The United App’s New Feature Just Solved the Worst Thing About Catching a Connecting Flight
A new option in the United app could be key for passengers with short layovers and empty stomachs.
When a connecting passenger reaches the gate at Newark Liberty Airport with 40 minutes to spare before boarding their next flight, looks at the line for the nearest counter, and works out that there’s simply not enough time, they get on the plane hungry. Since September 2, United has been trying to stop that from happening.
The idea is that a push notification arrives in the United app before a passenger’s departure with a menu attached, offering sandwiches, salads, kids’ meals, drinks, chips, candy, over-the-counter medicine, travel pillows, and charging cords. Whatever the passenger orders is waiting on a pickup shelf at the gate. Currently, United is running the test on nine gates between C125 and C138 in Terminal C, on flights departing from or connecting through them.
The meals come from restaurants already
The meals come from restaurants already in the terminal, including Nonna’s Kitchen and Victory Grill. OTG, the hospitality group that operates Terminal C’s dining and retail, both prepares them and actually gets them to the gate. United has not said where the pillows, cables, and medicine come from.
David Kinzelman, United’s chief customer officer, framed Newark Airport as the right place to start. It’s a high-volume connecting hub where customers often have very little time between reaching the gate and boarding. Houston will follow later this year, with national restaurant brands the airline has not yet named and with orders handed directly to the traveler at the gate rather than collected from a shelf. If the pilot expands past that, United says ordering will be built into the seatback screens on board its planes.
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Newark has run versions of this before
Back in 2016, United and OTG opened a rebuilt Terminal C at Newark Airport for a capital cost of $120 million. The centerpiece was nearly 6,000 iPads, one at every seat in every dining room and at a majority of the gate seating, so travelers could order food and drinks without leaving where they sat.
OTG retired 21,000 tablets across 350 venues
OTG retired 21,000 tablets across 350 venues and 23 terminals in 2023, Newark included, and replaced them with a QR system that travelers can scan with their phone. That system already includes gate-side delivery and a pre-ordering feature, which launched at Newark, letting a traveler schedule a pickup up to 24 hours ahead—though that’s not much help when you’re already on a flight.
Others have built the same thing elsewhere. AtYourGate, a company founded to carry terminal food to travelers sitting at their gate, has run delivery programs at Newark alongside other airports including JFK, LaGuardia, Denver, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. Grab, an ordering platform built by Servy that now runs in more than 80 airports, lets travelers order ahead from terminal restaurants for collection. It has appeared inside the American Airlines app for years, surfacing on the home screen when an itinerary passes through an airport where it operates.
Source: www.inc.com
