A fear of typos
United Airlines said more than eight million customers booked through the United app last year, a 15% increase compared with 2023.
The airline said that about a third of United’s millennial customers booked flights on the app in 2024. Kim Cisek, vice-president of customer experience for American Airlines said that both millennial and Gen Z travellers tend to book travel slightly more on their mobile app than Gen X or baby boomers.
Experts say well-designed apps generally protect your security and privacy just as well as a website, although they do come with their own risks. For some users, perception is still catching up to reality.
“I trust the security on my laptop more for big purchases,” said travel writer Jason Frye, 47.
Scott Keyes, founder of the cheap-flight service Going, said he uses a computer to book flights 90% of the time.
“It’s frankly just a little fear of typos,” said Keyes, 38. “A typo when you’re booking a flight can be a big deal.”
Spell your name wrong or punch in the wrong date, and you won’t be boarding. The bigger the device, the more likely you may spot an error. The larger the keyboard, the less likely you are to make one.
“You’ve got a lot less screen real estate on a phone than on a computer,” he said.
For others, it’s psychological. Your phone is for scrolling on the toilet, not making three-figure transportation decisions.
In an informal poll conducted on Instagram, I asked travellers about their booking preferences. Dozens of responders favoured computers over phones. Their overwhelming sentiment: Big purchases call for big screens.
“Booking something as serious as a flight on a PHONE is unimaginable to me. Criminal,” said Allison Chin, 32, who lives in Los Angeles.
Improved apps push users to phones
When it comes to booking on a computer, members of Gen Z seem more like-minded on the issue than their elders think.
I surveyed more than 30 travellers born between 1998 and 2007. Only five were adamant about exclusively using their phones to book flights. Most said they prefer laptops, referencing the “big screen, big purchase” adage.
“I just find it easier, I guess, with [a] bigger screen,” said Will Hunt, 17, who’s recently been using his laptop to shop for cheap flights for an upcoming boarding school break. “Easier to compare options.”
Plenty said they do both, mirroring a wider trend: After years of being clunky and unnecessary, airline apps are finally good and people are keen on using them - for shopping, booking or changing a flight, planning your layover meals, or begging an AI chatbot for frequent flier miles to compensate for a delay.
For many travel tasks, the user experience feels smoother on a phone. Even booking sites without apps, like Google Flights, are much more pleasant on mobile than ever before, enabling easier online shopping.
But with so many data points involved in airfare - connections, seat preferences - it’s understandable that some shoppers still want a keyboard and mouse.
No difference in airfare
Combine the dynamic pricing of airfare with the instant access of online shopping and you’ve got a recipe for paranoia.
So I went to the founders of two companies that specialise in booking cheap flights - Keyes of Going and Aktarer Zaman of Skiplagged - to ask whether the device you use to book leads to better or worse prices.
“I don’t think there’s much of a difference,” said Zaman, 32, who primarily books his flights through his phone.
“I can’t speak for every company whether they do any fishy business, but we don’t,” he said. “For example, if you use our website on your desktop or you use our app on your phone, it’s the same exact price.”
Keyes agreed neither is better for bargain hunting. Ahead of our call, he also compared prices for the same flight on Google Flights, Expedia, and Delta, both on his computer and on his phone, and got the same results.
He has not seen any truth to the rumour that the higher quality the device, the higher prices you’ll get in a search: “So if you have the newest iPhone model, the airline is more likely to show you a higher price than if you’re booking on like a 2015 Dell desktop,” Keyes said.
“I can understand why that could happen,” he added. “I’ve just never actually seen evidence that it happened in reality.”
The same is true for the myth that your internet history affects your airfare. Keyes says no, airlines are not tracking your searches - phone or desktop - and raising the price to pressure you into booking.
“For the folks who are convinced that this theoretical argument is actually true … they mistake the inherent volatility of airfare with a sort of Truman Show ‘they are watching me and trying to squeeze every dollar out of me,’” he said.
You very well may see prices rise each time you search for flights, “but that’s not because of your phone versus your computer. That’s because airfare is constantly changing,” he said.
