A recent survey found that 33% of frequent flyers now rely on their smartphones to book and manage their holiday. So, to help ‘smart’ travellers manage their travel arrangements through their mobile phone, Airport Parking and Hotels (APH) has put together a table comparing which airlines have embraced mobile technology and now offer services through smartphones. The…
A recent survey found that 33% of frequent flyers now rely on their smartphones to book and manage their holiday. So, to help ‘smart’ travellers manage their travel arrangements through their mobile phone, Airport Parking and Hotels (APH) has put together a table comparing which airlines have embraced mobile technology and now offer services through smartphones. The table is available in the Know Before You Go section of the APH website, at www.aph.com/smartphone.
The research found that most of the airlines, including British Airways, Continental Airlines and Qantas, allow customers to manage their booking through a smartphone, including checking-in, receiving flight status updates and downloading boarding passes to their mobile phones.
Continental Airlines and British Airways have created comprehensive apps for smartphones, with the Continental app available free of charge to all passengers and featuring flight booking information, check-in, mobile boarding pass, flight status updates and Presidents Club locations.
British Airways only offer the free app to Executive Club Members, allowing users to view flight information, boarding passes, timetables up to a year in advance, BA miles and also links to the British Airways Twitter page. Virgin Atlantic allow customers to check-in and pre-book a seat using the airline’s mobile website and app.
American Airlines is also following suit, recently announcing that they have added apps for Blackberry and Window-based smartphones to its range. The company is now offering unique features for apps downloaded to Blackberry smartphones, where users can save flight itineraries directly to phone calendars.
Low-cost airlines, such as Aer Lingus, Cathay Pacific, Easyjet and Ryanair, were found to be the only airlines not to allow passengers to download their boarding pass to their mobile, with Ryanair also not producing a fully functional app for customers.
With almost nine out of 10 airlines actively selling or planning to sell tickets on mobile phones by 2014, this only further highlights the importance for airlines to engage with their customers through mobile technology.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
