What options are you looking for?

Unless you are trying to book an upgrade, then what are you hoping to do on the app? I don't think that it does much that far out - even on the best of days!

Dr. PITUK

10-4 Thanks. Maybe I was expecting more out of this app? I just thought that I would be able to see/change seats if desired; do an upgrade if desired; see the type of plane etc., It just seems so dull and I guess really allows you to do nothing.I compare it to the UA or DL app and there are so many more options on those to actually manage your bookings / account.It looks like everything needs to be done off the desktop.

hahahah change ? Seats .... the app doesn’t even show seats.... yours or a map....It’s not much use When I add flights to my iCal I have more information
All it does is give you a chronological listing of your flights

The app doesn't do upgrades.
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Yes, it's a pretty useless app. Your expectations weren't unreasonable when looking at what else is out there in the market. But this is AC, remember, which is the worst at IT :)

If you click the "change" button, it loads the regular website where you can change seats.

Nothing native yet, but that "change" button can take you there too.

I can see my equipment on almost every segment segment (SA JNB-CPT flight, a few UA SFO<->LAX flights) in all my trips.

Compared to US airlines, it doesn't have nearly as many features. Compared to the rest of the world, it's pretty good. Most of the apps I'm looking at for other Amadeus-based airlines what one might call a "webview app". It's technically an app, but it just loads the website.

For most features right now, AC's app is a "webview app". Anything that's accessed through the "change" button. Or most of the check-in experience.

But it's also a much better platform than the vast majority of non-US airline apps, and certainly better than the previous one.

I can't tell you everything that's coming next. But I do know that more stuff that's currently behind a webview is going to move into a much better native experience.

I have 8 years of full-time experience building mobile apps. The flight pass app excited me, and this app excites me. The old app had no hope of ever gaining useful features with a good user experience. This one does.

You statements summarily dismiss valid criticism of the abomination of an "application" issued by Air Canada, yet your comments do not recognize that the application did not meet the user's basic needs. The majority of Air Canada's customers/passengers' flights involve Air Canada. These passengers require access to a functional, useful website for their Air Canada related travel. They did not book a ticket on Air China or Air Koryo etc. so those websites failings have no relevance even if to offer an opportunity to proclaim that the AC app isn't so bad in comparison.

Maybe Air Canada intends to improve its application, and maybe it will deliver some additional options, but we are in the present and must deal with what is actually available. Unfortunately, what Air Canada offers is an abject and absolute failure in every sense of the term. The application does not meet the needs of its users. One can read the comments of users to see that the overall consensus is that the application is awful. This is all that matters: The USERS hate the application. The airline and its programmers/systems managers or whatever term one wishes to call this collection of incompetents did not provide a useful, helpful application. Air Canada should issue an apology to its customers and should contract with competent personnel to obtain an effective application. It seems that the only reason there is an application is to allow AC to claim that it has an application.

The grand benefits of webview are irrelevant to the immediate needs of the application users. We need options and useful features NOW, not in 6 months, not next year, but NOW. Why would someone like me , a simple AC user ,who recently made the mistake of purchasing a ticket from Air Canada that incorporated a few air carrier segments be so concerned? Well it starts with having AC cancel a connecting AC segment while I was in the air and getting an sms that says to use its app to obtain additional info. Try landing in a large US airport and literally spending hours being sent from one desk to another with personnel telling you to call the airline or to make changes online, with no one answering the telephone call, and a useless Air Canada phone app and equally ineffective website. This is why access to a reliable, effective application is so very important. Even though some of us do fly in J, often we cannot access a concierge or AC doesn't make one available or due to one flight's issue, the airline goes into service meltdown at an airport because the agents can't process the 150+ pax.

One can discuss the niceties of web apps and the capabilities of websites vs phone applications, however none of that matters when what is needed is access to a mobile telephone application that can help a customer in need. In an ideal world, Air Canada would be compelled to provide phone service, i.e. answer the telephone. It is therefore a reasonable expectation of consumers that the airline offer an application that will address the airline's refusal to provide basic call center service. The airline obviously doesn't care, otherwise it would have offered something helpful long ago.

What I'm really asking is what could the old app do that the new one cannot?

In my experience, nothing useful. The old app had a semi-native seat selection experience (that didn't work for any of my Aeroplan tickets). The new app currently has a web experience for seat selection that works on every single one of my bookings as long as I have no TK segments. Do I like being shunted into a webview (or specifically, at least on Android, a Chrome Custom Tab)? No. But I just changed seats on an Aeroplan booking through the new app, which was impossible on the old app. I just accessed the eUpgrade site through the new app, where I was able to view/modify/request upgrades. Was it a great experience? Again, no. But it wasn't even possible on the old app.

So I fail to see what the new app is missing that the old app supported.

If your argument is "I need more features that have never been available on AC", then I agree. And they're coming. But that's not the general argument in this thread.

Oh my ... I think you may be missing the point. Technically you may be correct (I have my doubts) but it does not matter.

What matters is the fact that most users of the app feel it's hugely inferior to the old app. A massive step backwards. The reason that users feel this way is that the usefulness of an app is a combination of functionality and ease of use. This app is a usability disgrace. It's a significant step backward compared to the old app - which was not that great to begin with.

All I see are massive performance improvements, all my bookings showing up without having to enter booking references, a simpler check-in process, and the ability to do everything I need (except accept schedule changes).

I don't know what is less usable. I'll give you seat selection since it's now entirely web-based, but given that it only worked on a small fraction of my bookings in the old app, and it works on all my bookings in the new app, I prefer the new.

I'll take functionality over usability any day, but I don't see the usability issue here. I've flown with the new app on weekends where I had 25 flights spread across 6 interleaved PNRs. It was simply impossible with the old app - it was unusable. The new app handled it with only a couple issues.

What issues do you have with the usability of the new app?

I think you've made some very good points. But I think that a lot of it is now just going through the AC mobile website is a big negative for me, usability wise. I find that to be slow and cumbersome. You're right that seat selection often didn't work properly on the old app, so to some extent, having it available through the app at all is better, but when you compare it to, say, UA or DL, where you can fire up the app and change seats within the app (natively, not just going to the website via the app) in seconds, it's far behind.

I have used non-North American airlines' apps rarely, and you may well be right that AC's app is a lot better than they are (I wouldn't say that about the BA app, which I used a decent amount; it's not spectacular, but generally works better than AC's). But as far as I'm concerned, the main competition for AC, and therefore main point of comparison, is the US3 and WS, all of which have much better apps.

I hope you're right that they plan to add more functionality to the app, but I just hope that it's relatively soon.

Yes, UA, DL, AS, etc., are all way better. No dispute there.

SA is worse than AC. MS is just a webview. TK won't pull my booking because it wasn't made through TK. SQ is nice. I haven't used LH/LX in a while but I seem to recall them being giant webviews as well.

The old app looked like AC told IBM "make us an app". My former employer had outsourced its first mobile apps. They were crap. All that code is gone, and the apps are much better now. Not only are they faster and less buggy, but they have solid foundations so it's easy to add new things and iterate quickly.

And that's what I see here. A solid foundation.

I suspect some features can't be rolled out until the DCS migration is complete (like native check-in), but I expect to see more native features rolled out as time goes on.

I'll be honest, I'll take the old app in a heartbeat over the new one. With all due respect Cow - as I sincerely appreciate your postings and education for me on FT...…..When you say all you have to do is hit "change" - you see for me I would ask the question as to why I would hit change? To me, it means I want to change something; cancel etc., with that being said I have NO confidence in AC correcting anything on my flights if I "accidentally" do something that I shouldn't? I know, very novice but the app for the most part is absolutely useless. Technically it shows me one thing which means nothing - the date of my flight and times. I know that already.

I should be able to go on here and be confident that it is directing me for a seat changes; upgrades etc., NO WHERE on here is it that simple. Sure, if you know the in & outs etc., It just simply shouldn't be that cumbersome! There isn't one spot on here that tells me to go here for an upgrade; go here for seat changes/selection, NOTHING. It says your flights will show up here "when the time is right"...WTH does that mean? It is useless...…….right now anyway. Actually a joke. I have a couple of flights booked in the next week with Qatar and Bangkok Airways......Qatar blows this thing out of the water...…….and seriously Bangkok Airways app gives me more information and options. That should be embarrassing for AC.

This was an interesting little data point. Was flying home via ORD last night. AC had an earlier flight than mine and I was able to get UA to rebook me and push the ticket over to AC.

Once that was done, refreshing my flights under the new app the flight came up instantly.

Also, side note, I've noticed the Cabin class is now appearing above the eticket number in small letters.

This is new...?

FWIW, I prefer the new app as well. My fave feature is the one-touch ability to search for a flight that's already in the search history. Seat changes are a pain but I'd imagine that will be integrated into the app in due time. And I search for fight prices a lot more often then I change seats, so it's well worth the trade.