I don’t fly out to places very often, but when I do, they are usually long-haul flights – meaning a minimum of 5 hours or longer. Most of the time, I will have a friend or relative flying along side, so being able to talk to someone is usually not a problem; however, for those that fly solo most of the time may find themselves sitting next to a person they have nothing in common with or have a difficult time talking to.
So, what if you could plan every moment of travelling to your destination – where you’ll be going and what you’ll be seeing, where to park at the airport, and who you sit next to on the plane?
Using Social to Connect Travelers with Experts
When planning for a vacation, the first step is finding a destination. You can research on your own, reach out to friends for recommendations, or you can use social sites filled with travel experts to help you make your decisions.
Touristlink is the perfect social network that can connect you to other travelers and travel experts to help you discover new places. The social site gives users access to their network of agencies, tour guides, hotels, and private rentals to help meet travel needs. If a user needs to book a tour or schedule an airport pick-up, the site will send them several offers from different travel experts.
Mobile Apps To Reserve Parking
So what happens when you get to the airport? Airports are notoriously congested, especially if you live in a city with the busiest airport: Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson.
Parking can be a long, drawn out process, but New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport found an innovative way to help speed along the process for eager travelers.
The New York airport’s parking facility, SmartPark JFK, has created a mobile app that allows travelers to reserve a parking spot using their mobile phone. Users enter their information and their parking arrival and return; travelers will then receive a quote and be able to reserve their parking spot.
Social Networks That Make Your Flight More Social
You’ve checked in your bags and made your way to the terminal. As you board your flight and take your seat, you wonder who will be sitting in the empty seat next to you. To take out the mystery, what if you could choose who you sit next to on your flights?
Malaysian Airlines launched a Facebook application called MHBuddy that turns booking flights into a social endeavor. Passengers can book and check-in to their flight while sharing their travel itineraries. The app notifies the user if any of their friends are travelling to the same destination or reminds them of friends that live near the destination. Users can also see where certain people are sitting and choose their seats nearby.
KLM Airlines developed a service called Meet and Seat that allows passengers to choose who they sit next to based on their occupation, interests, and appearance. This way, travelers are able to pick their ideal seatmate. Meet and Seat can be a professional networking tool or a prime matchmaking tool.
Looking Forward to More Enjoyable Vacations
Once you’ve reached your destination, you don’t want to think about the stresses of what it took for you to get to your destination spot and brands can help with that.
Consumers like efficiency and personalization when it comes to traveling. Travel agencies, tourist attractions, and other venues can make the booking process more seamless by taking customer service and convenience to a new level with mobile apps and social sites. Brands could also utilize these sites to highlight their products to frequent travelers.
Brands that give the individual the ability to choose every part of their travel, from where to park to who to sit next to, can make the entire experience more enjoyable for the consumer.
Ivy Chang, 12.12.11
This is a great article about the new and innovative services and phone apps available to travelers. As a representative from http://www.ezwayParking.com , I have read and researched such apps as SmartPark JFK with great reviews, but I was unaware of The Meet and Seat service from KLM Airlines. It can be either a great social networking tool to meet someone with similar interests or a way to pick a seatmate that you have nothing in common with so you can sleep for the whole flight!The Facebook application, MHBuddy, sounds a bit like foursquare, where users can post their locations to friends. I've always been weary of apps like that, it just sounds too invasive to me. Regardless, I enjoyed learning about these new services and how they broaden the scope of social media networking! Thanks!
ReplyDelete