A long rant about airline apps...
The +Aer Lingus app is so bad that after I read through every review. marking all of the accurate ones as "Helpful" and all of the obvious spam as "Spam", I got curious today as to how it could have got that way.
Android apps are named similarly to Java classes, and since in many cases they are developed by Java developers they tend to follow the naming conventions that have emerged in that language. In this case the app itself identifies it as com.feedhenry... providing me with a simple clue. And then by digging around on the +FeedHenry website, we can even find a quote!
+Ronan Fitzpatrick, who it seems is the Director of Network Distribution of Aer Lingus is quoted on the FeedHenry website as saying:
"The world of mobility is changing at such a fast rate. Staying ahead of the curve in a competitive market, a comprehensive mobile app solution that integrates with our backend systems has delivered a great service to our passengers and attractive ROI for Aer Lingus."
Such chutzpah! "Comprehensive"? So how come it is missing so much functionality! "Delivered a great service to our customers"? Approximately 95% of the customers who have taken the time to write an actual review of the Aer Lingus app have rated it at a single star, and these aren't the "it doesn't work on my obscure mobile device so I'll give it a 1" kind of reviews - these are actual well-considered angry tirades. The only thing I can believe is that it has delivered a great "ROI": which translates as "It cost us feck all to do this and now we can say we have an app! How cool is that?".
Naturally every passenger on an airline is, by definition, a mobile passenger. They are moving. Often from one place where their smartphone's internet connection works, to another, where it doesn't - or is hideously expensive. So perhaps storing the boarding pass on the phone for their return journey would be a good idea? Well, yes, it would be a great idea - after all that's what every airline app ever does. Well almost every app.
Perhaps you're a frequent flyer with an airline, and you install their app to keep track of your bookings and your points? After all: you're a regular customer, right? Perhaps even a high-value repeat customer! Of course it should remember your login details, associate your bookings with your frequent flyer status, automatically download your boarding pass before your flight, prompt you to check in? Tell you about the weather at your destination? Useful? Nah, there's no need for that sort of thing: just put the website in an IFRAME on the phone and we're done. Nothing to see here, the website does all these things anyway, amirite? Why do this stuff twice?
And after all that, when the customer is done with the app, you should absolutely make sure that exiting it so they can listen to music or read their book is as stupid as possible. If possible make the customer uninstall your app and reboot their phone in order to ensure it's really not running. It's OK: they can install it again next week if they ever want to see it again.
So, how bad can it be? I looked through the play store to see how airline apps rated generally. I've lived in New Zealand up until last year, so maybe I was spoiled by the +Air New Zealand app, and it seems I probably was: with a Play Store rating of 4.4, the top comment there from +Elton Osborne says:
"Take note This is how an app should be written. Well done Air NZ! Classy, well thought out provides everything you need. As a frequent flyer on Air NZ I use this app regularly. So many companies skimp on their app budget and its plain to see that this was not the case here. Shows your upcoming flights cleanly and notifies you of key events from online check in to delays and real time boarding calls at the airport. Not a gimmick like many others and genuinely enhances your travel experience. In my top 5."
At the other end of the scale it looks like +Aer Lingus see the bar as +Ryanair, which is also mostly negative 1 star reviews, managing the same low 2.8 score, because among other airline apps I checked that was the only other one that I found below 3.! Qantas, at 3.2, was the third-worst score I could find.
I decided to look through all of the carriers I've flown on in the last few years (a certain amount of APAC bias since I only moved to Europe less than a year ago) so here goes:
+airberlin 4.5
+Air New Zealand 4.4
+easyJet 4.3
+Wizzair Virtual Airline 4.2
+JetBlue 4.2
+SAS - Scandinavian Airlines 4.0
+LATAM Airlines Group - LAN & TAM Airlines 4.0
+British Airways 3.9
+American Airlines 3.9
United Airlines 3.9
+Singapore Airlines 3.8
+Virgin Atlantic 3.7
+Thai Airways 3.7
+Lufthansa 3.7
+LOT Polish Airlines 3.6
+Jetstar Australia 3.6
+Virgin Australia 3.5
+Swiss International Air Lines 3.3
US Airways[1] 3.3
+Qantas 3.2 (budget brand Jetstar scores better)
+Ryanair 2.8
+Aer Lingus 2.8
(I was unable to link to the United or US Airways G+ pages)
Note that RyanAir has 1-5 million installs, whereas Aer Lingus is 100-500k. Air New Zealand is also 100-500k, and airberlin, the highest scorer, has a significantly smaller audience at 10-50k.
And so a significant majority of my fellow travellers on these airlines depend on their smartphone. Millions of people have these airline apps installed on their phones, and this device Is the first thing out of their pocket when we land, arranging for the next mobile experience.
For me, in Dublin, that's +Hailo which gets me to and from the airport. And it works.