American Airlines wants to make it easier for you to travel and the company has just released an app for the Apple iPhone which will also include a mobile boarding pass capability.
It’s not the first airline to release an Apple iPhone app, but the American Airlines app allows you to book and check-in for flights, view terminal maps, track your elite status program, check your flight status, the aforementioned boarding pass capability and a whole lot more.
“The app is the latest in a series of customer technologies we’ve introduced to help improve the customer experience, and we are developing immersion apps for a wide range of other mobile devices. 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,” Monte Ford, American’s Senior VP – Information Technology and CIO, in a prepared statement. “We are leveraging leading technology tools to bring the best information and experiences to our customers.”
So, I’ve had two experiences with a mobile boarding pass and it was definitely a mixed bag. Both times were on Continental Airlines and with my Motorola Droid and the first time was smooth sailing – I waltzed through the security line and it scanned my pass with ease. The second time I had to check bags anyways, so I didn’t save time. The checker at the line also didn’t seem to know what I was trying to do with my mobile boarding pass, and I had to scan the pass four times before it worked.
The ease and convenience of the mobile boarding pass idea is evident but the execution still leaves a lot to be desired. What’s your experience with a mobile boarding pass? Let us know in the comments.
– Download American Airlines for iPhone, iPod Touch (free) [iTunes Link]