US Airways App Arriving…some time soon

I happened to be on a US Airways flight three months ago seated next to one of their IT employees (in economy) and decided to quiz him to find out why US is the sole remaining legacy carrier without a mobile application. He told me that they were aware of the gap and working on a mobile app, though he cautioned that it would essentially work like the mobile site with little additional functionality. At that time, he expected an early summer release. Well, I guess early summer has come and gone, though Forbes is confirming in their recent story The Long Wait for a US Airways App is Almost Over, that an app is still on the way.

Spokesman Davien Anderson said the carrier is in the final stage of testing its app and expects to make it available this summer. “We really wanted to get this right,” Anderson said. “We’ve done a lot of testing to be sure that the app provides customers with exactly what they’ve been looking for.” In general, he said, the app will “provide the same functionality as the mobile site we have,” but passengers will benefit from the ease of accessing the app on their mobile phones. The delay is not related to the pending merger with American. “We are still working as two separate companies,” Anderson said.

There you have it, the app is coming soon but will provide no great advantages over the mobile site and little enhanced functionality. My seatmate mentioned that US fliers may see no real enhancements until IT integration with American, which is still a very long way off. Check out the full Forbes article here.

PS – AA’s app now also includes the upgrade list as of last week…