With the travel challenges of the past few years behind us, is it just me, or does it seem like everyone is planning a long-postponed trip, or maybe even extending a business trip a day or two? At United, we are happy to welcome you back, and we continue to focus on finding ways to make travel a more personalized and efficient experience for you.
A recent change that demonstrates this is our new industry-leading family seating policy. This policy makes it easier for our customers with children under 12 to select their seats together from a dynamic seat map when they book their trip, without extra seat fees and without waiting until they reach the gate to get adjacent seats. In addition to reducing travel stress for families, this allows for a faster, smoother boarding experience for everyone!
I am also excited about how your experience on your day of travel is enhanced with technology—especially if you use our award-winning mobile app. You can plan ahead with our in-app Terminal Guide feature, which shows you a personalized route to navigate the airport, including directing you to our exclusive Bag Drop Shortcut experience at more than 38 airports. Simply check in online, locate the nearest bag drop location, and you are all set; we will give you the most efficient path through the airport, cutting transaction times from minutes to seconds and saving precious time navigating our airports.
Our Travel-Ready Center continues to be a big hit, helping you understand your requirements for international travel. Our one-stop digital assistant helps you prepare in advance for your journey, so you can breeze through the airport without stopping for manual document checks. In 2022 alone, we had 55 million visits to the Travel-Ready Center, 5.4 million auto-approved documents, and supported 179 countries.
Those who use an Apple iPhone running iOS 16+ can also use our Live Activities capabilities from the United mobile app. You can easily glance down at your screen to quickly find details such as a countdown to boarding, gate information, flight status, seat number, and a countdown to arrival, all without unlocking your phone.
This update builds on our United Next efforts to make our airline bigger and better. We will take delivery of two new aircraft every week this summer, which, with our existing fleet, means about one out of every three planes will have an enhanced customer experience by the end of 2023. These new planes will include enough space for everyone’s carry-on bags, along with our signature inflight entertainment system with Bluetooth headphone capabilities at every seat, regardless of which cabin you are in.
At United, we want to provide you with a great experience. While the technology is innovative, and that “new plane smell” is exhilarating, it is our incredible employees who make it happen. The smile from the customer service agent as you scan your boarding pass, an informative update from the captain, and the amazing service from our flight attendants make a good flight great. (If this sounds like you, we are hiring!)
Thank you for choosing to fly with us today. We look forward to rolling out more family-friendly features this year, and for those with travel credits expiring at the end of the year, we invite you to use our mobile app to book your next trip!
Linda Jojo
Chief Customer Officer
