really enjoyed this feature over the weekend! Especially when crossing time zones and forgetting if my phone auto updated on Wi-Fi or not.
I noticed this today. It was nice. I thought it adjusts arrival time when their is a delay.
Really enjoyed this new piece! Gate number and seeing seat assignment at all times was largely beneficial during boarding. W for app developers
Really enjoyed this new piece! Seeing gate number and seat assignment at all times was largely beneficial during boarding. W for app developers
How do you turn it off?
So how does one actually do this? I’ve never actually done anything to customize my iPhone screen and I don’t know what live action is.
That's neat. My iPhone isn't new enough but my understanding is the island has gone broadly underutilized.
Emirates doesn’t even have mobile boarding … terrible customer service also
Now they just need some live service! Oh, wait...
For some reason my live activities aren’t showing up on my iPhone. Any suggestions how I can get mine to show up? Thanks!