tt120

I remember a note from Dougie in the front of the US Airways mag that said smartphone apps were coming "towards the end of the year".

Well is almost December and ....no dice.

I remember seeing threads about people testing them at a PHX club, but no mention of release.

Superguy

I remember that article too.

He still has about 31 days or so to not be a liar.

I remember there were some threads of folks here testing a new website and mobile app in US Clubs in PIT and PHX. I haven't heard anything beyond that though. I'd love to see the app soon though.

However, this is US, and we all know how competent their IT is ...

FlyIgglesFly

I have a Samsung Galaxy GSIII that I bought about a month ago. It defaults to the US Airways app when you load the website. Haven't been able to figure out how to download it direct to the phone, but it works pretty well.

Superguy

Isn't that just the mobile website?

LM225

Yep, that's just a mobile site, definitely not a native app.

FlyIgglesFly

Ah. Seems very app-ish to me, I'm not sure what an app would do differently.

GNRMatt

Most IT areas are finding hybrid approaches to app development to be the best and the least expensive approach. So, what you'll see in a lot of applications (not games) is that the app is really just re-pointing to your phone's or tablet's browser to the mobile website. There really is no difference, but for some people, they like the idea of downloading an app.

Superguy

True, there are some that do that, but it often sacrifices speed and reliability. Just look at how Facebook was on iOS and Android. It was pretty much just the mobile website skinned into an app and pulled down HTML 5. It's horribly unreliable and slow. It annoys most people.

Facebook finally wised up and created a native app that doesn't use HTML and got significantly higher performance and reliability out of it. There's supposed to be a native Android version coming out soon too.

It wouldn't surprise me to see US do the half-assed approach like that. However, an app like that shouldn't have taken nearly as long to develop as a native app - it should have been out awhile ago. Of course, this IS US's IT so maybe we should expect a half-assed app that doesn't work very well.

I hope we get a real app considering how long we've waited for this.

WiscAZ

I wouldn't agree that there is no difference between a mobile site and an app. Take for instance the UA mobile site vs. the app. I think the mobile site is a pain but that app allows everything to be easily accessible and actually works well. I'd love something like the UA mobile app for US to get.

GNRMatt

That is mostly due to the design of it, not the abilities of an app vs. mobile web site.

LM225

There are a few good opportunities that a native app would offer that a mobile website, to my knowledge, cannot:

- Offline functionality: synch your US Airways itineraries to the app and access them offline (for example, in the air or when 3G is slow/spotty), a la TripIt
- Push notifications for delays and gate/schedule changes
- GPS-driven functionality

That's not to say that US would necessarily build these useful features into an app, as I don't expect anything overly impressive from a UX standpoint, but if done right, there are advantages (though certainly some drawbacks, too). Until then, TripIt for me

grapkoski

26 days and counting... Frankly, the biggest plus would be having your boarding pass synced to your phone. The text/email with a link is pretty clunky and reminds me of when I thought my Sanyo 8100 (Sprint throwback!) days.

masonuc

iPhone now even has a special app (standard software on all phones) that holds boarding passes -- but doesn't have one for US Airways. Pretty low-hanging fruit to design something to work with that.

geo1005

Agreed. For those using (updated) iPhones, the "Passbook" app is very user-friendly. And it is not limited to airline boarding passes. It stores the bar-coded vendor/memebership info in a quickly accessible place.

Once in Passbook you can, for example, easily and quickly scroll from your UA boarding pass at security to your Starbuck's card for a post-security coffee and then back to your BP for boarding and then on to your Starwood Preferred card for check-in at the hotel. I'd love to see US add this functionality ASAP.

BoeingBoy

I've seen nothing in general employee communications that updates what has previously been announced - it's "coming" but no confirmation of a roll-out date.

Jim