United Airlines deserves credit for having by far the best customer-facing tech of any US airline, especially when it comes to the mobile app. It’s materially better than Delta’s, and in a completely different league than American’s. Along those lines, United is now rolling out yet another awesome app feature, which passengers will no doubt appreciate.
United’s new seat change notification feature
Zach Griff reports on how United is rolling out a new seat alert feature. This is debuting for select customers as of today (Friday, March 22, 2024), but should be available for all passengers in the coming months.
I think we’ve all been in a situation where we book a flight, but no good seats are available (or maybe just our preferred seats aren’t available). With United’s new seat notification feature, you can be moved to a better seat if it opens up:
- When booking or managing a flight in the mobile app and viewing the seat map, you’ll be able to request to move to your desired seat, should it become available
- For example, you could request to be moved to an aisle or window seat, or to a bulkhead or exit row seat; United will then keep monitoring up until 12 hours before departure
- If your specified seat becomes available, you’ll automatically be moved to it, and you’ll be sent a push notification about this happening
This is great new tech from United!
Currently there are some paid services like ExpertFlyer that let you set seat alerts, but an airline not only letting you set an alert, but automatically moving you to a better seat, is a first. This is such a customer friendly move, and it’s no doubt a win-win.
I imagine all of this investment in app tech is intended to increase downloads of the United mobile app, and in turn, the airline can better market to customers who have the app. It’s no different than what United is trying to do with MileagePlus — by not having miles expire, and by now letting members pool miles, the goal is to get people more engaged in the program.
Loyalty programs have long been lucrative for airlines, but the “big three” US carriers are hoping for significant growth in that area in the coming years. They’ve largely probably maxed out their potential among frequent flyers, so at this point the goal is to engage the less frequent travelers in the programs, and hopefully get them onto the “hamster wheel.”
Bottom line
United Airlines’ mobile app is introducing a new seat change feature, whereby you can be moved to your preferred seat if it opens up. You can make this request either at the time of booking or while managing your reservation. This is a first of its kind feature from an airline, so I’m delighted to see this.
Now, I suppose some of us savvy frequent flyers may not love this, if we otherwise used paid services to find these kinds of seats, since there will now be more competition for them. But still, on balance this is very positive.
What do you make of United’s new seat notification feature?
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