The clever apps your fellow road warriors are chatting up make business travel easier than ever before. The likelihood you’re using travel apps depends on the year you were born. While one-fifth of Baby Boomers are resistant to using travel apps, 91% of Millennials and 90% of Gen X business travelers embrace using them.
We’ve curated a list of 15 apps to help you minimize the hassle of business travel across the U.S. and around the globe. (We’re just going to assume you’re already using popular apps like Waze, Google Translate, Uber, Lyft, Yelp and OpenTable.) Here are AmTrav’s best recommendations:
1. Loyalty Programs Tracking: The best way to track your frequent flyer miles, hotel and credit card points is with this one app, AwardWallet. Cost: Free
2. Weather Apps: Hyperlocal weather apps have gotten so accurate, you can discover the exact minute it will start raining wherever you are. There are fans of AccuWeather and fans of Dark Sky. Both apps are available for iOS and Android. To compare and contrast, follow this link: https://versus.com/en/accuweather-vs-dark-sky
3. Flight Delays: Flightaware, FlightStats and Tripit apps provide real-time updates on flight delays, as well as changes to your arrivals or departures. Tripit also will create a master itinerary for you based on your flights and hotel. Cost: Free
4. Travel Lounge Entry: If your Flightaware app has alerted you to a lengthy delay, click on your LoungeBuddy app to view and book entry into any participating lounge worldwide for a one-time charge. Cost: Free
5. Lost Cell Phone Finder: The Prey Anti Theft app helps you find your cell phone, lock it down and trigger an alarm. Cost: Free
6. Where’s the Nearest (Insert Needed Location Here): Whether you want the movie theater, the ATM or a hospital, the AroundMe app will help you find it. Cost: $2.99 for the ad-free version
7. Bathroom Finder: Flush is the app that finds you the nearest public bathroom–from 100,000 public bathrooms worldwide–based on your GPS. Cost: $1.99
8. WiFi Network Worldwide: The Wiffinity app’s information is crowd-sourced to keep you online worldwide with their growing list of Wi-Fi networks and passwords, as provided by users. Cost: Free
9. Currency Conversion: The OANDA Currency converter app will help you spend your legal tender in any country. Cost: Free
10. Parking in the U.S.: The Parkwhiz app will help you find a space in a secure garage or parking lot in 160 cities throughout the U.S. Cost: Free
11. Privacy Protection: For secure messaging with end-to-end encryption, security experts recommend the Signal app. If you want to protect your internet connection while abroad, you’ll need to use a VPN, or virtual private network, which hides your IP address and location. TunnelBear has a free version if you don’t use much data. If you do use a lot of data, they also offer a premium version.
12. Personal Safety: When you’re heading out in an area you don’t know well, the Kitestring app will alert your designated contacts to check in on you if you don’t respond to Kitestring’s pre-scheduled safety check-in within a certain amount of time. Cost: Free (for up to 15 check-in events per month)
13. Business Travel Workouts: ClassPass helps you keep your fitness regime on track no matter where you travel, covering 7,000 gyms and studios worldwide. Cost: The app is free, but the membership rates will vary by city. For example, Chicago pricing ranges from $40 a month to $115 a month.
14. Cheap Phone Calls Worldwide: Skype, Vonage, Whatsapp and Google Hangouts are great, but they all require Wi-Fi. If you want to make affordable phone calls without Wi-Fi or a phone card, try Rebtel. Rebtel “hijacks” the local phone lines to get the best available rates per minute. If those you call also use the app, you can call them for free until 2018!
Cost: Free
15. Trouble Sleeping: The White Noise App offers several different options to drown out the sounds of environmental noises and the person showering next door.
Cost: Free
We hope these apps will help improve your business travel experience. If you have apps to recommend, we’d like to hear your favorites, too. Sound off in the comments below!
By: Denise D.