Planes, trains and automobiles. As usual I am going completely out of order. I have already talked about the almighty road trip. Now lets talk about what you phone can do for you when you travel on a plane.
Flight 101 to Cell Phones and Airplanes...Now boarding. If you travel by airplane frequently you know the ins and outs of getting through the airport. If you aren't a "frequent flyer" you may not be privy to all that your cell phone has to offer as the ultimate travel companion.
Book Your Trip
Let's start with booking your flight.
BookMe Travel Search has a mobile app that is available for iPhone and Android that allows you to book flights, hotels, rental cars and cruises. Before you even book anything, it is set up to compare prices at Expedia, Orbitz, Kayak, Priceline and Travelocity. The mobile app doesn't seem to be available for WinMo or Blackberry but you can access the BookMe.com site easily by just entering the URL into your Browser.
Get your itinerary
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Okay, now you've booked your flight, sweet! Next you'll want to have your itinerary in your phone. This is where TripIt comes in handy. |
This app is available for iPhone, Android and Blackberry. I didn't find this exact app for WinMo but there is a similar app called Trip Case. TripIt makes it easy to organize and share your travel plans, no matter where you book. To add trips to this app, all you have to do is forward your email confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com TripIt will build an itinerary for your trip automatically! Take a look at these screen shots.
Imagine having such a nice laid-out itinerary on your phone?
Pack
First of all, before I go any further, do yourself a favor and back up your phone before you go away. In fact of you aren't set up to a server that backs up your information nightly, you should subscribe to Verizon's Back-Up Assistant. In the event that your phone gets lost in your travels, at least your contacts and info will be restored.
Next, pack your charger. If you plan on renting a car, you'll probably want take the car charger along as well.
Are you sick of hearing, "there's an app for that?" Me too, but it's true! There us an app to help you pack. It's an Android app called Travel Checklist. You can either use a pre-defined checklist or create your own.
Make sure you have all necessary phone number's loaded into your phone along with the confirmation numbers. Airlines, car rentals etc... just in case. Also it's not a bad idea to have the websites loaded and bookmarked. If you don't use an itinerary app, you'll want to have all this information on hand.
Enhance Your Trip
While you are on your trip, there are plenty of ways your phone can enhance your trip. And most importantly, you don't need a smartphone or highly technical phone or even an app for these tips.
- Guided tours at museums, national parks, tourist attractions, even Napa Valley's Festival del Sol has an audio guided tour. Many attractions have the information or number to call available on their website or just google it! For example, I googled San Francisco cell phone tours and found a nice guide to the San Francisco Maritime Museum. Your best bet is to call the venue for the price and number to call to start your tour before you go.
- Get information:
- Text Google GOOGL (46645) to get addresses, directions, weather forecasts, movies, currency rates and even a quick handy translator. To get a list of Google Short Messaging Service features, click here
- Yahoo (92466) for much of the same info as above that Google offers. For a list of features click here
Camera
This one is a given but your phone's camera may do more than just take pictures. Many cameras have a geo-tagging feature so you can find on a map exactly where the picture was taken. If you feel like it, you can make your Twitter or FB followers jealous and upload pix as you take them. One of the fun things about that is someone is bound to say, "I've been there, you have got to check out the blah blah blah place down the street." Be careful though, remember if people are seeing you taking vacation pix, its pretty obvious you are away from home. You do the math. There are some fun apps that let you do things with your pictures.
Google Goggles lets you use pictures taken with your mobile phone to search the web. It's ideal for things that aren't easy to describe in words. All you have to do is open the app, snap a picture, and wait for your search results. Try taking pictures of books & DVDs, landmarks, logos, contact info, artwork, businesses, products, barcodes, or text.
Upload your pix to Flickr or Picasa as you go and you'll have an online album when you get home.
Get around
VZ Navigator or Google Navigation.
There's nothing worse than being in a strange city and not knowing where a pharmacy is so you can cure your splitting headache, or where there might be a place to eat with food you'd actually enjoy. Whether you have a Android or a Verizon feature phone, you'll have access to navigation. Not only does it take you from point A to B but it will help you finds things along the way, or maybe you don't know where point B is yet, your navigation can help you find anything! I am partial to Google Navigation because I "google" everything and I know how to find what I am looking for using it.
Another big plus with navigation is that you can change the options to "driving" to "walking". Why does this matter? Would you want to have to go the right way on one-way streets and go completely out of your way when you are trying to get somewhere in a hurry? Setting navigation to walking is a great resource when hoofing it around an unfamiliar city.
So you've been navigating around your vacation and it 's coming to an end all too quickly. Back to reality. The first thing I do is check in with my airline. From there, I can indicate how many bags I will be checking, upgade or change my seat typically all from my phone.
Flight Status
This is where/when I also set up my flight status alerts for my returning flight. This way, I'll be notified if my flight is going to be delayed. I also set up an alert for the person picking me up so they will know I will be delayed as well. This saves you the stress of not being able to notify them while you are in the air. The last flight I was on was having WiFi issues so I was not able to text or email.
Cell PhoneParking Lots
If you are being treated to a ride home, which is a luxury after a long flight, there are cell phone conveniences for this as well. As a result of the tragic events of 9/11, security has been heightened at all airports and you are not allowed to pull up in front and sit waiting for your traveler. So instead of parking miles away or circling the airport forever until you see each other, most major airports have instituted cell phone lots.
These lots allow drivers to park for a determined amount of time until they get the call that their traveler is waiting; luggage in hand. Most airports that have these sites will have a map on their website. Here's what JFK and SFO look like.
They are usually in close proximity to arrivals. The one at JFK is nicely mapped out to show how to get to the lot, then how to get to passenger terminals. Have a safe ride home!