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United Airlines to Equip Flight Attendants With iPhone 6 Plus

Wednesday December 10, 2014 11:33 am PST by Juli Clover
United Airlines today announced that it plans to distribute Apple's new iPhone 6 Plus to more than 23,000 of its flight attendants during the second quarter of 2015.

The phones will be able to handle "most onboard retail transactions" such as food and drink purchases, and will allow flight attendants to access their email, the United.com website, the United Airlines Intranet, plus policies and procedures manuals.

unitedairlinesiphone6plus
"We are thrilled to make this investment in our flight attendants," said Sam Risoli, United's senior vice president of inflight services. "iPhone 6 Plus will enable them to deliver an even higher level of flyer-friendly service and will offer our flight attendants simple, one-touch access to valuable work information, enabling them to better serve our customers."
In the future, the iPhone 6 Plus devices used by flight attendants will replace printed safety manuals with electronic versions, allowing for real-time reporting and access to aircraft cabin issues and repairs. United will also develop customer-focused tools to be used on the iPhones.

United Airlines has been an eager adopter of Apple technology in the past, becoming one of the first airlines to distribute iPads to pilots to replace heavy flight bags of navigational charts and other flight materials in 2011. United is planning to renew that program, replacing the original iPads with Apple's newest iPad Air 2 devices.

In addition to rolling out iPhone 6 Plus devices to flight attendants, United is also in the midst of terminal renovations at New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport, which will see upgrades that include iPads for customer use.

Currently, supply of Apple's iPhone 6 Plus remains somewhat constrained, with new devices shipping in three to five business days. By mid-2015, however, Apple should have reached supply/demand balance, making it possible for companies like United to deploy the devices on a large-scale basis.

[ 49 comments ]


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troop231
62 months ago
Weird pic is weird
Rating: 32 Votes
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C64
62 months ago
"They can also play games, check Facebook and Twitter, and basically do everything to avoid dealing with annoying passengers. We will even throw in some Beats noise-cancelling headphones so they can drown out the sound of crying babies that just won’t shut up."
Rating: 20 Votes
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cogitodexter
62 months ago

Weird pic is weird


Is that a relative of Thing holding the phone? ;)

Rating: 12 Votes
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farewelwilliams
62 months ago
now my steak is going to take 2x longer to arrive at my seat.
Rating: 11 Votes
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cogitodexter
62 months ago

now my steak is going to take 2x longer to arrive at my seat.


Nah.... It's steak@2x - retina quality steak. Extra marbling. And First Class gets steak@3x :)
Rating: 9 Votes
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soheilk
62 months ago
Why iPhone and not an iPad mini if they will not use any cellular aspect of the phone?
Rating: 7 Votes
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topmounter
62 months ago
Maybe United can send videos to their fight attendants teaching them how to "treat passengers with respect and dignity" instead of crapping all over them at any opportunity.
Rating: 6 Votes
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dejo
62 months ago
Mod Note: This thread is now reopened. Please remain civil and refrain from making off-topic posts about the attractiveness of flight attendants or the involvement of unions. If you wish to discuss unions, please take your comments to our PRSI forum.
Rating: 6 Votes
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elmateo487
62 months ago

Weird pic is weird


Its rude to talk poorly of that giant handed lady!!!
Rating: 5 Votes
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The Oak
62 months ago
The 6+ is required versus the 6 because the 6+ has the optical image stabilization (versus just digital). The flight attendant cannot take a decent picture during turbulence without it ;)
Rating: 5 Votes

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