United Airlines on Tuesday updated its mobile app with several new features that it hopes will make holiday travel easier for flyers.
Passengers who are sick of crowding at the gate and lining up early are sure to welcome the new "virtual gate" feature. This feature will display real-time updates about which groups are boarding, and it will show a progress bar indicating how many people have boarded the plane so far.
For lounge-goers, a new "closest and best" feature will recommend nearby United Clubs based on where the passenger's gate is, and (maybe more importantly) how crowded each location is. United said that the feature is available now at its O'Hare International Airport (ORD) hub and will roll out to other airports throughout 2026. The airline has five United Club lounges at ORD, plus a more exclusive Polaris Lounge.
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