United Launches ‘Travel Ready Center’ To Help With COVID-19 Travel Restrictions

Today, United Airlines launched the ‘Travel-Ready Center’–a new, digital solution where customers can review COVID-19 entry requirements, find local testing options, and upload any required testing and vaccination records for domestic and international travel–all in one place. United is the first airline to have this type of integration, making it much easier for passengers to travel worry-free.

Source: United Airlines

In the coming weeks, United will add more features to the Travel-Ready Center platform to make keep customers up to date with the evolving changes of the pandemic. Passengers will soon be able to:

  • Schedule a COVID-19 test at one of more than 15,000 testing sites around the world, right from the app or website.
  • Access the recently launched “Agent on Demand“, a United-exclusive feature that gives customers the ability to video chat live with a customer service agent to answer any questions about pre-travel requirements or documentation.
  • View details about visa requirements for the countries they plan to visit.

My Take

I think this Travel-Ready Center is a great idea. It’s already incorporated directly into the United app and website, so there’s no additional app needed or website to search to stay informed. Whether traveling domestically or internationally, COVID-19 restrictions are constantly changing. Do you need a negative COVID-19 test before boarding? Will you have to quarantine once you land? What is the visa requirement? All your questions answered right in the app. Pretty awesome.

The only concern I have is that United must keep the information in this Travel-Ready Center accurate and up to date. I have no reason to doubt that they won’t, but the Center will be a nightmare for passengers if the information is not accurate.

Other major airlines will certainly follow suit and adopt similar features into their app/website. This is a huge benefit to passengers to ease the burden of flying with ever-evolving COVID-19 travel restrictions.

What do you think of United’s Travel-Ready Center?