American Airlines has revealed that the airline’s app now lets eligible AAdvantage members select the seat characteristics they want upon completing their booking, moving the passenger when a matching seat becomes available.
This removes the need to check the seat map multiple times before a trip for American Airlines AAdvantage members. Customers can choose preferences such as a window, aisle or middle seat and if a seat with those preferences becomes available, the app automatically updates the reservation and notifies the customer.
American Airlines’ Chief Customer Officer Heather Garboden commented: “At American, we’re always looking for ways to make travel easier and more personalised for our customers. This latest innovation proactively addresses customer preference. It is a simple experience that gives customers more control while asking them to do less.”
The airline says the new seat monitoring feature is available up to 24 hours before departure for AAdvantage members travelling on single-passenger reservations with an assigned seat. Members can opt in and tailor choices upon completing their booking, with the seat changes being limited to eligible seats within the customer’s existing cabin and will not result in additional seat charges.
Another step in American Airlines’ shift to digital experiences that make a customer’s travel journey easier and more seamless, reducing routine monitoring and simplifying a common travel decision helps customers spend less time managing trip details and more time focused on the journey.
This new app feature grew from American’s ADEPT programme, the airline says. It is a two-year guided development initiative designed to recruit and develop early-career technology talent and combines hands-on agile delivery experience with business acumen learning so that participants not only develop technology solutions but also improve business workflows across the airline.
“This latest technology launch shows what can happen when we give talented technologists a meaningful customer problem and the space to solve it,” said American’s Chief Digital and Information Officer Ganesh Jayaram. “The ADEPT team paired fresh thinking with the scale and experience of teams across American to build something practical: technology that removes work from the customer and makes the travel experience feel more seamless.
“The project also reflects how we’re using AI to help our teams work smarter, accelerating development and allowing technologists to spend more time focused on innovation and delivering value for customers.”
