Communication applications are developing increasingly rapidly, says Adam Coulter. What does this mean for travel bookers, and which apps should they go for?
Your client is stuck in a meeting. His flight leaves in an hour and it's the last flight of the day. What do you do?
Loathe to distract him, do you check him in online? Send him an email advising him time is short? Or do you sit tight, wait for the meeting to end and risk him asking you why you didn't use your initiative and check him in at all?
Dilemmas, dilemmas.
But with the rise of mobile technology on smart phones such as BlackBerrys and iPhones, this situation need not arise. More and more airlines are trialling technology which allows the traveller to check in online.
In the UK, British Airways has launched an app for iPhone allowing travellers to check timetables, book flights and check in.
In the first month of release, 16,000 people downloaded it. And late last year it launched remote check-in via mobile phones with wireless connectivity in 11 languages, and without any need to download accompanying software.
But checking in online is just the first stage, and barcoded boarding passes (BCBP), sent straight to the traveller's mobile, is the next step.
In fact, according to an International Air Transport Association (IATA) spokesman: "By the end of 2010 all IATA members will be 100 per cent BCBP, and magnetic stripe boarding passes will be history."
Bmi has already become the first British airline to go totally paperless on domestic routes from Heathrow. Travellers can check-in online up to 24 hours ahead, choose their seat and have their boarding pass delivered electronically to their mobile phone or PDA as a multimedia message that they then show at the gate.
For travel management companies (TMCs) it's this function - the electronic delivery of the boarding pass - that is the key. As Peter Muller, group international development director at ATP explains: "We are looking at high-end customers who want us to check them in online. Sometimes we will charge a fee, sometimes we won't. However, the big problem is the boarding card - it's all very well to check them in, but how do we get them the actual boarding card? "The way forward is to send a barcode to a mobile phone and then scan it through."
Muller says there is not a big demand at this stage from clients, but business travellers were often first adopters of new technology.
"The barcode technology is going to be a godsend to us, particularly with our high-end customers," he says. "We've had instances when they may be on their way to the airport, or they've checked in but they've forgotten to print out their boarding pass.
"There is very little we can do other than courier the pass to the airport, but it may be too late. With barcode technology it's simple - we just resend it."
Hakan Ericsson, chief executive of Carlson Wagonlit Travel, says the group was "working closely" with BlackBerry and Apple on mobile technology.
"With mobile check-in, for example, the client sees a direct relationship between the airline and himself," he says. "We would like to bring back the relationship between the traveller and the supplier.
"There is so much happening in the market and it's our job to make sure things are easier for our clients." It's the same story at HRG, which is working on developing applications for both products. Meanwhile, expense management company Concur launched Concur Mobile for iPhone users, which allows them to manage their itinerary, conduct in-policy business travel transactions, capture travel and expense data and approve expense reports. The group already has an application for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile.
A number of US airlines are using barcode boarding passes, including American Airlines and Continental, which pioneered the technology back in 2007 as part of enhanced security. The first BCBP was trialled at Houston in conjunction with the Transportation Security Administration in December 2007.
Today Continental has it in place in 28 US airports and is adding more each month (Detroit and Miami were the latest additions, in September). A spokesman says: "We recently enabled customers to use mobile boarding passes on international flights departing the US and we hope to facilitate their use on inbound international flights to the US in the near future."
Since November last year, American Airlines' passengers have also had the option to have their boarding pass sent straight to their mobile.
At present, the technology is available from five US airports, but this is also increasing, though at this stage not internationally.
Air France trialled BCBP between Paris and Amsterdam in September last year and in June this year became the first European airline to launch BCBP on international flights, to the French Overseas Territories.
Since its launch, more than 6,000 passengers check in every month using BCBP.
Rail
Mobile technology is not confined to air. In fact UK rail operators have been using it for a lot longer. Chiltern Railways, for example, first trialled ticketless travel three years ago on a single route. Today it is available across most of its network. Tickets must be purchased online and then the barcode is sent to the phone.
According to the operator's own research, satisfaction rates among staff and passengers stands at 95 per cent.
Virgin Trains is also trialling the technology, but it is at a very early stage on just two departures a day.
When the traveller buys his ticket online there is an option to send a text message to the phone; it is not a ticket, but does contain the last four digits of the credit card which was used in the purchase.
"It's in its infancy," a Virgin spokesman says. "It's on two trains at the moment and the next stage is to get it onto more trains.
"We also have to educate customers," he continues. "We are not working with TMCs at present but as we move forward we will work with third parties. But we need to ensure we have the technology to support the system."
Car rental
Sixt has developed an iPhone app which allows users to book at special rates, then receive electronic confirmation, thus doing away with paperwork. It also gives renters a full list of rental stations.
Avis is also working on an iPhone app, but has no launch date yet.
Hotels and HBAs
Online hotel booking agency HRS is at the forefront of mobile technology, having launched an application for both BlackBerry and modified its website to fit the iPhone.
The app allows business travellers to search for and book rooms at more than 230,000 hotels worldwide, but it does a lot more than this. The fact that BlackBerrys have GPS built-in means accommodation can be booked based on a user's current location. Or it can simply pull up a list of available accommodation on arrival at any destination. Once the booking has been made, the traveller transfers the hotel information into their calendar or address book, or can display it on a Google map.
The app also prompts whether to use the address of one of the contacts in the address book or the venue of a calendar appointment. The booking confirmation can then be sent by either email or SMS. Since its launch some 40,000 people have downloaded the application.
It's a similar story with the iPhone, with a couple of very nifty extras. So, for example, when the user types in the web address and the phone is held upright, the display shows the search results. Turn it on its side and a map comes up showing the destination and how to get there. The phone also populates the calendar and is available in 12 languages.
In the last three months HRS's mobile website has had 100,000 page impressions.
The world's largest hotel group, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), is working on a number of mobile applications, including putting InterContinental Concierge websites and videos on iPhones. The idea would be to give travellers mobile access to its full concierge applications, which are currently web-based.
As an example, users who have confirmed hotel bookings currently receive an email from the concierge based on the destination of their travel. The email incorporates a greeting from the chief concierge, with various dining, shopping and sightseeing recommendations, and an interactive map.
IHG's idea is to allow guests to download the information, whether it be from website or video, on to their iPhones or other hand-held devices. InterContinental Concierge is also on Twitter.
Four Seasons also uses various mobile technology applications, including Twitter. The Four Seasons Hampshire uses Twitter to send out news alerts and special offers to followers, and Four Seasons Silicon Valley now has 600 followers and uses it to react to guests' comments, accommodate requests and to disseminate alerts.
In Washington DC, the Four Seasons has a Beta site for an application that allows it to text confirmation and message information directly to a guest through the mobile number stored on their profile, while the Four Seasons Las Vegas sends guests a pre-arrival email on their BlackBerrys the morning of their reservation to speed up check-in. Once their room is ready, the guest is sent another email advising of this.
And the last word in mobile madness? The Las Vegas property has 'Blackberry valets' who will clean and recharge guests' BlackBerrys between appointments as well as offer advice, answer technical questions and troubleshoot problem areas - presumably in an ever-so subtle way, to prevent them from being distracted during that all-important meeting.