Comment by lb1lf | Hacker News Reader

Comment by lb1lf | Hacker News Reader

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I do print my itinerary on paper, too (The failure modes of paper being few and well known) - my colleagues tend to chuckle and call me a dinosaur - until they get that panicked look as we near the last leg of our journey - looking for a power outlet...

However, things happen. The good airport apps can tell you stuff like "You just got out at Arrivals C/2. Next flight departs from B42, to your right, four minutes. Estimated delay 25 minutes, but boarding still closes in 11 minutes.

Granted, you can get the same info from signage and info screens, but when you've been on your way for a day, tired out of your mind, your incoming flight was delayed and you may not catch the last leg home, having to spend (yet another) night in a hotel with as much character as a helping of yesterday's mashed potatoes, getting the information you need on a small screen in front of you rather than having to go looking is gold. Pure, brilliant gold.

And I really should only need one, which is where this API comes in - if other airports could fall in line and agree on a common API, maybe we could get an app or two which aggregates data from the airports on your journey and presents it in a tidy way.

I'm a developer myself so I love software. I am simply puzzled by the statement someone made about needing a dozen apps to fly.

Here's my reality when I fly with my small children. I make it a game. I give them the printouts and have them navigate the family around the airport, etc. Airports are designed very well. They are designed for someone who doesn't speak the local language to find their way around.

And so, the way I look at it is: If a couple of kids, 9 and 10 years old, don't have a problem then I think for the most part these are solutions looking for problems. A piece of paper does just fine for probably 99% of travel scenarios.

Had the comment poster said something like "There's this one app that helps me get around and this is how it works" I think I would have reacted positively to that statement. The exact quote was:

"If this (eventually) leads to the possibility of one -1- properly designed and implemented airport app rather than me having a couple dozen different apps installed, all buggy and crash prone and with hardly any common UI features at all - then I'm all for it..."

Which triggered the question: Why does someone have to go through all of this pain and aggravation when millions of people have been travelling around the world for decades with nothing more than a few pieces of paper?

Most of what I read about this is unnecessary. Airports were designed way before smartphones every existed. Ergo, they work very well without them. In fact, they work very well with nothing more than a few pieces of paper in your hand.

Oh, I don't NEED them - that probably was a poor choice of words. But, at times, they make life easier, most notably when a flight into a transit airport you are not familiar with is delayed.

My comment was more in exasperation that when airport apps first are a thing - why, oh why does every airport need its own proprietary one?

And why are they more often than not made with hardly a thought being spared as to UX - and all seemingly designed by some new media company who just hankered a bloke in from the street which had the good marketing sense and poor judgment to put 'app development' on his resume after successfully completing the 'Hello, World!' tutorial in Android Studio...

> why, oh why does every airport need its own proprietary one?

I can understand that. It sure sounds like transportation in general might benefit from some sort of a unified API world-over. This would make every airline/airport share the same kinds of information in the same ways.

I agree with your sentiment that one app should be all you need.

Extending this to other forms of transportation would be great. Just not sure how something like that would be accomplished.

That said, they (airports, etc.) could not rely on apps to communicate with passengers because you can't assume everyone will have access to them.

It's just like anything else that we used to live without ... mobile phones, call waiting, microwaves, you name it. Doesn't mean that having new things today isn't an improvement or more convenient in some ways.

I've used printed boarding passes sometimes and other times used the app. Using the app isn't necessarily more convenient when it comes to the boarding pass, but the Delta app can quickly tell me if my flight is delayed, gives me gate updates, and alerts me when my baggage has been loaded onto the plane. Could I get along without it? Sure. But is having that information on my phone useful? Of course.

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