The 10 Best Travel Apps For Flight Attendants

by Heather Poole on
Photo: PartyMonstrrr/Flickr

1. FAAWait – During a creeping weather delay a flight attendant who also works part time as an air traffic controller told me about FAAWait. It’s his favorite app. One click and we knew which airports across the country were also experiencing delays, how long the delays were averaging, and what had caused the delays.

2. MyRadar: Recently a fearful flier on board one of my flights spent three hours watching the weather light up his iPad screen: blue, green, red – wow, so much red! He knew exactly when to expect turbulence, how bad it might get, and how long it would last. Knowing this kept him calm. At one point he even turned around in his seat to let the crew know it would be smooth flying from here on out. Two seconds later the captain called to tell us the exact same thing, it was safe to get up and finish the service. Since then I’ve been recommending the app to anyone who mentions they’re afraid to fly.

3. WhatsApp: An Emirate’s flight attendant from Bosnia based in Saudi Arabia told me about this app on a flight from Miami to New York. WhatsApp makes it possible to send text messages to friends and family out of the country free of charge. There is virtually no cost to stay in touch with loved ones. You can even share audio and video messages.

4. Twitter: Still the best way to get breaking news! You don’t need to “get it.” Just learn how to use the hashtags to find information as it’s happening. For instance, not too long ago I was at an airport that was being evacuated and no one knew why. That was my cue to search the airport code – #DFW. That’s how I found out there was a bomb threat on an incoming flight. I learned this from passengers who were actually on board the flight and tweeting about it as they taxied to the gate.

5. HappyHourFinder: Flight attendants don’t make a lot of money. In fact new hires start out making less than $18,000 a year. And yet we’re subjected to overpriced hotel and airport food on a regular basis. This is why we take advantage of happy hour specials, particularly ones that include half priced appetizers, which might explain how I ended up at Vince Neil’s Bar, Tres Rios, in Las Vegas two hours after learning about the app in the crew van on our way from the airport to the layover hotel.6. Instagram: Because when you travel there are just so many beautiful things to photograph. The app not only makes your pictures look ten times better, it’s easy to text and email your photos or post photos straight to Facebook or Twitter. What I enjoy most about the app is following people whose photos inspire me to travel, like @Lax2Nrt or even @Umetaturou who shares hilarious pictures of a Border Collie named Sora who can balance anything on his head. One of these days I’m going to fly to Japan and walk that dog!

7. Postagram: Remember when you used to send postcards to family and friends from around the world just to let them know you were thinking about them? Now you’re too busy to think, let alone search for just the right card to send. Not to mention all that time it takes to address and stamp it. With Postagram you can turn your cool photos into postcards by using pictures from your phone, Facebook or Twitter. Write a short message and Postagram will take care of the rest.

8. Yelp: Whenever I find myself at a layover hotel in a new city, the first thing I do is pull up Yelp just to see what’s nearby. I might use it to find a great place to eat, check out a tourist attraction, or locate a pharmacy within walking distance. Users post reviews and photos to help narrow down the search so you can determine whether or not it’s worth it to leave your hotel room.

9. HotelTonight: If you’re a commuter like me, this app will save your life one day. At noon each day HotelTonight offers great last minute deals on a couple of hotels near your current location. Get a $25 credit with your first booking, $25 for each friend who signs up, and $25 when a friend makes their first bookings. So … who wants to be friends?

10. GateGuru: Enter an airport code and up pops everything you could ever want to know about food, shopping, and any services offered, along with reviews, ratings and maps. Enter your flight number and access flight status, delays and weather conditions all in the same place.

Travel Smarter 2012: Use your mobile apps better

by Jeremy Kressmann on

It should come as no surprise that owning a smartphone in 2012 is a traveler’s perfect tool to better explore, organize and record their travels. And by now, there are literally thousands of app roundups out there to help lead you to the good ones. But this isn’t another one of those roundups. Instead, today Gadling is taking a closer look at how to use your existing apps – the ones you already have in 2012 – to travel smarter.

Consider the issues you typically face on the road. You’re hungry, or lost. Perhaps you’re simply trying to communicate with someone in a foreign language. The truth is you don’t always need to spend $1.99 on the newest “travel app” to do these things. Sometimes the best app is the one you already have on your smartphone.

Based on hundreds of hours on the road, both here in the U.S. and abroad, testing various mobile apps, we’ve compiled the following travel tips to help you get the most out of the apps on your smartphone. Are you a travel app pro? Click through for our tips.Use Your Camera to Save Important Information
Unless you’ve been living under a rock recently, you’re probably already aware of the huge boom in mobile travel photography apps and tips in recent months. And certainly smartphones (iPhones in particular) have proven themselves as clear winners for traveling photographers.

But are you using your phone’s camera to its full potential? Truth is, your smartphone’s camera makes a great storage and communication tool. Don’t want to carry around your map with directions to dinner? Take a photo. How about a snapshot of the street where your hotel is at so you can show the taxi driver? Voila. Have a food allergy? Take a photo of the food to show at the restaurant.

Get a Recommendation from a Local
Many travel apps claim to help you find cool things to do in new places you’re visiting. Problem is, they don’t deliver. The secret is that locals in your destination don’t use them. The trick to getting good recommendations is to use what the locals use, and right now those two apps are Foursquare and Yelp.

If you’re not already using Foursquare, it’s quietly become the new killer travel app. Most people think of Foursquare as “that service that lets you check in to bars to try and look cool.” But with a series of great recent updates, including an ability to share and make lists and the new explore feature, Foursquare is now a powerful tool to help you find good stuff to eat, see and do in unknown places. Check out their Foursquare Cities account for some great user-created tips in cities like Berlin, Milan, Sydney, London and more.

Yelp is another app many of us know from our daily wanderings in our hometown. Ever tried it on the road? Open the app and click on “Nearby” on the bottom menu, then “Hot New Businesses” to find out what local users are talking about right now.

Store Your Travel Research on Your Phone
Now that the vast majority of travel research happens on the web, there’s no reason for all that research to get stuck on your computer when you leave for the airport. Take it with you – use your smartphone to collect it all in one place.

Many people already use mobile reading apps like Instapaper (for iOS) or Read it Later (for Android) to collect long articles for offline storage – why not create a folder of great articles for your trip? Don’t forget to install the app’s “bookmarklets” on your web browser for easy adding. Another great free source of info is Wikitravel – try uploading the whole destination guide for the city you’re visiting to your Instapaper or Read It Later app for easy offline reading. Evernote is another great document storage app you may already have that lets you store everything from web links to photos to audio recordings.

Make Cheaper Phone Calls and Pay Less for Wi-Fi
If you’ve ever placed a phone call from abroad using your cell phone, you probably remember the sticker shock that came with it when you got the bill back. That’s where Skype’s suite of mobile apps can be a real lifesaver. Use your mobile phone over a Wi-Fi connection to make phone calls (and send texts) while abroad to any phone number. Did you know Skype also has an app that lets you pay-by-the-minute for Wi-Fi at over 1 Million locations worldwide? Skip the $8 daily Wi-Fi rate at the airport and login using your existing Skype credit.

[flickr image via Cristiano Betta]

GateGuru 1.5 adds JetBlue leaderboard contest, maps, local ads and more

by Scott Carmichael on

In the world of mobile apps, not much pleases me more than watching a great app slowly evolve into something amazing.

Take for example GateGuru. We first mentioned this fantastic app last year – and since then, the developers have slowly been adding new features.

In its latest version, Gateguru 1.5 really takes things to the next level – the app has added a leaderboard contest, maps and localized ads.

The new leaderboard contest is an awesome way to rewards active users. As you may already know, a lot of the content inside GateGuru comes from travelers – and when you add tips, new amenities or rate a current location, you earn points.

If you earn the most points in your area, you’ll win a $100 JetBlue gift card. The national leader will be awarded two JetBlue tickets. This contest is one of the largest ever held with prizes awarded for virtual points.

The maps are another very welcome addition – it means you can now look up an amenity, and find your way to it, all without having to stop and ask for directions.

With the localized ad feature, you are presented with ads that offer discounts for stores at your airport. During my test, I was offered a rent 1 – get 2 DVD offer for the nearby InMotion airport store. Seriously – if you are going to put ads in an app, this is the kind of stuff I love seeing. The ad discount was worth $5, and all you need to do is show the ad to the store clerk, and you get your discount.

All in all some brilliant improvements – and best of all, the app is still free of charge from the App store.

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Kayak adds GateGuru content to its iPhone App

by Scott Carmichael on

GateGuru has joined forces with Kayak to bring their database of airport amenities to the Kayak iPhone app.

As a quick reminder – GateGuru has the most comprehensive airport amenity guide in the world – and it currently covers all US airports along with a growing lineup of international locations.

With the addition of this new feature, the Kayak app has (in my opinion) become the best all-in-one travel app there is on the iPhone.

From within Kayak, you can now search for fares, find hotels and rental cars, check flight status, look up airline fees and phone numbers, store trips from Kayak.com, set up fare alerts and more.

Best of all – the Kayak app is still free of charge (a “first class” version is available for $1.99 if you need access to business and first class fares).

If you want to take full advantage of GateGuru for features like ratings, ranks and social media updates, you’ll still need the separate app, but having instant access to this information from within Kayak is still a really neat feature.

To download the Kayak app, search the app store for Kayak, or follow this link.

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GateGuru launches international airport coverage

by Scott Carmichael on

Back in December, we introduced you to GateGuru – an App designed to help you find amenities at the airport. Since then, the app has grown spectacularly, and was even featured in one of the Apple iPhone commercials – a great testament of its success.

At launch, GateGuru only covered the United States – but as of today, the app has added listings for its first batch of international airports.

In GateGuru, you’ll now find London Heathrow along with 12 Canadian airports. The complete list of new airports can be found here.

With GateGuru, you’ll never be stuck trying to find somewhere to eat, shop or entertain yourself – making it the perfect app for when you become stranded at the airport. GateGuru is free, and can be downloaded from the App Store (iTunes link).