Who's never suffered during an indirect flight? Knowing your plane is going to arrive late and realising you have less and less time to get your connecting flight, until you have so little time you have to dash through the terminal to catch it.
Obviously, you can't do much about your plane arriving late but, once you've landed, having more information about the airport and the flight can get you through the terminal faster and make the difference between catching your connection or not.
Once again, your Smartphone can save you. Take note of the following apps.
GateGuru helps you access the map of the airport you're in or where you're headed. You can therefore prepare your route through the different terminals, to a certain extent. If you have more time, it can also tell you where the different restaurants are located, as well as the leisure and shopping areas, so you can decide what to do with all the information you have at your disposal.
What's the catch? Well, the information available varies widely from airport to airport. For the better documented airports, the stores even send special offers via the application, whereas there's sometimes very limited information on the less well documented terminals. It's also good to know that GateGuru offers some social functions, such as tips on the airport or estimated wait times based on information provided by passengers.
Then there are options such as FlightAware or FlightTrack, which provide real-time information on flights and their itineraries. You can find out if your flight has been delayed or cancelled and even the gate number and terminal where it arrives or is headed. Both have free versions but, in the case of FlightTrack, the paid-for option offers other interesting features, such as alerts, calendar synchronisation and even an offline mode so it can be used in-flight.
All these mobile applications are available for iPhone and Android. Take a look - they might save you quite a dash the next time you visit an airport. By the way, if you're on a business trip, don't forget that you can record your expenses and then report them later to your company using our application, Captio.
