TrAAvis

Already discussed? If so, sorry.

Oh, and before this is considered off-topic for a mileage forum: I can't check my AAdvantage account on my iPhone anymore.

I refuse to upgrade my 4S to iOS 7 because it'll be as slow as my company iPad 2 on iOS 7. And I refuse to upgrade the phone itself while it is still on contract.

Steve M

That really sucks. I'm the same way - I'm sticking with iOS 6 as long as I can.

QueenOfCoach

Friends, I have good news for you.

I work in IT, and my boss is the CTO of the company. Most of our user clients have iPhones, so my boss is always on top of iOS developments. (My iPhone is not a company-owned device, because I prefer to own my own smartphone, in accordance with company policy.)

I, too, had an iPhone 4 (not 4S), 8-gig model. After the iOS 5>6 upgrade that wiped out Google Maps and installed the inferior Apple Maps debacle, I vowed that never again would I upgrade my iPhone until I was sure the upgrade was de-bugged. (Incidentally, there is now a Google Maps app available complete with Street View available in iTunes. I have it. I love it.)

When iOS7.0 came out, I had three immediate problems with updating my iPhone 4.

1. I heard it was sluggish on the iPhone 4. (True, it was)
2. With an 8-gig iPhone, I did not have enough room for the upgrade. My boss said "Just delete apps, then reinstall them."
3. Most important: I had four Angry Birds games on my iPhone and was LOATHE to delete those apps and start over.

I went several months seeing the "1" red icon on Settings informing me of the new update. I started getting a recurring error message on the American Airlines app, telling me I needed to update that app, then not allowing the update on my iOS 6.

This went on for some time.

Then, last month, I had a big round birthday. 60. A friend of mine offered to buy me a new iPhone as a birthday present. How could I refuse?

In the meantime, Apple released iOS7.1, which was supposed to address the bugginess of the original iOS7.0. My boss tested it across the spectrum of iPhones in the company, and told me emphatically that the new update 7.1 did it right. He urged me to go ahead and update my iPhone 4 and said I would be happy with it. No more sluggishness.

First, I backed up my old iPhone 4 to my Windows laptop computer, using iTunes. Since I use iTunes to sync my iPod, I was a little skeptical about using iTunes to back up the iPhone, but my boss assured me it was OK, and it did work perfectly. (I usually back up to the cloud every night.)

To preserve my Angry Birds scores, I had to tell iTunes to "transfer apps". That was done, by right-clicking the iPhone icon in iTunes and selecting "Transfer apps". I'm not 100% positive on this, so check it out first. I did see my apps, including Angry Birds, appear in iTunes.

Having done all that, I got the new iPhone 5S, updated it to iOS7.1 from the factory-installed iOS7.0, and restored from my Windows iTunes. It restored perfectly, including all my contacts, calendar, notes, and especially my Angry Birds apps including the scores. Huge relief. No need to go back and re-kill all those piggies.

I then went on using my iPhone 5S and put my old iPhone 4 in a desk drawer, intending to ask around to see if anyone wanted it.

My husband, MrQ, wanted it. After poo-poohing smartphones for years and after resisting all efforts to get him in the iPhone world and after insisting his old dumbphone was good enough for him, he told me he wanted my old iPhone 4.

I decided to set it up for him. I had to delete all my downloaded apps in order to make enough spare room in the 8-gig memory. Bear in mind, those same apps had already been successfully restored to my new iPhone, so they could have been restored to the old one if upgrading the existing phone was my only goal.

Once all the apps were deleted, I initiated the upgrade. It took about a hour and a half. I just plugged it into the charger here at home with trusted wifi, and let it go.

Eventually, the phone was upgraded to iOS7.1. Still skeptical, I checked it out. As my boss assured me, there was no sluggishness. The phone appeared to work perfectly. I downloaded a few apps, such as Google Maps, and all worked perfectly, just as I had seen them work pre-update on that very same iPhone 4.

We went to the Verizon store and transferred MrQ's phone number from his dumbphone to the iPhone 4. No problem.

He now has a fully functional iPhone 4 with iOS 7.1 and the new AA app. It all works just great, with none of the sluggishness seen in the original update.

Stripe

I have a 4S with iOS 7.1. It runs fine. I had an old iPhone 4 that I never upgraded from iOS 5.1 but it fell into water and I had to get a new one. I still prefer that OS (and the way the older AA app that ran on it) but no going back now.

scubadu

I always find this line fascinating, but oh well, whatever floats your boat. My wife's iPhone 4S is, and has been for awhile, running iOS 7 without issue, no noticeably slow down at all.

Additionally, both of our iPad 2's were running iOS 7 without issue or noticeable slow down at all (we recently sold them to upgrade).

I'll admit I was a little skeptical at first, but at this point I would not go back to iOS 6.

And for the record, you are fighting a losing battle; more and more apps will drop support for previous iOS versions going forward. That is the way of the world. iOS 7 adoption on supported devices is, I believe, slightly north of 90'ish% which does not give developers a strong incentive to support previous versions too much further into the future.

This is something you'll have to get used to if you choose the "dig in your heels" path toward new iOS updates. Heck, at this point iOS 8 is already on the horizon...

Regards

hillrider

Yes you can, through the AA WebApp at https://mobile.aa.com

WebApps are universal and do not depend on a particular operating system (or version), just a modern browser like Chrome (which is available for iOS).

BTW, the direct link to "AAdvantage" for the AA WebApp is https://mobile.aa.com/mt/www.aa.com/...countAccess.do

AFIK the only thing that the AA WebApp doesn't have is, for some reason, the viewing of the upgrade/standby list or the caching of the boarding pass (requires taking a picture of the screen); everything else is there.

Time traveller

Not just for iOS. The AA app will no longer run on some of the older versions of Android phone systems.

skunker

This also happened when iOS 6 came out, the AA app required you to update long before most other apps did.

My biggest issue is there is no jailbreak for 7.1 and there won't be so I'm stuck at 6.1unless I want to lose my jailbreak.

mrowl

iOS7 works fine on a 4S. Not so much on a 4.

FriendlySkies

I've tried iOS 7 on my iPad, as well as a temporary phone when I had to get my iPhone replaced. In the camp of sticking with iOS 6 as long as I can on my iPhone.. It's just better, IMO.

AA should look into supporting more features on the mobile website.. Maybe viewing upgrade lists?

hillrider

+1.

There's no technological reason why the WebApp should not be as good as the (more expensive to them) platform-specific ones.

ccengct

As AA improves its iOS app over time, AA is simply saving money by not having to do regression testing or bug-fixing on previous iOS releases.