Evaluating American Airlines' Business App

I love American Airlines' (AA) free app for the Iphone! It's an exceptional example of a business social app that both improves customer experience and engages customers in new and exciting ways.

It’s sophisticated, visually appealing, uncluttered, and – importantly – it’s intuitive to use. When booking a flight, checking a reservation, or changing seats, I want to handle those transactions smoothly. AA’s beautifully designed app allows customers to handle virtually any function quickly and easily.

Not only can you book a flight, but you can also:

·       Check flight status

·       Change seats

·       Check frequent flyer mileage

·       Email your itinerary to a colleague or loved one

·       Review flight schedules

·       Purchase an Admiral’s Club Day Pass

·       Check in for a flight

The feature I value the most? AA’s revolutionary boarding pass feature! With AA’s app, you no longer need to print and carry a paper boarding pass. The board pass bar code is scanned directly from your smartphone when you pass through security. The security agent simply directs you to hold the phone under the scanner, and the barcode is read automatically. This is a small, but revolutionary step, in making security easier for passengers. As a customer, I’m delighted that AA offers this feature via the app.

Several bonus features are worth noting:

·       Sudoku. When I’m sitting on the runway on a delayed flight, I like to find things to occupy my mind. A book usually does the trick. But for those times when I realize, too late, that the book I was reading is stowed in the overhead in my carry on bag, American’s Smartphone app comes to the rescue. The app is embedded with a Sudoku game feature to keep me occupied. Sudoku occupies me for hours.

·       Parking reminder. The AA app’s parking feature not only allows you to jot down a quick reminder note about your car’s location, but it also allows you to store a photo of your car’s position.

AA’s Smartphone app has it all: functional features that allow flight check in and changing seat assignments plus helpful add-ons such as the parking reminder feature. It’s everything a good app should be in the interactive, social age.