A new update to American Airlines’ app aims to make things more streamlined for passengers when flight disruptions occur.
“Our focus, when things don’t go as planned, is making things as smooth and seamless for customers as possible through our digital tools,” Heather Garboden, AA’s chief customer officer, told USA TODAY in an exclusive interview. “It’s maybe not as sexy as a new lounge or champagne or offering free Wi-Fi, but it’s just as important.”
The new update will put rebooking options, bag tracking and eligible hotel, meal and ground transportation vouchers all in one easy-to-access place in the app and on the website.
Preview of American Airlines’ new app layout for flight disruptions
“The benefit of the whole thing is everything in a simple hub. One centralized location so our customers don’t have to go all over the app to figure out: my flight’s delayed, now what’s happening to my bag? Where can I get my food voucher while I’m waiting for my flight?” Garboden said. “For those customers that don’t fly all the time, they don’t know what they should even be looking at, so it puts front and center what they should be looking at and need to be aware of when things don’t go as planned.”
American’s previous app version and many other airlines keep this information separated, with flight and rebooking info in one place, bag tracking info somewhere else, and vouchers that might not even be available virtually at all.
AA will still automatically rebook customers when their flight is canceled, but the update also makes it easy for those passengers to select a different itinerary if they’re not satisfied with the option provided by the airline.
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Garboden added that the app update is meant to make travelers feel less stuck when their trip gets disrupted.
“One of our big priorities for us at American is when things don’t go as planned we make it as smooth as possible,” she said. “All of us know when we travel, the transparency, the communication, even if it’s not the news you want to hear, it’s helpful.”
To that end, the new versions of the app and website will also provide more detailed information about what’s causing the disruption.
The changes will roll out to most users in the coming days.
Garboden said traditional customer service channels like phone lines and airport agents will still be available, but she encouraged customers to use digital tools as much as possible, because those non-digital options tend to get backed up during major disruptions.
Zach Wichter is a travel reporter and writes the Cruising Altitude column for USA TODAY. He is based in New York and you can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: American Airlines updates app to simplify rebooking after delays