United Now Lets You Check in, Get Flight Status With Amazon Alexa

Aug. 25, 2017

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2 min read

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I hardly interact with my Amazon Echo these days, but I have friends and family members who still regularly use the platform — and brands from many industries continue to roll out "skills" for the speaker's chat bot, Alexa. However, as a (very) frequent United flyer, a new Alexa ability has me particularly intrigued.

While it appears that Alexa's latest airline skill has been around for a couple weeks, I didn't notice the feature until Jason Rabinowitz pointed it out today:

That's right, Alexa's now United-enabled — you can ask about amenities, check your flight status and even check in (for flights within the US only). Click here to enable the United skill, then you can activate it each time by saying "Alexa, ask United" followed by your choice of prompt.

So if you'd like to find out if you'll be able to charge your gear onboard, you can say "Alexa, ask United: does flight 78 have power outlets?" Or, assuming you've linked your MilagePlus account, you can say "Alexa, ask United to check me in" or "Alexa, ask United what time is my flight," to check in for your flight or find out the departure time, respectively.

Have you used Alexa's United skill?