Starting today, we’re proud to offer our FlyerTalk community a preview of our new Gate Information product, which will first be introduced via our mobile site using the link above and will ultimately be available via continental.com and LCDs installed in our gate areas starting later this year. Like our current Flight Status functionality, this feature will be available for flights scheduled to depart current day, yesterday and tomorrow.
New features include:
Expanded Flight Status, including the aircraft number (that’s for you, rkkwan) and a new “Where is this aircraft coming from” feature (great idea, cigarman)
Seat Maps, including a full aircraft view
Upgrade Standby Lists, including real-time booking totals, the list of customers who have been upgraded (including via our Elite Upgrade Automation), and the list of those who have been added to the upgrade standby list. In the future we plan to add an “estimated upgrade rank” for those customers standing by, but that piece is still in development
Flight Standby Lists, including high-level availability information, the list of customers who have been cleared, and the list of customers who are still standing by
Inflight Amenity Information, including flight and aircraft-specific information about what food, beverages, inflight entertainment and in-seat power (no need to keep memorizing those aircraft numbers)
I hope you’ll agree this is a good start, and we’re proud to be the first airline to offer this information beyond the gate area. We look forward to your feedback, and to our public launch later this Spring. You’re welcome to post your feedback here, or via email to insider@coair.com.
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Scott O'Leary
Managing Director, Customer Experience | Continental Airlines
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This is very cool. A few comments/questions...
I really like seeing the aircraft number but is there any chance of having the entire tail number displayed as well?
Having Elite status displayed next to a persons name on the upgrade standby list would be kind of cool as well! Although, maybe there are some privacy issues here?
Formatting of the PDA site on an Apple iPhone has always been a bit messy. The entire site gets squished up into the top left corner of the browser and I have to zoom in every time a new page is loaded. Is it possible to fix this?
Can you give us any idea on when the gate displays will be rolled out? I'm assuming this will start at the hubs but will it expand to all out stations? How long do you expect something like this to take?
I really like seeing the aircraft number but is there any chance of having the entire tail number displayed as well?
Hi sdm1130, the aircraft number is all that's currently available to us without any sort of manual table maintenance. For those of you who track specific tail numbers (like me), there are other ways to decode this, including the JP Fleets.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sdm1130
Having Elite status displayed next to a persons name on the upgrade standby list would be kind of cool as well! Although, maybe there are some privacy issues here?
Cool yes, but we definitely have concerns with the potential privacy issues.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sdm1130
Formatting of the PDA site on an Apple iPhone has always been a bit messy. The entire site gets squished up into the top left corner of the browser and I have to zoom in every time a new page is loaded. Is it possible to fix this?
Thanks, we'll definitely look into this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sdm1130
Can you give us any idea on when the gate displays will be rolled out? I'm assuming this will start at the hubs but will it expand to all out stations? How long do you expect something like this to take?
Our Gate Information LCDs will be piloted in a selection of our gates in New York/Newark (EWR) and possibly Houston (IAH) late this year. Once we're ready for our large-scale system rollout, it'll likely take a few years before we complete the majority of our airports.
__________________
Scott O'Leary
Managing Director, Customer Experience | Continental Airlines
Wow! Yes, I love the aircraft number (Thanks, Scott!) and the "where's the aircraft coming from" features. Upgrade and waitlist, and seatmaps are all awesome.
Cool. I'll point out the obvious, which is that you can access this on a full-size laptop too if you don't have a PDA...
Actually, more often, I'll be accessing the info from a desktop at work or at home, while on the phone with my sister, my parents, or other "clients" of mine asking me about their flight and status.
You seem to be able to see the cleared upgrade and standby lists for flights that have already departed. Is that intended? (I don't know if there are privacy / security issues involved with this.)
Our Gate Information LCDs will be piloted in a selection of our gates in New York/Newark (EWR) and possibly Houston (IAH) late this year. Once we're ready for our large-scale system rollout, it'll likely take a few years before we complete the majority of our airports.
Thanks great news!
Cleveland should get some love on this as while it's in it's initial test phase as well. Scott, Why not test a few out in each hub?
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Last edited by Cheap Elite; Feb 4, 08 at 12:07 pm.
This is very cool. A few comments/questions...
