SAA Launches Mobile Application for Travel Info
South African Airways has launched a new mobile application allowing passengers access to a wealth of useful information from their mobile devices. From the official press release:
Johannesburg. 5 August 2009. South African Airways (SAA) customers can now access comprehensive travel and airline information from just one point of reference, anywhere, anytime, using their cell phone.
The mobile portal, recently launched by SAA, allows travellers to access the following information from a capable cell phone device: airline flight schedules; directions to airline lounges at airports around the world; flight arrival and departure information; and destination information such as weather forecasts for any city in the world and a currency converter.
The new initiative is in partnership with Star Alliance, the international airline network to which SAA belongs. Star Alliance developed the Common IT Mobile Platform, which SAA used to launch its very own portal for customers. SAA is the first airline in Africa to have launched the new service.
The portal is a universal feed able to access information on any airline and destination in the world.
“It’s a single source of information for the traveller. Forget about making unnecessary phone calls or logging on to countless websites to get the information you need while you are on the go. Anywhere, anytime, information about your travels it at your finger tips,” says Mike Re, SAA Chief Information Officer.
Airline customers can also access World Tracer information, which tracks requests made about baggage, through the mobile portal. “This tool allows you track where your baggage request is with an airline and how close it is in the process to being resolved,” says Re.
The portal is accessible by logging on to http://mobile.flysaa.com or http://m.flysaa.com.
The first phase of the initiative is not controlled by usernames and passwords. Once you enter the address, the information needed is readily available with a few clicks and entries.
Once you enter the site, the application automatically scales to the size of the handset being used. “This convenient tool means no more clicking away to find the rest of the page not in your view because of the limited size of your cell phone screen,” says Re.
The portal is currently available in 5 languages; English, German, Spanish, French, and Portuguese.
Tags: SAA
