Travel Agents, You Need to Check Out These Apps!

Once upon a time, the typical travel agent’s work day was structured around the traditional office-based 9 to 5 paradigm. Agents’ customer service tools were limited and time consuming.

But technology kept changing the ways agents handled clients’ travel arrangements. Manually tagged flight file cards gave way to electromechanical computers, then to computer-linked teleprinters, followed by smaller and powerful desktop systems.

Modern agents are now mobile travel agents working in business and home offices, the car, or just about anywhere and anytime. Agents use offline, online, and mobile technology to connect with customers and travel industry services 24/7.

Expanding the travel agent’s customer service arsenal

An important advancement in the travel agent’s arsenal of scheduling and services tools is the downloadable app. Apps for travel agents are powerful tools that provide real-time scheduling and assistance to clients and enable agents to grow their businesses. Let’s look at some of the best mobile apps for travel agencies.

• Refund.me – available on iPhone and Android, free. This app from Sabre’s Red App Center is available for travel agents. Flight delays, cancellations, overbooking, and missed connections are inconvenient and potentially costly. Only a small percentage of passengers ever claim recompense to which they might be entitled. Refund.me helps travellers claim their rightful compensation.

• Travelport Mobile Agent – available on iPhone, iTouch, iPad, Android, free (downloadable through the iTunes store). An app that gives agents quick and full access to GDS content. It is accessed through the agent’s valid GDS SignOn. Travelport offers View Trip integration, newsfeed of relevant travel-related articles, customizable keyboard quick keys, and updates that allow full integration with Apollo, Galileo, and Worldspan GDSs. Agents can access/view two terminal windows at the same time.

• TripCase – available on iPhone, Android, free. Make valuable travel information readily available to your clients through the TripCase app. You and your clients will receive real-time alerts on flight status updates, gate changes, delays, and cancellations. TripCase will organize travellers’ itineraries and plans on their mobile devices. Easy to use, clients simply send their trip to the app via an email to trips@tripcase.com; reservations automatically sync with TripCase and any relevant status updates are gathered and communicated to the client.

• mTrip Travel Guides – available on iPhone and Android, free. This popular, award-winning app is designed specifically for travel agents. Your company information and graphic elements are customised to the mTrip app. Clients access your app through the Apple App and Google Play stores. Through your agency-branded app, clients have access to comprehensive travel guides, maps and navigation, and itinerary access through the online travel dashboard via your company website.

• TripScope – available on iPhone, iPad, iPod, iTouch, free. TripScope is a recent entry into the travel apps world. It enables you to create customized itineraries online and send them directly your clients’ smartphones. You can change itineraries in real time, update clients and chat directly with them. TripScope puts various interactive social media platforms to good use, matching the media to the traveller’s itinerary.

Expanding the agent/client relationship

Apps enable you to promote your travel services to a wider client group than ever before. With social media integration (such as through TripScope and mTrip) your company name and website are hyperlinked with every picture, video and post that your clients share.

Apps can provide vital real-time itinerary and travel information; they also can link you and your client for problem resolution and changes to travel plans (Travelport Mobile Agent). Apps are portals through which clients can access practical travel information, state-of-the-art travel guides, and more.

Today’s apps have become essential marketing and service tools. Savvy agents utilise apps to keep and retain clients, and to provide the excellent and far-reaching assistance their clients expect.