At the moment the service works with Alaska Airlines, United, Delta, Continental, and U.S. Airways, although more may be added soon as the service grows.

When you search and find the fight and airfare you’re seeking, Yapta then gives you the option to track both the airfare and the award seat availability on specific flights. At any point that a seat is available or the airfare is lowered, Yapta then sends and email to you.

That’s pretty darn handy!

Image: Flickr

Post from: Geeky Traveller

If you have plans to fly British Airways you should be aware of a brand new service that they offer, just launched today. British Airways now offers mobile check-in with global access. It’s a service that is also available in 11 different languages so far, which is a step up from any other similar services.

Designed especially for business travelers (but also handy for vacationers!), you simply use your mobile device to log in at http://www.ba.com/mobile. Check out the British Airways timetable, then choose the seats you want, and even check in.

A press release stated:

“We are proud to be the first UK airline to offer a remote check-in service in 11 languages,” said Chris Carmichael, British Airways innovation and planning manager. “We recognize that our customers have busy lifestyles, and by offering greater accessibility, we hope to enhance their overall travel experience.”

What do you think about checking in remotely? Is it a service you would use?

Photo: Flickr

Post from: Geeky Traveller

Not every airline’s movie choices are everyone’s cup of tea. If you’re a bit nervous about flying, a movie might not even offer enough distraction. If you’re looking for something a bit more interactive to pass the time on your flight, Virgin America has their Red inflight system to entertain you.

Red allows you to play a variety of fun brain games – against other passengers. For instance, you can play a word scramble game with someone ten rows up on the other side of the plane. You can also instant message or full on chat with the others.

If community games aren’t your thing, you can also go back to the standard movie, by choosing from 25 on-demand titles, watch live TV, play solo video games, poke around on Google maps, listen to music, and more.

It’s always fun to hear about tech features airlines are offering for their passengers. Have you tried out Red on Virgin America? Or have you found something equally entertaining on another airline?

Post from: Geeky Traveller

You can also check a timetable with your flight schedule to remind yourself of your itinerary.

The iPhone application pulls in all the same information you’d get on the British Airways website, but with the ease of simply pulling out your phone.

You can download the application – free, the best price ever! – from the iTunes app store.

(Photo: sxc.hu)

Post from: Geeky Traveller

Have you ever come across something that other people have known about for months and you wonder why on earth you didn’t know it existed? That’s exactly how I felt when I learned that you can Google your flight to see how it’s standing (or flying, to be more precise).

You’d think I would have known, considering how much I love Google for anything and everything but apparently they’ve been using a mash-up with FlighStats for ages now to bring you up to the minute information of the status of your flight (or the flight of someone you need to pick up at the airport).

It’s easy as anything. You just go straight to google.com and type in your airline and flight number – so for example, type in “air transat 123″. Hit enter, and the very first result that you’ll see is the one telling you whether the flight is on time or delayed, as well as any other pertinent info such as the departure and arrival times. It can be helpful too, if you have more than one airport in your city (such as New York) because if you can’t remember which one you need to head to in order to pick someone up, you can find out quickly and easily.

Honestly. Updated flight information. Is there *anything* that Google can’t do?!

Post from: Geeky Traveller

The upside of satellite Internet access on flights is that it’s faster and allows access even over the ocean. The downside is that it’s more expensive.

So far, expectations are that it will cost about ten bucks per flight for access for any passenger who wants it.

It’s good that it seems it will be a per-use fee rather than a generic charge added to flight costs because it would be unfair to have passengers pay for a service they have no interest in using.

(photo: sxc.hu)

Whether I would use it or not would depend on my flight. If I’m flying for an hour or two, I might be more inclined to just read a book and keep my laptop snugly stashed in my carry-on luggage. However, if I’m flying a longer distance or if I have some work that needs to be done before I arrive, then I wouldn’t mind paying an extra ten dollars to be able to go online and get some stuff taken care of.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!

Post from: Geeky Traveller