Amidst the hullabaloo over its use of Boeing jets, United Airlines this week is rolling out two programs that reach out to its customers.
If you are the kind of flyer who checks every day to see if a better seat is available for your upcoming flight, you’re going to love the first one: United’s app as of March 22 will do the work for you. On selected flights, when you book a seat, a pop-up will ask if you’d like them to keep searching for a better one—perhaps on the aisle or in an exit row—and if so, will notify you if one becomes available.
For now, the program is being tested on particularly full flights in which only a few middle and back-of-plane seats are available. But if it proves successful, United hopes to roll it out across most of the fleet.
There are apps available that will do something similar, but United is the first airline to offer it to customers.
And all those currently booked in middle seats are cheering them on.
Also new is a change to the MileagePlus frequent flyer program that allows groups of up to five people to share miles.
MileagePlus members age 18 or older can invite up to four other members of any age to contribute miles into a pool that can be used to purchase tickets. There is no limit to how many miles can be contributed to the pool.
“We’re always looking for new ways to provide the most value to all of our loyalty members,” said MileagePlus chief operating officer Luc Bondar. “MileagePlus miles pooling further reinforces United’s position as the leader in family and group travel and gives our members more flexibility to use their miles, while making it easier to connect to the destinations and moments that matter most, with the people that matter most.”
