Personalization drives the airline's new approach to shopping for flights and managing reservations on united.com.
CHICAGO – United Airlines unveiled the beta version of the company’s new homepage and flight booking features for united.com – encompassing everything from searching and sorting flight options to reserving and buying tickets. The site offers a sleek, modern and touch-friendly design, along with all-new personalized features and tools to help customers select the best flights and travel options to meet their needs.
Customers can browse and book on the preview site by visiting beta.united.com. The airline will officially launch the new united.com this summer after additional customer feedback and further refinements.
The new flyer-friendly functionality includes:
- Search, sort and filter your perfect flight: Customers can choose what’s most important to them when booking a flight. Whether it’s Wi-Fi availability, preferred connection cities, aircraft type, in-seat power or the inclusion of nearby cities, customers can sort, filter, include and exclude a variety of preferences to narrow or expand search results.
- Quicker view of fare and date combinations: Search results automatically display pricing for a 15-day window (7 +/-) to show customers more options, and fares are displayed in “each way” increments to give customers added flexibility and clarity when building their travel itineraries.
- Upgrade insight: Knowing if upgrades are available for purchase on a particular flight helps customers make more informed booking decisions. Customers can now view upgrade availability and redeem any MileagePlus upgrade prior to purchase on all eligible flights.
- Widgets working for you: The new homepage features widgets customized to MileagePlus members’ travel histories including a quick-view of upcoming trips, saved searches and alerts, to name a few. (Bonus: Users can select travel and aviation-themed photography for their homepage backgrounds.)
- Touch-friendly: No matter the device style or device brand, customers will have a seamless, touch-friendly user experience.
“We reimagined the flight booking experience from the ground up,” said Scott Wilson, United’s vice president of merchandising and eCommerce. “Much more than a facelift – we kept our customers’ needs and preferences for personalized travel at the center of the design to offer an entirely new and improved experience altogether.”
In redesigning the site, United also used feedback from customers to improve the features they valued most, making those tools cleaner and easier to use.
United.com by the Numbers:
- 2,000 visitors per minute
- More than $1 million in revenue every hour
- Offers flights on more than 100 airlines – the most of any U.S. carrier website
- More than 1,400 destinations available
United’s new homepage features customized and personalized options.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
