iPhone ‘Apps’ Of The Week : BA Flights & Qantas Mobile (yes, there are two this week)

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2/10/2008 – iPhone ‘Apps’ Of The Week : BA Flights & Qantas Mobile (yes, there are two this week)

While I do not fly either British Airways (BA) or Qantas (QF) with any regularity, these two OneWorld Alliance airlines make up this weeks pair of iPhone ‘Apps’ Of The Week. These two intertwined global airlines had the foresight to release user friendly, highly functional and reliable iPhone ‘Apps’ to meet the needs of their customers. British Airways’ iPhone App was released just days before Qantas’ App, releasing what I believe is the first App released by an airline!

There are quite a few travel ‘Apps’ I have played with that show schedules and flight status, however these pair of ‘Apps’ offer more detail and more reliable results in some cases for their respective flights

The BA Flights ‘App’ offers Arrivals/Departures, Online Timetables and a direct link to ba.com to book flights off of your iPhone. I have found that checking the Arrivals/Departures schedules against live flight data; the BA Flights ‘App’ is often slightly more accurate than other online sources. As another resource for travelers making their travel plans at a hurried pace, the Online Timetables time-and-time again offered me a more detailed choice of BA flights than most online booking sites when looking at uncommon routes, and short-haul routes. The information available for the flights listed on the Online Timetable loads rapidly, is easy to understand and offers quite a bit of detailed info on each flight, above what you’ll find on many online booking sites.

Qantas Mobile not only offers Arrival/Departure and Timetable information, it also has a very useful resource for the business traveler…a complete list and detailed information for each lounge Qantas flyers may use around the world. This tool is fantastic when traveling through an airport you are unfamiliar with, or using a lounge that is available to Qantas flyers but not operated by Qantas. The information for these airports is broken down to avoid confusion (such as listing LAX T4 and LAX Tom Bradley separately). For each lounge the Qantas Mobile ‘App’ lists the location in the terminal, the hours it is available to Qantas flyers, the lounge phone number & fax number, the facilities available in the lounge and the name of the airline that operates the lounge.

While these ‘Apps’ may not be useful for those who do not fly either British Airways or Qantas, these ‘Apps’ certainly are a must have for anyone who flies with either carrier.

Both BA Flights and Qantas Mobile are free in the iTunes Store.

Hopefully other airlines will follow the lead from these two OneWorld airlines and release their own ‘Apps.’ In an ideal world, maybe an airline alliance would be forward thinking and release a similar type ‘App’ covering all the airlines in their alliance.

Below are a few screen shots from both BA Flights and Qantas Mobile

Happy Flying!
–Click Images Below To Enlarge Them–