Travel Tip 130

How to use airline apps

Japanese airline ANA is partnered with United and you need both airlines’ apps if you’re flying with them.

Airline apps can make travel so much easier

Happy Solstice! If you’re flying anywhere for Christmas or New Year, download the airline’s app now.

It might seem like just one more thing, downloading another app, on top of all the planning you’re doing for a trip, but I can’t stress enough how important it is to download airline apps.

I checked my boarding pass before going to security in Boise, but neglected to do the same in Lima.

I’ve been saved by airline app notifications.

The most recent time I was thankful to have an airline app was coming back to Cusco from a trip to Boise for Thanksgiving. I was just settling down for coffee and breakfast in the Lima airport, when I got a notification on my phone that my flight was boarding. It was an hour before I expected to board, so I almost ignored it. Thankfully, I opened the app, which informed me that I should be at the gate and boarding, then double checked my boarding pass. I only made that flight because the Latam app notified me.

The agent had rebooked me without informing me.

It was my mistake to not look at my boarding pass when I checked in my luggage in Lima. The agent rebooked me on a flight an hour earlier, without asking me if I wanted to go on an earlier flight or even informing me that he had rebooked me. I had just flown overnight from LA to Lima and was pretty tired, so I wasn’t as on top of things as I usual. Learn from my mistakes: always double check your boarding pass before you go through security.

Airline apps can have way more information than boarding passes.

Here's just a few reasons I love airline apps:

·      You get notifications for delays, boarding time and boarding gates.

·      They often have airport information like airport maps.

·      You can access boarding cards offline.

·      Some airlines have baggage tracking in the app.

·      Most apps update which carousel your baggage will be at.

·      If there is a delay or cancelled flight you can usually rebook in the app without having to call customer service or wait in line at a desk in the airport.

Airline apps have links to airport maps and other useful information.

Download airline partner apps

Always check if the flight is operated by another airline, and make sure you have the right app. For example, Delta and Latam are partners and operate each other’s flights. Say you buy a flight that goes from LAX to Lima to Cusco from Delta or on the Delta website. The LAX to Lima flight information will be in the Delta app, but the Lima to Cusco flight will be operated by Latam and you’ll need their app because the Delta app won’t have your boarding pass or flight information. The same is true if you buy flights from, say Denver to Seattle to Tokyo on Japan Airlines, whose partner in the US is American. You need the American Airlines app for Denver to Seattle flight, even if the Seattle to Tokyo flight information is in the Japan Airlines app.

If you’re flying over the holidays, I hope your flights are on time and everything goes smoothly!

We didn’t find the Royal Cinclodes but we saw so many other birds that I wasn’t the least disappointed.

New Blog: Birdwatching at Abra Málaga

This week, I got to go birding with a group of experts and Eco Peru Tours and was lucky enough to see four endemic species and add another 23 birds to my life list. Peru has 117 endemic species of birds and many of them live in cloud forests and Polylepis forests like the ones we visited at Abra Málaga. The weather wasn’t great, but everybody was really friendly and cheerful all day.