Why is my flight delayed? AA will tell you!
Gone are the days when paper boarding passes were the norm. Airlines have invested lots for passengers and their "on the go" experience, all at our fingertips. We now rely on our mobile apps for real-time updates, delay notifications, changing seats, checking in, etc. So naturally, a positive mobile app experience should be at the forefront of an airlines' focus!
But in reality, most apps have their issues:
- United's app is leaps and bounds ahead of the competition, but it never lets me select a standby flight without airport intervention
- Delta's app can lag sometimes and changes could take ~5 minutes to refresh. Plus, the calendar glitches out sometimes
- AA's app lets you list as standby, but you won't get an in-app notification if your standby clears (upgrades used to also never notify, but that has since changed)
- Southwest's app never says the scheduled departure or arrival time during or after a trip. Perhaps trying to hide the fact that the flight arrived 15 mins late but still called "on-time"
- Jetblue's app is basically just a redirect of the website. Not very useful
- Alaska's app is mostly fine, but you can't change the FF# for any passenger after booking unless it's an AS FF#
American's app now shows reason for delays/cancellations
This might be the biggest improvement that I didn't mention above. United's app has been great for many years with details on reason of delay. It'll pull from the GDS updates and say specifically whether it was maintenance, weather, ATC, or something else. This makes it a lot easier for seasoned travelers like me to estimate the true departure or risk. But more importantly, it shows transparency and helps passengers determined whether they are due compensation or vouchers.
American's app now has a similar feature. You can't see the delay reason for just any flight, but at least it will say for your impacted flights.
Here's an article from ViewfromtheWing showcasing this update.
This is a great update!
Kudos to American for doing something good here. I've been stranded a couple times before and had to wait in very long lines for hotels, meal vouchers, rebookings, and updates. It looks like the app will be able to handle all of that, which is awesome!
We're still a little behind United's IT infrastructure, but this is a step in the right direction. Ideally, every airline should implement something similar to United's Connection Saver tool...but I think that's many light years away.