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Mobile internet devices are enhancing savvy passengers travel experiences that used to focus exclusively on finding cheap airplane tickets, cheap vacation packages, and discount hotel rooms. Now some airlines are starting to email travelers with smartphones their boarding passes. These devices can also be used to look up maps and travel guides online as well as check aircraft seat configurations, track taxis, request early hotel check in, and order room service. Software developers are offering new services daily, including location based apps that use a phone’s GPS to establish the user’s location and then offer location specific discounts and recommend products. Other apps provide information based on travelers past experiences. Airlines and hotels reports that reservations made via smartphones are growing significantly at the same time that sales over more established sales channels have remained relatively flat. Faster network speeds have contributed to this growing phenomenon as has the trend to combine previously distinct portable units, such as personal laptops, GPS, digit cameras, and PDAs into a single device. Sophisticated travelers now have the equivalent of personal computers in their hands. 71 percent of frequent travelers in 2008 used smartphones for business while on trips; with 62 percent saying they used these phones for leisure reasons, according to a PhoCusWright survey. In ’08 airlines, hotels and car rental companies each saw less than $20 million in direct reservations made via cell phone. In 2010 hotels alone are expect to have mobile phone sales of $76 million, with airlines selling $61 million and car rental companies $23 million. Paperless electronic boarding passes are now being used by at selected airports by American, Continental and Delta Airlines as well as several smaller airlines. Customers can request to have bar coded boarding passes emailed to their smartphones and go directly to security checkpoints where screeners scan the code on their phone to match their ID. www.cheapfares.com
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