United Airlines is making sure travelers are prepared for anything with a new feature that will text passengers live radar maps during weather delays.
The new feature uses generative AI to help send real-time updates during flight delays, the airline shared with Travel + Leisure. United said it hopes the radar maps will show customers how bad weather in one part of the country can impact flights where they are.
“With more people traveling this summer than ever, we wanted to give our customers an easier way to stay connected to real-time information about their flight and texting was the simplest solution,” Jason Birnbaum, United’s chief information officer, said in a statement shared with T+L. “We know customers appreciate transparency and by combining innovative technology-enabled tools with people power, we can give more people, even more in-the-moment details about their flight.”
The real-time weather updates will be in addition to the text message alerts passengers already get about things like gate changes, boarding time changes, and aircraft swaps.
In addition to text alerts with live radar maps across their flight path, United passengers will be able to access links to weather maps in the airline’s app under flight status updates. United said it will also display radar maps in the gate area when a flight is delayed due to weather.
The weather-related updates come a year after United updated its app to allow customers to automatically re-book if their flight is significantly delayed or canceled as well as request meal, hotel, or ground transportation vouchers.
It also comes at the start of what is forecast to be an “above normal” Atlantic Hurricane season and as Hurricane Beryl sweeps across the Caribbean as the earliest recorded Category 5 storm, forcing cruise lines to reroute, airports to close, and airlines to issue travel alerts.
In addition to these updates, United’s app also features turn-by-turn navigation inside airports to make getting to your gate easier.
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