Some OK News About United

The other day, I wrote about the great Air France app and boarding passes that provide a huge amount of really helpful information.

Today I am talking about something… okay but not great. Not bad, mind you. Just not great.

United’s app and boarding pass.

On Air France, we note that the boarding pass has the time you should arrive, the time you need to get your luggage in, the time the boarding starts, the time the gate closes…

United tells you “Boarding time.”

Can someone with an IQ of 100 find the gate and get on board with what United offers?

Absolutely.

But Air France will experience fewer customer support requests (calls in advance, questions in the airport, visits to the online help form, etc.) if they just give people in the first place the information that everyone needs and are going to ask for.

Pay now or pay later, and paying later is always more expensive.

Sequence?

Oh! Note the appearance on the boarding pass, by the way, of SEQ. The sequence basically is your spot in the queue to get upgrades based on the sequence (when you checked in compared to all other passengers) in check-in.

The lower your sequence number, the higher your chance of getting a space-available upgrade if you’re competing for it with someone at the same or lower status level as you.

That issue - since half the aircraft worth of passengers comes up to the podium before every United flight and asking where they are on the upgrade list (because United makes it so easy to get status that there’s always a scrum) United apparently got enough questions about that they added it - albeit cryptically - to the boarding pass. Sure, they also have a screen showing your name and who upgrades, but that’s not enough. It doesn’t give odds.

Getting Your Boarding Pass Into Your Phone’s Wallet

Another thing missing from United? The terminal. This isn’t such a big deal in Munich, but there are two terminals there. I assume that it will be Terminal 2, but one never knows. In airports like JFK, CDG, and my destination airport, IAD, this is actually non-trivial. The app would get no heavier by including this.

Note too that, in the first screen where the United App displays my boarding pass, there’s no obvious way to add this to the wallet on my phone.

I’ve spoken with friends at United, and they tell me that this was actually a design feature - the airline doesn’t want you to use the wallet app on your Android or iPhone, they want you to use the United app.

So they inexcusably make it hard to find the little button.

On Air France, it’s a huge banner.

On United, you need to know the trick.

Here’s The Trick

First, in the United App, click Boarding Pass. On the next screen, scroll down until you see the full, hidden-by-default screen that has a small Add to your Wallet" badge.

But sometimes, you need to scroll down and select “My Wallet” - it doesn’t use the Apple or Android logo so it looks as if you are in your United Wallet.

Because you are.

Once you click that, you can see the Add To Apple Wallet logo.

Note too that the Boarding Group, Class of Service, and Seat are much easier to read on the boarding pass United gives you from its app when compared to the one it lets you save to your wallet.

They really want to keep you in the app. Why, I have no idea.

But it certainly doesn’t have to do with my ease of use.

Nota Bene – Psst, United: When everyone has “status,” no one has status. That’s a tip. You may wish to write it down.