Delta has released the latest version of its Fly Delta app, giving customers access to innovative airport wayfinding maps and the ability to keep up with boarding pass and flight details, even when a reliable wi-fi or cellular connection is not available.
The wayfinding tool features interactive maps for 20 major airports – including the airline’s hubs and London Heathrow – and guides customers with turn-by-turn walking directions to their next gate, a restaurant or baggage claim.
Delta is the only airline to give customers the ability to access airport maps on iPhone via their boarding pass by touching the departure city code, arrival city code or gate numbers, and through My Trips, Flight Status and the ‘More’ section.
Airport maps included are: ATL, BOS, CVG, DCA, DTW, JFK, LAX, LGA, LHR, MCO, MSP, NRT, SEA, SFO and SLC. This spring the app also will include maps for AMS, CDG, GRU, MEX and PVG.
“Delta’s airport maps are another customer experience differentiator,” said Rhonda Crawford, Vice President, Global Distribution and Digital Strategy, Delta Air Lines. “We went beyond the industry standard to fully integrate maps into the boarding pass and other parts of our app experience.
“We are trying to anticipate when customers may want or need to use a map and provide an easy and intuitive way to do that – whether to find a Sky Club, a gate or a cup of coffee.”
Delta worked with travel-focused tech start-up LocusLabs to develop the wayfinding map functionality that provides turn-by-turn navigation after automatically recognising where a customer is when they input their search term.
Customers can search using generic terms such as ‘coffee’ or brand names such as ‘Starbucks’ and choose from a list of options to retrieve directions.
“As a first among travel apps to ingrain location services this deeply, Delta has put the passenger’s needs first, while laying the groundwork to streamline the customer experience, improve operations, and ultimately provide a superior end-to-end travel service,” said Campbell Kennedy, Chief Executive and Co-founder, LocusLabs.
The latest Fly Delta app for iPhone also includes 3D Touch quick actions on the home screen app icon so customers can tap the icon to reveal shortcuts to book a flight, check in, or view flight status.
Offline mode is another new feature of Fly Delta 4.2 for iPhone, which increases the reliability of the app by making customer travel itinerary information – including boarding passes – available even when their device is not connected to the Internet.
Fly Delta for Android will be released in spring 2017.
