If Auckland Airport Can Do This, Why Can’t Our Airports Do It, Too?

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Auckland International Airport (AKL) is the largest and busiest airport in New Zealand. It serviced over 21,000,000 passengers by their March 2019 year end, which puts it approximately on par with Phoenix (PHX), Houston (IAH) and and Miami (MIA) International Airports in the United States (latest data for them is Dec. 2018). Definitely nothing to sneeze at.

Like many airports, ALK has had an app for several years but it was pretty basic – just flight and parking information. Well, they’ve just done a refresh of the app and I now have airport app envy. Look at everything it can do…

From their website:

• View up-to-date details of all your flights regardless of airline

• The app will alert you to the status of your flight and any changes that may occur (true, lots of apps will do that, but you’d have to go out of the Auckland Airport’s app to get that information).

• Book parking and add it to your itinerary

• By booking parking online before you travel you get our best rates on valet parking and grooming options through to park and ride (I’ve seen making reservations to park in the lots of off-site vendors, but never at the airport itself).

• Build an itinerary of your journey through the airport

• You can store all future flights and parking bookings (again, you can do that with other apps – TripIt is a good example – but you’d have to exit the airport’s app and go into a different app).

• Estimated queue times

• Be fully informed with estimated queue times for NZ Customs Service, Aviation Security Service, and Biosecurity NZ. These times are based on current times and may vary when you reach each area (I know that the MyTSA app can tell you approximately how long the wait at the TSA security checkpoint might be, but to know how long the wait at Customs is, is something I’ve been wishing for for a long time).

• Be alerted when to leave home to make your flight

• Taking into account current traffic conditions our app will let you know when to leave home (So you can exit the app to go into WAZE, Google Maps, etc…or you can stay in the same app. I wonder if that wold have been at all helpful for these passengers this past summer?).

• Be alerted to the next step in your journey

• The app will alert you the time you need to head to check in, the time to head to security, the time to head to gate and more (you guys, that’s flippin’ COOL!).

• Explore Auckland Airport’s shops, restaurants and bars

• Be reminded to pick your pre-purchased goods before you fly (so you could buy stuff – say lunch for your meal and a new set of EarPlanes – ahead of time, and then pick it up when you get there. Again, VERY cool!).

• Join Strata Club

• Strata Club rewards you for shopping, booking Auckland Airport parking and Strata Lounge visits online, with benefits and points (so for everything you pay for at the airport, you’d get points? As far as I know, we certainly don’t have anything like that here, short of being mindful about what credit card you use).

So, in a nutshell, the Auckland Airport app is a “one stop shop” that allows you to do all the things, from leaving the house to getting on the plane, and everything in between, without pulling up other apps. AND it allows you to see and do things that we only wish we could.

So yeah, airport app envy.

For more information about the Auckland Airport app, or for App Store/Google Play links, click here.

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary