Tech Tuesday :: Get A Callback

[trip style = any] When an online form or email just won't do the trick...

Calling companies to resolve a travel issue is rarely a pleasant experience. And what's worse, pressing "zero" no longer works as a fast-track way to skip the phone tree to speak with a real person. Press 1 for.., press 3 for..., press 9 for... phone systems are getting too smart with their convoluted pathways, lengthy wait times and elevator music. Thankfully, there's an app that's smarter.

Fast Customer, whose tag line should be "your call is important to us, really" eliminates the customer service queue and gives you back the 30-minutes to 2-hours you just wasted waiting for a 3-minute resolution. After registering your number with the app, you can call one of 2000+ companies listed in their database to resolve "the" issue. Once an operator is on the line, you'll get a callback from Fast Customer's 800-number and speak to a representative right away. If the company you're trying to reach isn't yet listed, add it for approval so others can call too.

I can think of a bunch of times when I wish this app would have been invented! Either way, now we can call every company from CheapOair to Hawaiian Airlines with the touch of a button! {Note, you need to re-enter your phone number every time you use the app.}

This free app is available for iPhone or Android.

More Tech Tuesday Google Flight Search Hotel Tonight Getting There Direct Airline Alliance Apps Google Hotel Finder

Tech Tuesday :: Google Flight Search

[trip style = any]

If Google was a pilot, she just got her wings!

Until now, Google's been quietly working as a first officer, but last Tuesday the company who made the term googling a verb, soft-launched Flight Search, a full-featured extension of the quick flight lookup they announced in May.

Playing around with the feature I notice: a} it works very similarly to Kayak's flight search, b} is easy to use and c} is fast as lightning.

This is big news and a potential travel game-changer, but not a surprise. I've been waiting for the annoucement since last July when much to Expedia and other travel goliaths' chagrin, Google purchased ITA Software---the developer of airfare search and pricing software and the back-end behind Kayak, Orbitz and many airlines.

The Skinny

• Find the flights feature on the left-hand sidebar, or by typing in google.com/flights.
• Feeling spontaneous? Like Kayak's Explore feature, type in your home airport in the "from" search bar and you'll see flight prices for destinations all over the USA. If you find a flight you like leaving that day and book it, use the Hotel Tonight App to book a last-minute hotel!
• Locations outside the US are not currently supported, but likely will be in the coming months.
• It is not easy to book a one-way flight.

PS - Even if you can't search flights from other countries in google.com/flights, you can search flight schedules in google.com's search bar by googling "flights from YVR to LAX" {example}.

Video How Google Flight Search works in 1 minute, 56 seconds. Trouble viewing this video?

Related Kayak Explore {Visual Flight Search} Travel Apps :: On The Fly {ITA Software's App} Master Of Flight {Re}Search Google Hotel Finder

[Images of Google Flight Search]

Tech Tuesday :: Hotel Tonight

[trip style = weekend getaway + budget conscious] If you travel to or within the US and like to A} save on hotel stays and/or B} procrastinate, then you need to know about this travel app. Its name pretty much sums it up. Hotel Tonight allows users to book hotels at the last minute---after 12pm to be exact---for that evening until 2am. Some hotels can be booked for one night, others will allow a five-night stay.

Hotel Tonight came about in late 2010, but I've been waiting to feature it until the functionality, number of cities and offers were robust enough to make it worthy of your screen's precious space. This is now and the app holds a permanent position in my iPhone's travel folder.

With 22 cities and counting, Hotel Tonight offers three hotels per city unless it's a large and/or major vacation destination like New York or San Francisco, in which case there will be three hotels per "area." Each hotel is categorized as hip, modern, elegant, classic, boutique or basic and includes the price after tax as well as photos, a map and info {essentially, a short review written in bullet points for the time-starved, spontaneous booking!}. If you think the last-minute savings will only be offered on tired, 2-star airport hotels, think again. Even 4-star hotels need to fill space.

Are the eleventh hour savings actually cheaper than Kayak, Expedia or Hotwire? Would Trip Styler's editorial team use it? Yes and yes. On Saturday I played around with a few cities and compared Hotel Tonight's prices to other major online travel agencies, and in every case Hotel Tonight's prices were better. The best part: it's not even a blind booking scenario, you know what you're going to get and don't have to scroll through a zillion hotels to decide which one you're going to book. FYI, book early on weekends, as in, between noon and 4pm, because deals can sell out.

We love this free app so much that we've added it to Trip Styler Recommends.

More Tech Tuesday Getting There Direct Airline Alliance Apps Google Hotel Finder

Tech Tuesday :: Getting Direct

[trip style = any]

{Editor’s Note: Enter to win one of FIVE DuWop Flight Sticks. With light, hydrating coverage, these mini skin-enhancers are packed with antioxidants and a touch of caffeine to spruce up tired skin. Up, up and away!}

Non-stop flights are the holy grail of air travel. The faster the arrival, the fewer the airports and the greater the time at your destination, the better.

Recently, Kayak has come out with a new tool aspiring jetsetters will love: direct flight listings from most major airports worldwide. Search by airport and month to determine which airline is going where, organized in a list by distance/time.

The Value Proposition

• Find out what airlines fly non-stop where before you start your vacation flight search online.
• If you're strapped for time or hate flying, decide where you want to go based on direct flight routes.
• See how many airlines compete for each direct route. For example, out of Vancouver in January, 2012: 9 airlines will fly to Toronto, 7 to San Francisco, 5 to Honolulu and 1 to Kauai.
• Say you're about to leave for a 3-month sabbatical in South East Asia, but only have your flight there and back booked. It's helpful to know what direct flights exist from each major city you're visiting to maximize your time at each destination.
• If you want to geek-out, see mileage for shortest and longest flight out of your preferred airport.
• Think of the application to the Amazing Race teams...

PS - Have you heard of Kayak Fly Now? Say it's 5 o'clock somewhere and you decide on a very last-minute trip. Search your home airport and destination, and Kayak will show the next available flights. Even if it's a pipe dream to think we can just pick up and leave on a whim, it's nice to know there'a a travel tool to make that happen. Just in case...

[image by @tripstyler]

Tech Tuesday :: Airline Alliance Apps

{Editor’s Note: Last week we interviewed Dr. Murad, aka the father of internal skin care, and he’s given us a 4-piece Radiant Renewal Kit to give away! Enter here. Contest closes today, August 16, at noon.}

It seems like e-v-e-r-y major airline has an app, except maybe Hawaiian. No complaints here. Aside from the multiple travel apps adorning my iPhone screen like an intricately woven quilt, I haven't found it necessary to install an app like Delta, AA or Alaska each time I fly those airlines. I only install my primary airline's app, and given my homebase is Vancouver, my main squeeze is Air Canada.

But, I will make one airline app exception in the name of loyalty---aka: free flights, upgrades and lounge access---for my preferred airline alliance. Aside from SkyTeam, two major airline alliances it makes sense to be part of in North America, if not worldwide, are OneWorld and Star Alliance.

A few weeks ago the world's first and largest alliance announced their first app: Star Alliance Navigator. It only debuted eight months after OneWorld's but who's counting anyway. After all, it's about quality. The Star Alliance app does a lot of tasks you'd expect it to do: flight status and search, airport info and member airline destination profiles {perfect for when you're flying to Istanbul and haven't had time to research the city}. However, I find this app most valuable for the following features: airport guides and downloadable maps, lounge info and city guides. I'm seriously impressed with the city guides {located in the Airport Info area}. I read through some of the guides for cities I know well and appreciate the level of detail and thorough neighbourhood overviews. My only criticism would be the info appears to be slightly outdated, therefore I'd use it as a starting point, not as your latest and greatest guide.

PS - The OneWorld app, also available on Blackberry, has a flight search as well as showcases partner airlines. Once the flight search results are rendered for your query, it offers a Book Now option, not available in the Star Alliance app, taking you to the partner airline's mobile booking site. This is a nice feature, but I'd prefer to use my Kayak app for flight search. For now, I'll just download Star Alliance's app until OneWorld makes a significant update!

What airline apps are must-haves for you?

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