Of all the U.S. airlines, United Airlines has perhaps the most impressive customer-facing technology.
Its app consistently wins awards, and the carrier has invested thousands of engineering hours in building new features. Some of these include an all-in-one delays and cancellations center, Live Activities for iPhone users, an agent-on-demand service and much more.
Outside of the app, United's text message-based day-of-travel reminders have become even more personalized and helpful than ever before. On a recent trip through Chicago, there was a text message waiting for me when I landed; it told me my connecting information, along with a personalized map and walking estimate to the new gate.
On another trip, I was traveling on a brand-new Boeing 737 MAX 8 with larger overhead bins. Before boarding, I received a text with a GIF showing me how to side-load my bag to maximize space.
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"It's really just about taking as much friction out of the travel journey as we can," Jason Birnbaum, United's chief information officer, said in an interview with TPG at the airline's recent event with Apple related to Bluetooth-enabled planes.
At the event, Birnbaum and his deputy, Grant Milstead, vice president of digital technology, spoke with me about the future of United's tech efforts.
Here's what you can expect.
Over the past few months, there's been a concerning development on United's website and app: Expert Mode has been disappearing for many users despite having this option enabled in their profile.
In case you're not familiar, Expert Mode lets you see available fare classes, including award and upgrade availability. With this additional information, savvy flyers can get more insight into whether their upgrade might clear or whether award space might open.
Suffice it to say that for many power users, myself included, Expert Mode is a must-have feature.
That's why so many readers have reached out to me over the past few weeks asking me what's going on; some fear that this option will be eliminated completely.
Well, there's some good news. Milstead confirmed that Expert Mode is here to stay.
"We're really focused on meeting travelers where they want to be and allowing them to shop the way that they want to shop. Expert Mode is something that we've supported and we'll continue to support," he told me.
That said, reading between the lines, I wouldn't be surprised to see this feature phased out in the coming years. Milstead talked broadly about how revenue management is always experimenting with personalization as it relates to fare classes — a project that might render Expert Mode no longer useful.
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