6 Essential Apps for the Modern Business Traveler
Business travelers spend a lot of their time on the go, and mobile technology has made their lives infinitely more productive while on the road. Turn your phone into the ultimate lifeline with these essential apps for the modern business traveler: stay organized, relax, arrange transportation, quickly adapt to your destination, and manage your expenses all on the go, creating a more seamless and less stressful travel experience.
TripIt
This app allows you to track the details of your trip and your itinerary, such as plane, hotel, and ground transportation information. You can also add in meetings, restaurants, attractions, activities, etc. The handy tool allows you to input all your travel information and store it in one place. You can also share your itinerary with others who also have the app, making it easy to coordinate schedules with your colleagues on the go. It’s as easy as forwarding your confirmation emails to the app, and it takes care of the rest.
Available for: iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry
Price: Basic is free, pro is $49/year
GateGuru
GateGuru boasts an easy to read interface that summarizes all your flight info, for current and future journeys. Its best feature is that it provides real time updates on your itinerary through its JourneyCard feature, including security times, flight delays, gate changes, layover times and any adjustments that are made to your flight schedule. Its AirportCard feature provides airport info, amenity information, maps, weather forecasts, and many more for your designated airport. Additionally, its Amenity List is a great feature for layovers; based on your flight information, it shows eateries, shops and services in or around your terminal. One cool feature for frequent travelers – GateGuru tracks your travels, showing total miles flown, airports visited, and other travel stats.
Available for: iPhone, Android, Windows Phone
Price: Free
Priority Pass
Priority Pass is a service that boasts over 900 lounges in more than 400 cities around the world. Pro tip: If you have an AMEX Platinum Card, you have access to the Priority Pass network. The advantage this service provides is that you can fly any airline in any class and still enjoy the lounge experience, which includes complimentary drinks, refreshments, snacks and finger foods, and free WIFI. The app has a Digital Membership Card, which provides access to the lounges in the network. You can use the app to search for lounges, rate lounges, save lounges as favorites, and activate your GPS to quickly find a lounge in airports you are unfamiliar with. Prices for membership range between an annual fee of $99-$399.
Available for: iPhone, Android, Blackberry
Price: App is free with membership
Uber
By now, we’re all familiar with how Uber works. For those who aren’t, this is the basic rundown: You get on the app, request a ride, track the arrival time on your phone, and the app charges your credit card automatically when your ride is over. However, the app has just released a new feature that makes business travelers life a lot easier. It allows you to separate business and personal rides using Business Profiles. Simply switch profiles to pay with your business credit card, and easily expense them by getting a weekly or monthly report detailing your rides to your work e-mail. For those who use Concur, the company offers Uber to Business, which syncs both apps to make sure the trip is within Travel Policy, makes expense reporting easier and bills your employer automatically.
Available for: iPhone, Android
Price: Free
TripLingo
This is an excellent tool for international travelers. It offers a voice translator tool that instantly translates your voice into another language, as well as takes the response and translates it back to English. The app also offers a phrasebook that includes formal, casual, and slang options for over 2,000 phrases in every language. Additionally, there are some handy extra tools, such as a tip calculator, culture notes to understand basic etiquette and cultural manners, safety tools, a WIFI dialer, and learning tools like quizzes and flashcards.
Available for: iPhone, Android
Price: Free with additional in app purchases
Concur
When it comes to expense management and travel solutions Concur is king, and the truth is, your company probably already uses it. Concur for Mobile allows you to manage anything expense or travel related, from booking and managing itineraries to capturing receipts and submitting expense reports. It lets you to take a picture of your receipts with your smart phone so there’s no need to save them, and uploads IRS compliant images directly to expense reports and get immediate approval from managers. It also makes it easy to stay within policy when booking travel, letting you book travel on-the-go from your smart phone or tablet.
Available for: iPhone, Android
Price: Free for Concur users
