United Launches Travel-Ready Center to Ease Burden of Covid-19 Travel

January 29, 2021

Airlines & Airports 0

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United Launches Travel-Ready Center to Ease Burden of Covid-19 Travel

United Airlines has launched its Travel Ready Center, a new digital solution designed to ease the travel process in the Covid-19 era.

The new digital solution allows customers to review Covid-19 entry requirements, find local testing options, and upload any required testing and vaccination records for domestic and international travel, all in one place. While several carriers are adopting a similar solution created by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), United is the first airline to integrate all these features into its own mobile app and website.

The airline will regularly add more innovative, industry-first features to the Travel-Ready Center platform to make navigating evolving entry requirements even easier. These features will allow travellers to schedule a Covid-19 test at one of more than 15,000 testing sites around the world, right from the app or website; access the recently launched Agent on Demand, a United-exclusive feature that gives customers the ability to video chat live with a customer service agent to answer any questions about pre-travel requirements or documentation; and also to view details about visa requirements for the countries they plan to visit.

Customers with an active reservation can access the Travel-Ready Center through the My Trips section of the United App and on united.com. The Travel-Ready Center will provide tailored details on requirements for all travellers 18 and older on a customer’s itinerary, with status indicators noting if they are travel-ready based on specific requirements each individual needs to meet in order to board their flight, including any additional requirements for connecting flights.

Documents uploaded by a passenger will be reviewed by designated personnel for verification. The individual status indicators for each passenger will then note whether they are “travel ready” and they will be allowed to complete the check-in process. Customers should still plan to bring the physical documents to the airport in case further inspection is needed along their journey.

“While pre-travel testing and documentation are key to safely reopening global travel, we know it can be confusing for customers when they’re preparing for a flight,” says Linda Jojo, Executive Vice President for Technology and Chief Digital Officer at United. “Starting today, our ‘Travel-Ready Center’ gives customers a personalized, step-by-step guide of what is needed for their trip, a simple way to upload required documents and quickly get their boarding pass, fully integrated within our app and website.”

The Travel-Ready Center is the latest in a series of new technologies the airline has introduced to create a safer and more efficient experience for customers. These include a redesign of its mobile app with new enhancements intended to make travel easier for people with visual disabilities; and the introduction of Destination Travel Guide, which allows business traveller to filter and view destinations’ Covid-19 related travel restrictions.

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The Art of Business Travel is Asia-Pacific's leading portal for corporate travel news and views. We cover everything from airline routes and airport developments, to new hotels, meeting venues, loyalty schemes, and entertaining.