While Delta Air Lines definitely has the best mobile app overall, I’d argue Untied’s comes in as a close second. What the app lacks in day of travel functionality, it gains in the booking experience. The United app makes it incredibly easy to book flights. Even better, it’s equally easy to book award flights through the app. That’s a functionality that’s missing from many other airline apps these days.
As great as the in-app booking experience is, there are issues when you book flights on partner airlines. For starters, during the booking process you’ll quickly notice that you can’t select seats on partner airlines. I don’t know of many (if any) airlines that you can do this with so it’s not a huge deal. The bigger deal is that you can’t check-in to partner flights booked with United. Until recently, you had to find your partner airline confirmation number and check-in either through their proprietary app or at the airport. It now seems however that United has solved this issue.
Partner Airlines Check-In Through The United App
Apparently with the most recent update (V 2.2.27) you’ll now be able to check-in to partner flights through the United mobile app. Additionally, once you check-in to the flight, you’ll also be able to retrieve the partner airline’s mobile boarding pass on your phone!
This is absolutely great news for anyone who frequently used United to book international itineraries. In the past you’d have to retrieve the partner airline’s confirmation number from the app. Then plug that number into the partner airline’s app (if you downloaded it) to manage a partner airline reservation. In most instances you’d have to stop off at the partner airline’s check-in counter either way to get a boarding pass. This was especially frustrating when traveling on an award ticket with tight connections.
Now, it seems as though United solved this entire issue. On the day of travel you should now be able to check-in to all available flights (partner or otherwise) and retrieve mobile boarding passes for each flight. A complete listing of participating partner airlines is found within United’s press release.
Final Thoughts
Credit due to United for this move. As their press release states, they are the first US carrier to offer this functionality within their mobile app. Hopefully as time passes all Global Carriers will begin to introduce partner boarding passes through their mobile app.
When reviewing the list of partner airlines, I noticed a few airlines missing from the list. I specifically noticed that Singapore Airlines and Aer Lingus aren’t included yet. I’m not sure why this would be, but per the press release, United expects to add more partners in the near future.
Lastly, I haven’t had a chance to try this out yet myself. Surprisingly I have a United award booking coming up on Asiana Airlines. I can’t wait to test this out during that trip! I guess I can now finally delete the Asiana Airways app.
Featured Image Courtesy of United.
