If you are a frequent flyer, you have probable developed some kind of strategy to make checking in to your flights while on the go somewhat bearable, but mobile travel app
Worldmate now makes it a snap to check in to your flights in a few seconds. The service, which was
acquired by Carlson Wagonlit Travel last year, now notifies you when you can check in to flights and uses the trip info you’ve already
imported into the app to pre-populate many of the fields for most popular airlines. For now, this feature is only available in the iOS app (both the
free and
$9.99 Gold version), but WorldMate CEO Amir Kirshenbaum told me it’s soon coming to the company’s
Android app, too.
The cool thing about the feature is that WorldMate developer Alon Tidha, who built the first version of this tool during his 20% time at the company, found a way to combine the native iOS interface with the airlines’ web-based check-in pages so you can drag and drop information from a small sidebar menu directly into the check-in form. Given the arcane numbers you usually have to type into these forms, that can easily shave a few minutes of the usual process.
While WorldMate could obviously hand code support for most popular sites, this drag and drop tool now allows the company to support every web-based check-in form.
Here is what this looks like in practice:
As Kirshenbaum told me, the company surveyed its users recently and a basic version of the check-in tool – which the company launched quietly a few weeks ago to test this feature – is already among the most popular features in the app. The drag-and-drop menu the company is adding now, however, takes this a bit further.
WorldMate, it’s worth noting, is still very much in charge of developing its own apps and making deals with third-party travel services, even after the acquisition. Carlson Wagonlit, Kirshenbaum told me, gives the company a lot of freedom and the resources to continue to build out its apps to fulfill its mission to become “the ultimate virtual travel assistant.”
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