This month I’m pleased to welcome Michele from Turning Left for Less, a website focused on bringing you regular features on travelling in luxury for less. Michele will make sure you get value for your hard earned money when you spend it on travel.
Something that seems a steal may not be really a bargain if you are getting an inferior product. The website features the latest news and offers on luxury travel for flights, hotels, loyalty programs and more. Michele also regularly reviews luxury hotels, business and first class flights.
Best Apps for Stress Free Travel!
MyFlights
If you only download one app to use during your travels this should be it.
My Flights lets you look up and save flight bookings to your iPhone or iPad for offline viewing. However the most important feature is that My Flights can automatically check your booking to see if it has changed since you last looked at it.
The app will always be up to date, and will notify you of any changes to your booking. So why is this important? If you have ever booked a specific seat only to arrive at the airport and find your seat has changed then you will know why.
Airlines do not normally notify you if your seat has been changed but My Flights does. Just this week Finnair changed every seat I had booked on 4 flights and I instantly got notified. My Flights gives you an early heads up to see if you can change your seat if the new one isn’t to your liking. If you leave it until the airport, it will most likely be too late.
My Flights is also useful for schedule changes as it will often notify you before the airline does, again allowing you time to change your plans if necessary. Plus, there is no risk of losing the email to the junk folder!
Seat Guru
SeatGuru have mapped out the seat plans of every commercial plane and marked which seats to get and which to avoid. Now you can even enter your flight information and SeatGuru will show you your flight’s seat map.
It colour codes the seats in red, amber and green for which ones are especially good such as extra leg room and ones that have an issue such as a toilet nearby or a missing window.
If you haven’t used Seat Guru for a while it has improved over the last couple of years. It now has comments and photos of the seats from travellers. Seat Guru also explains what amenities you will get at your seat like in seat power and what type of seat it is such as angled lie flat or flat bed.
I nearly always check the app before I book a flight unless I am totally sure what seats are on the aircraft. Business class seats can vary enormously even within the same airline or on the same route. Don’t book your seat without checking it first! The app can be very useful on the go if there is a last minute aircraft change so you can check the new configuration. It is free and available for iPhone and Android phones as well as a full web site version.
Flight Aware
FlightAware is available as both a website and an app (Android | iOS) and is similar to Flight Radar 24. It can show you the real-time flight status and location of any commercial flight worldwide.
This is very useful when travelling if you have some kind of delay due to an inbound aircraft. Often by using these types of apps you can find out more information than they will give you at the airport!
It also shows you the number of delays and cancellations at each airport by day as well as the aviation weather forecasts.
This can give you a valuable heads up as to whether your journey is likely to be disrupted, as frequently the airline won’t let you know until you are at the gate.
You can sign up to be a member for free as well which lets you setup flight alerts to be sent to your mobile phone or email.
Gate Guru
The gate guru app (Android |iOS) was originally aimed more at the US market but has expanded its range of airports to be useful to all travellers.
It is designed more for use as you are travelling rather than pre-planning. If you input your flight details it will keep you up to date things such as security wait times, flight delays and gate changes.
I find it most useful when flying within or from the US, particularly for connections.
The other main feature is being able to find out information about airports you are travelling through. The app has amenity information such as restaurants, maps, weather forecasts and airport tips.
[…] This month I’m pleased to welcome Michele from Turning Left for Less, a website focused on bringing you regular features on travelling in luxury for less. Michele will make sure you get value for your hard earned money when you spend it on travel….. Read More. […]