Report updated May 19, 2026
United Airlines
For air travelers seeking self-service booking, flight management, and loyalty program integration.
United Airlines is an established travel app that is completely free. With a 4.8/5 rating from 8.9M reviews, it shows polarized user reception. Users particularly appreciate simplified check-in process provides a fast and efficient experience for frequent travelers, though frequent application crashes and freezing during core tasks like check-in and booking remains a common concern.
What is United Airlines?
The United Airlines app is a travel management tool for iOS and Android that enables flight booking, check-in, and loyalty account management.
Users hire this app to maintain control over their travel journey and loyalty rewards, reducing the need for airport counter interactions.
Current Momentum
v4.2 · 5d ago
Active- Integrated Peacock inflight entertainment channel
- Launched Pay with Miles for Lyft
- Expanded nonstop service to Japan
Active Nemesis
Southwest Airlines: Travel App
By Southwest Airlines Co.
Other Rivals
7-Day Rank Pulse 🇺🇸
TravelRating Pulse 🇺🇸
Recent User Mood
What makes this app unique?
What Does It Look Like?
What Are The Key Features?
High-speed internet access provided during flight, free for MileagePlus members
Automated system to hold flights for passengers during tight connections
Allows friends and family to combine MileagePlus miles into a single account
How much does it cost?
- Free app for all users
- MileagePlus membership for additional perks
The app functions as a free utility to drive direct bookings and loyalty program engagement.
Who Built It?
United Airlines
Facilitating seamless travel management for global passengers while providing operational tools for aviation professionals.
Portfolio
5
Apps
What other apps does United Airlines make?
Explore the full United Airlines report
Portfolio breakdown, audience, momentum, and every app published by United Airlines.
What do users think recently?
High confidence · Latest 100 of 149 total reviews analyzed · Based on 149 reviews. Signal may be noisy.
How did the latest release land?
What is the recent mood?
Recent user voice shows a mixed sentiment. Users appreciate simplified check-in process provides a fast and efficient experience for frequent travelers, but report frequent application crashes and freezing during core tasks like check-in and booking.
What Users Love
What Frustrates Users
What Users Want
How have ratings & review volume moved?
Rating, review sentiment, and total reviews over time, with release markers showing the post-launch impact.
Vertical markers = app releases. Hover any release for the post-release impact delta.
View the full user-sentiment analysis
Mood gauge, ratings & review-volume history, every praise / complaint / request, and sentiment over time.
What is the competitive landscape for United Airlines?
Where is it available?
Localized markets (1)
How's The Travel Market?
How does it evolve in the Travel market?
United Airlines holds the #13 Free position on the US Travel & Local chart, maintaining a top-15 slot despite a recent 1-rank dip. The gap between its high store rating and the recent surge in crash reports suggests the legacy user base is masking current technical regressions.
Rank progression
53 active rankings tracked — 30-day window
The rivals identified
Nemeses(1)
EF Ultimate Break competes for the same travel-planning demographic by focusing on the social and logistical aspects of group travel experiences.
Contenders(4)
This app competes for the user's attention during the 'day of travel' by providing resort-specific navigation and concierge services.
Yatra competes directly on the core utility of flight check-in and boarding pass management for diverse airline carriers.
It competes by providing specialized digital service scheduling and menu management for luxury travel segments.
This app competes by offering a high-touch, localized service layer that captures the post-flight hotel experience.
Same space(3)
This app competes by aggregating travel deals and 'chollos' (bargains) that appeal to price-sensitive travelers.
This app acts as a regional peer, providing flight search and transparent pricing for the Russian-speaking market.
Trivago competes for the travel planning budget by offering a comprehensive price comparison engine for accommodations.
Compare United Airlines against every rival
All rivals in one side-by-side table — identity, store metrics, ratings & sentiment, and strategic intel — plus a head-to-head page for each.
The outtake for United Airlines
Strengths to defend, gaps to attack
Core Strengths
- MileagePlus loyalty integration creates high switching costs
- Starlink Wi-Fi provides a unique inflight connectivity moat
- Global network integration offers comprehensive travel management
Critical Frictions
- Frequent app crashes during check-in
- Intrusive payment prompts during post-purchase flows
- 0.7★ Android-iOS rating gap
Growth Levers
- Leverage education partnerships for B2B distribution
- Expand wearable integration for real-time status updates
Market Threats
- Southwest's simplified booking flow siphoning casual users
- Aggregator apps like KAYAK capturing intent earlier in the funnel
- Rapid release cadence of Alaska Airlines
What are the next best moves?
Rebuild check-in flow stability because crashes are the #1 complaint theme → recover daily active usage
Sentiment analysis identifies crashes during check-in as the primary driver of negative reviews.
Trade-off: Pause the Peacock entertainment integration updates — stability is a higher churn risk than content expansion.
Audit payment prompt logic because users report intrusive requests for already-paid bags → reduce friction
Intrusive payment prompts are the second most cited complaint in recent user feedback.
Trade-off: Delay the Money+Miles expansion to international routes — current payment friction is a higher priority.
A counter-intuitive read
The app's high store rating is a lagging indicator that masks the immediate churn risk posed by recent stability regressions, which are more damaging than the lack of new features.
Feature Gaps vs Competitors
- Real-time price comparison (available in KAYAK but absent here)
- Digital key and room selection (available in Hilton Honors but absent here)
Key Takeaways
United must prioritize technical stability in the check-in flow, because current crashes are eroding the core utility of the app, so the PM should pivot engineering resources from new content features to crash remediation.
Where Is It Heading?
Declining
The travel management category is consolidating around high-utility, low-friction interfaces, and United's current technical instability leaves it exposed to more agile competitors. The PM must address the check-in crash rate immediately to prevent the current sentiment decline from impacting long-term loyalty retention.
Frequent crashes during check-in (the primary user task) erode the daily active habit, which compounds the rating drag already visible on Android.
Intrusive payment prompts during check-in create unnecessary friction, which increases the likelihood of users switching to aggregator apps for future bookings.