Priceline iOS App Adds Details About Onboard Amenities and Flight Ratings

Priceline is running a test of integrating flight ratings, and a relatively deep dive into onboard amenities, from Routehappy into the Priceline Hotels, Flights and Cars app for iPhones and iPads.

This means that users can sort their flight options not only based on the number of stops, airline or flight duration, but can sort flights within the app by ratings such as "Happiest" or "Happy & Cheap."

In Priceline's Hotels, Flights and Cars app for iPad, flight-search results for a JetBlue flight from JFK to Austin gets a "Happy & Cheap" designation, meaning the fare is low and it gets a high rating for its amenities and convenience.

Users of Priceline's iOS apps can sort flights by Routehappy designations such as "Happiest" or "Happy & Cheap."

Users of the app also learn, for example, that the Routehappy 8.7 score for JetBlue flight 1295 from JFK to Austin is based on "cream of the crop" amenities such as LiveTV, "very good" reviews and ratings from flyers, and a "really fast" trip duration of four hours and 13 minutes.

Priceline says the partnership with Routehappy, a flight metasearch business featuring users' ratings and reviews for individual flights, allows it to personalize flight search for consumers because they can sort their options by a new set of criteria.

Routehappy's scores take into account everything from flight times, and aircraft types to meal options and flyers' ratings for each flight.

At the same time, Priceline introduced another test that is geared for travelers looking for last-minute hotel deals.

Deals Near Me on Priceline's iPhone app uses "dynamic zone" and "pushpin" technology to locate hotel deals in their close proximity, Priceline says.