Lucas
We use our smartphones to communicate, navigate, take photos, emails, booking, checking the weather forecast. playing games and many other things. That’s 100% true, but I think you could agree with me, that only really good apps installed on your mobile can bring a valuable user experience. There are millions of apps and only a small percentage is useful, user-friendly and robust. Therefore I always consider as a value if somebody recommends me a good mobile app. Having this in my mind I’m giving you the list of apps which help me to survive each air travel. Read on to know the best flight apps.
Best apps for booking flights
Skyscanner
With Skyscanner you can easily book flights, hotels, and car rentals. It’s all in one place. Skyscanner has a good opinion on Trustpilot. Currently, it’s available in over 31 languages. One of the cool features is a color-coded calendar which helps you find the cheapest time to travel. Another good thing is automatic synchronization of hotel and car hire searches with your flights. You can set Price Alerts which will inform you about flight price changes.
Seatguru
Must have app before you hit the “Buy” button on any flights booking sites! Picking the wrong seat for a long haul flight can cost you a lot, for example, a lot of discomforts. You can read some more on how to pick the best seats in the airplane in my article – you will know then that it’s crucial. Definitely, this app will advise you which seats are ok and which are not the best choice. You will be able to check the seat layout of your plane, location of bathrooms, bars, power supply and many more. I love this app.
Trip.com (former Ctrip)
This is a multi-task tool – you will be able to book with it hotels, flights, train tickets and manage and track your trips. But if you are going to visit China, this is a must-have app. Ctrip app is very popular app there and you can use it to book almost everything via it. What I’ve personally tested is that booking domestic flights in China via Trip is almost 50% cheaper comparing to booking it from Europe.
Best flight apps before you will go to the airport
PackPoint
This useful app will help you pack all your stuff and don’t forget anything. The app suggests to you what you should take for an international trip depending on the type of your trip (business or leisure). It even checks the weather forecast to let you know if you will need an umbrella or warm clothes… literally, it takes care of your packaging 🙂 Ok, there are some hacks which are not covered by this app. To know these secrets you should read my article about how to pack for a business trip.
AccuWeather
If the weather feature from PackPoint does not fulfill your needs you should try AccuWeather. It comes with useful widgets in Android version. Generally, it’s one of the most popular weather apps and was ranked as the world’s most accurate source of weather forecasts in the categories of wind, precipitation, and high-temperature forecasts.
Best flight apps at check-in and at the gate
Pass wallet
Download: N/A | Android
Used to store and display your boarding passes. Sometimes annoys me but has some good features like searching through the whole device to detect your boarding pass. It is used by many European airlines, especially low-cost ones. Still on my list, still in my “Best flight apps” directory, but we will see in future… 🙂
Flightradar24
Really good one. Use it each time for connections to the hubs or domestic / European flights. You can easily see what is the status of a previous flight when it will arrive if it’s delayed and many more data. What’s important – it’s all online. Easy search by route or flight number. One of the must-have app for frequent flyers.
Miles and more
If you are participating in Miles & More loyalty programme from Star Alliance this app should be on your list. It has the electronic version of your card, shows follow-up of miles you have earned, displays your status and offers deals on spending and earning additional miles. A really good feature is Lounge Finder – by two clicks you can check if the airport offers the Star Alliance’s lounge services.
Tripit
I was looking for an app which will allow me to track my flights. It’s easy with this app – just simply forward your confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com and that’s it. It will happen automatically if you will allow TripIt to automatically import travel plans from your Gmail, Google Apps, Outlook.com or Yahoo! mail inbox. Works even if internet connection is lost. You can sync it with your calendar, so you can easily share your itinerary with your family. Worth to have it on board.
Best flight apps in the air
You can ask me why the hell Instagram is on the list of best flight apps?! That’s why:
Whenever you take a window seat, you have some great opportunities to take awesome pictures. Then using Instagram’s professional filters you can make the photo even greater. So my tip is to have Instagram with you on each air trip.
Netflix
Netflix is something that will help you to turn the long boring flight into pleasure. Ok, I’m kidding, but at least you will focus on something different than the noise of airplane’s engine, snoring of your neighbor or any other flight pleasures 🙂 Usually, the onboard entertainment system is updated each month so you can find there many good movies, music or TV shows but the advantage of Netflix is that you can search what you really like (tv series for example), download it and watch on board.
Pocket enables you to save the website content and give’s you access to it not depending on internet connection. It’s pretty useful. Imagine you are reading a good article and just after you take your seat on a plane you have to switch off internet connection in your mobile. What you can do is to save the article in the Pocket app and you will have the access to this article even offline.
2048
Another app to kill some time in the air. By moving bricks left, right, up and down you need to sum the figures to 2048. Be careful – it’s very addictive. My personal record:
Best flight apps just after landing
Airhelp
Download: You can download Airhelp for both iOS and Android from Airhelp site.
If your flight is late for more than 3 hours or is canceled you can apply for flight delay compensation. Airhelp is the company that helps you to deal with it in the easiest possible way – using the app. Just scan your boarding card with Airhelp App and that’s it. They work in no win, no fee model, so it costs you nothing. This is the easiest way to apply for compensation but you can try to do it on your own. You can read about it in my article: Plane delay compensation step by step.
ExpressVPN
Download: You can download ExpressVPN for both iOS and Android from ExpressVPN site.
Imagine you arrive in China and just after landing you want to contact your family using WhatsApp, send an email to your friend via Gmail or maybe you would like to check-in with Facebook. No chance for that. These apps are blocked in China. The only way to get around it is to use VPN app – you can read some more about that in my article Using WhatsApp in China. I’m using ExpressVPN and it works perfectly. Tip: if you are going to use VPN app in China, make sure to install it in your home country.
TripAdvisor
Just after landing you will be hungry. I always use TripAdvisor app to check the best restaurants in my neighborhood and usually I do not regret it. My tip is that you should always make a call in advance to book a table. You are not the only one who’s hungry and looking for a good restaurant 🙂
Uber
If you are not going to use a rental car and there is no pickup waiting for you, Uber is the best choice. Especially in countries where it is risky to drive like China or India unless you are native. Uber is an easy and user-friendly app. The best thing is that you know more-less the final price of your fare. This is a huge advantage compared to the taxi service. If you decide to go with a taxi, there is always a risk that the driver will use the fact that you don’t know the city and will cheat on the fare. With Uber, you are secure from that.
Featured image source: pixabay.com