I know the airline indusrty as a whole in the US is a bit slow in adopting some of the already current technologies that are out there to make the traveler experience more efficient but when are we going to see Text messaging?
Yeah, it's great having an email regarding my filght delay or cancellation sent to my PC but what good does that do me if I am in route to the airport or worse, already sitting at the airport!?

I am sure all of us passengers would like to have alerts sent to our cell phones via a text message.
And how about a little dialouge? I would like to be able to Text an airline and have a response to my question. Maybe some basic flight info? That would be super helpful. I rather text than to sit through that dizzing experience over the phone, listenting to those voice prompts...

trillion, welcome to FlyerTalk!

I'm going to transfer your thread to Travel Technology where it is perhaps better suited.

Please follow at it's new home.

Thanks.

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Cholula
CommunityBuzz! Co-Moderator

I've been getting flight updates as text for many years from United and Delta. If they can do the e-mail, there's probably a pull down on the settings page to also send them as text to your phone.

I love it, land for a connection, turn the phone on, and the message comes in telling me what gate we are pulling into and a few seconds later another one saying where the next flight is leaving from, and if we were delayed they may have already rebooked me on another flight for the missed connection.

I'm sure they will, but at the same time, technology is moving on too.

More and more phones have high-speed internet capabilities and it's easier just to hit their mobile website for these sorts of things.

What airline do you fly?

duplicate?
http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=722408

I usually fly continental. you can have messages sent to your phone but you have to enter your phone number as an email ([email protected])
and the messages are in long email format which isnt a great user experience when using a mobile device.

Wirelessly posted (Blackberry 8700: BlackBerry8700/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

Again. Usually there are settings for that to tell it you are using a mobile phone.

United.com does a great job of this. You have those settings for the messages they send to you, and there's an easy to access mobile website when you have questions of your own (flight status, itineraries, mileage balance, etc.). There is also a blackberry app, but I think it's weird in that you use a java front end to ask your questions, but the responses come back as texts. The website is easier than the bb app.

In fact I think most airlines DO support flight notification updates as SMS messages to cell phones. I know that American, Delta, and Northwest do, because I've used it. You simply have to set it up with your frequent flyer account at the airline's web site.

I agree!

If you've used the SMS notification for Airlines based in some of the other
countries, you would know. The messages are simple and quick.
They generally accept any number (not all airlines) from any country
for notification. (+countrycode-areacode-phonenumber eg: +18005551212)

I've used CO for several International trips last year, and the site would not accept
an international number for notification. Now what good is that?

Also NWA&CO's text messages have too many characters for a cell phone screen.

Get an SMS about 24h prior to departure when OLCI opens. Then again when the boarding time is roughly fixed -- and if this is modified later due to delays, I get yet another SMS...and another and another for each change.

Great if you're browsing the airport or hanging out in some lounge where no boarding calls are made -- or just not paying attention to the monitors or calls.

With SK IT not know for being....hmm....usually on top of things, I thought that it'd be industry-wide by now?

BA have done this for a few years now, but I still prefer email messages from them.

I don't have a CO booking or FF account to look at, but I have several sites (airline and otherwise) that send text messages using the same method you have listed. However, all have given me the option of a full blown email, or a short message that come through as an SMS. I get the same info, just a lot less bulk to the message.

Many phones have cameras these days, too. All the kids are using them. Just not the old people.

NW seems to have gotten very good w/SMS lately. In the past their messages were indeed too long (they'd get split into multiple messages), but for the past 2-3 weeks I've been getting just 1 message for my flights, w/all the relevant data. It's just a matter of setting up the notifications correctly.