Wayfinding maps and offline capability added to Fly Delta app

Fly Delta has updated its mobile app, introducing airport wayfinding maps and getting boarding pass and flight details updated even when offline. Twenty airports – including London Heathrow – are featured in the wayfinding tool, which gives turn-by-turn directions to … Continue reading →

Fly Delta has updated its mobile app, introducing airport wayfinding maps and getting boarding pass and flight details updated even when offline.

Twenty airports – including London Heathrow – are featured in the wayfinding tool, which gives turn-by-turn directions to the gate, restaurants, baggage claim and other hotspots.

“Delta’s airport maps are another customer experience differentiator,” said Rhonda Crawford, vice president for global distribution and digital strategy at Delta. “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 – which automatically recognizes where a customer is when they input their search term. Users can search using generic terms like “coffee” or brand names and choose from a list of options to retrieve directions.

Campbell Kennedy, co-founder of LocusLabs, said: “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.”

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 isn’t connected to the Internet.

iPhone users can touch the departure city code, arrival city code or gate numbers on their Fly Delta app, and fins maps of ATL, BOS, CVG, DCA, DTW, JFK, LAX, LGA, LHR, MCO, MSP, NRT, SEA, SFO and SLC. In the spring, the app will be updated to include maps for AMS, CDG, GRU, MEX and PVG.

Fly Delta for Android will be released spring 2017.