American Launches its First Smartphone App

by  Molly Fergus | Jul 27, 2010
American Airlines plane
American Airlines plane / Santiago Rodriguez Fonto/iStock

iPhone applications that check flight statuses, monitor weather radar, and call up gate and baggage claim information aren’t novelties: Flight Status, FlightTrack, and Flight Update (three popular iPhone apps) already collect this info. But somehow, American is only the second major U.S. carrier to jump on the mobile bandwagon with an iPhone app tailored to its own flights and services (last winter Southwest also developed its own iPhone program, DING!, that tracks flights and even pulls up limited-time airfare deals).

The American app, which launched Monday, is pretty packed with functionality. Besides just monitoring flight statuses and delay updates, the program lets passengers watch their spots on standby lists, access mobile boarding passes, look up gate and seating info, view terminal maps, set an airport parking reminder, and even play Sudoku in those lagging security lines. Even better, unlike virtually everything else onboard these days, this program costs zilch. Let’s keep ’em coming, airlines!

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