United Airlines is just operating in a different league than any other US carrier when it comes to the pace at which it’s making improvements. That’s true on the tech front more than anywhere else, as United’s website and (in particular) app are just next level. Along those lines, United has introduced a cool new feature in its app, which avgeeks will certainly appreciate.
United Airlines app cool traveler flight stats
United’s app has been industry leading for a long time. We’re now at the point where app updates have gone from being about fixing things that are broken and making the travel journey easier, to being about just adding cool features that travelers love. It’s really a reflection of how much work United has put in.
Long story short, United has introduced a new app feature that shows your travel journey over the past couple of years, including the number of flights you’ve taken, the number of miles traveled, the flight time, the specific aircraft you’ve flown (down to the exact livery), etc.
Obviously no passenger actually needs this. But I think this is the perfect representation of how United is trying to create brand loyal customers and become a lifestyle brand. Now, I totally roll my eyes at any airline claiming it’s a lifestyle brand (Delta started this trend), but I do think there’s something to be said for features like this creating brand loyalty.
It’s not about this one feature in isolation, but instead, it’s about the overall feeling that you’re flying with an airline that’s really trying, where your business with that airline is repeatedly recognized. Obviously this new feature just comes down to good use of tech, but it still can’t help but make someone be impressed, and also think more favorably of the brand.
United is copying Flighty with this new feature
What’s noteworthy about this new app feature is that it’s almost a direct copy of the Flighty app, which lets you track the flights you’ve taken, and compiles that into some very cool visuals (along with other useful features). Not surprisingly, United’s version of this feature doesn’t include cumulative delays as part of the stats. 😉
Flighty is getting a bit sassy on social media about this new United app feature, pointing out that United hasn’t in fact acquired Flighty, but instead, has only acquired a copy machine. Hah.
What’s interesting is that earlier this year, United CEO Scott Kirby actually brought up in an interview how he wanted the airline to buy Flighty. He was asked about Flighty, and it was mentioned how United often gets inspiration from Flighty. Kirby responded as follows:
“I think we talk to them a lot. In fact, I told our team, I don’t know what they’ve done, I shouldn’t say this in public, but I told our team, ‘We should just go buy Flighty, we’ll keep running it as Flighty, but I just want smart people that aren’t sitting at headquarters that believe anything is possible. Don’t tell me why we can’t do it, but go buy Flighty, and just let those guys tell us what to do.’ They’re really good.”
So the copying is definitely still going on, but clearly the acquisition part hasn’t happened. At least not yet. 😉
Bottom line
United Airlines’ app has added a cool new “My flight journey” feature, which shows all kinds of cool stats about flights you’ve taken over the past couple of years. This looks mighty similar to what you’ll find on Flighty. That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, as United’s CEO has in the past said how he even wants the airline to buy the app. United’s app is on a different level than the competition…
What do you make of this new United app feature?
A lot of work and investment underpins such innovations.
A decade ago, United Airlines operated on a rigid infrastructure anchored by aging, on-premises data centers and legacy mainframe systems. These green-screen programs made pushing updates slow and left the airline struggling to adapt when severe weather or scheduling disruptions hit.
To break free from these constraints, United launched a massive cloud-first migration, shutting down three major on-premises data centers and shifting over 80% of...
A lot of work and investment underpins such innovations.
A decade ago, United Airlines operated on a rigid infrastructure anchored by aging, on-premises data centers and legacy mainframe systems. These green-screen programs made pushing updates slow and left the airline struggling to adapt when severe weather or scheduling disruptions hit.
To break free from these constraints, United launched a massive cloud-first migration, shutting down three major on-premises data centers and shifting over 80% of its workload to AWS. United modernized its core mainframes adopting high-speed software delivery tools, slashed software deployment times by 75% and saved an estimated $2 billion. The monolithic codebase was completely rearchitected into global microservices, allowing developers to roll out features twice as fast as their competitors.
This backend overhaul completely transformed the passenger and employee experience. United rebuilt its mobile app around the traveler's journey, introducing features like bag-drop shortcuts, real-time luggage tracking, and virtual "Agent on Demand" customer service. On the tarmac and in the skies, United connected its fleet to AWS IoT Core, streaming 28 GB of data per minute from 20,000 aircraft sensors to predict maintenance issues before they caused delays. Today, that cloud foundation supports generative and agentic AI tools that automatically resolve regional flight incidents in minutes, completing United's decade-long evolution from a legacy carrier into a cloud-native digital leader.
I love Flighty. It's the best app for planning and tracking, hands down.
I love Flighty, both for how useful it is tracking your current and future flights, and for its passport feature for tracking flight history. Worth paying for the subscription (I did a Lifetime sub a while back).
On a related note have you/would you ever post your flighty history? Would be insanely cool to see!
For flight history, you should also look at flightmemory.com. If one has tracked their flights, they are shareable via the app. I've used flightmemory.com for a couple of decades now.
Flighty also integrates with them, so one can export the flightmemory.com trips into Flighty by downloading each page and saving as an HTML file. Cumbersome, but it works. What glitches out, though, is if there's an airport code Flighty doesn't recognize. Whet that happens, Flighty...
For flight history, you should also look at flightmemory.com. If one has tracked their flights, they are shareable via the app. I've used flightmemory.com for a couple of decades now.
Flighty also integrates with them, so one can export the flightmemory.com trips into Flighty by downloading each page and saving as an HTML file. Cumbersome, but it works. What glitches out, though, is if there's an airport code Flighty doesn't recognize. Whet that happens, Flighty chokes, and it's a PITA to fix it for past flights.
Mine has been flightdiary.net which then got bought by and folded into flightradar24.com