Travel Industry News
Smartphones have changed the way we travel
Friday, 05, March 2010
Business traveler Mike Monroe no longer rummages through his bag at the airline counter fishing for his flight ticket or confirmation number.The consultant from Lakeland, Fla., has gone paperless, thanks to Continental Airlines' electronic boarding passes. Once he checks in online, the carrier e-mails a bar code to his phone. That code is scanned at security checkpoints and gates instead of a boarding pass. "It takes away a lot of annoyances.
"Monroe also uses his BlackBerry for airlines' flight-change alerts, routing all calls into one number provided by Google Voice, turn-by-turn driving directions when he's behind the wheel and watching TV on Slingbox when he has downtime.He also carries an iPod Touch — like an iPhone but without the phone — to make international calls using Skype, get the latest sports scores and weather from Viigo and access Urbanspoon's reviews of nearby restaurants. "Nothing really cutting edge," Monroe says, "but I'm just trying every day to reduce the stress."
