American Airlines Launches New iPhone App

  • July 26, 2010
American Airlines is releasing the first version of its iPhone application, which offers customers a new way to stay connected with the airline while they are traveling.

The new application's intelligent data display allows American to provide the most updated day-of-travel information. Customers are able to: enter log in and password only once -- allowing the application to push upcoming flight details to the home screen automatically. The app also allows them to set a parking reminder, monitor the standby list, track elite status progress, view personal flight details, access a Mobile boarding pass, use GPS to locate the nearest airport served by American, view terminal maps and play Sudoku.

"We are developing immersion apps for a wide range of other mobile devices," says Monte Ford, American's senior vice president-information technology and CIO, in a statement. "In fact, mobility is at the heart of much of what we are implementing today to dramatically improve our customers' interaction with American -- from mobile boarding to the many portable technologies our employees are equipped with. We are leveraging leading technology tools to bring the best information and experiences to our customers."

advertisement

advertisement

The new iPhone application will be introduced in several phases as the airline continues to develop the capabilities of the tool, including an iPad-specific version in the coming weeks. Future versions will further utilize the iPhone's global positioning features, enable push notifications, International Flight Check-In, request and view the Upgrade List, along with other functions that take advantage of the "app experience."

The app was designed using customer and employee input. During its development, American conducted usability sessions to gain feedback from AAdvantage members, which helped determine what they valued most. Members with varying ranges of AAdvantage status were able to "test drive" the application during these sessions and voice opinions about the features they liked and found useful during day of travel, and the ones they could do without. --Tanya Irwin

 

Next story loading loading..