My dad was poking around FlightAware last night and came across this screen shot that represents the new gate agent user interface that United Airlines has developed. I don’t think I ever saw the FastAir system that agents were using at United before the merger, but some of the comments on FlightAware suggest this is an improvement.
Even without much background, I find it pretty easy to follow everything on the screen and get a quick snapshot of all pertinent information. Arriving passengers are grouped by inbound flights, which can be expanded to provide more information on their elite status and fare class. Perhaps if all five passengers are Premier 1K members traveling on W fares the agent is more likely to hold the flight than if they are general members with no status.
There’s also information on how many seats are available and how many have been sold so the agent knows there’s a potential situation for involuntary denied boarding. The check-in counter below that helps determine if volunteers will actually be needed. Other tabs on the display allow the agent to track how many customers still need seats and the current status of the flight.
Anyway, not a lot of information, but something cool to look at. It’s good to see United making progress in rolling out a replacement for SHARES, a legacy Continental system that operates with an old-style command-line interface and has not won many fans.
