because only ArrivedOK let your family know that you finally landed.

Every major air company these days has some application that sends ‘flight alerts’ of some kind to its passengers’ cell phones. Emirates has it, Ryanair has it, so do others. What an air company basically needs to run a service like that is wiring its flight tracking system with a mobile application that sends required data to the customers: flight delays, booking confirmations, arrival alerts, etc.

In fact, anyone can integrate with Flightstats.com, write a simple app, and get those text alert pulling out via an SMS gateway. It’s not a big deal. However there’s a problem, which Flightstats is pointing at on their website:

There are problems finding reliable sources of real time
flight status data for some of the major and minor carriers…

So there’re data coming from industrial automated flight plan systems… like one of them that failed today:

FAA: System back up after causing flight delays – CNN.com
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/11/19/…
The failed computer system that caused flight delays across the country has been restored, the Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday.

But before they restored it, an air company spokesperson said: “We will be a mess all day.”

So instead of systems like that, ArrivedOK.mobi relies on particular subscriber’s mobile phone status. It really tracks one’s actual appearance in the destination airport.

Besides purely explanatory value, that post is also supposed to have B2B appeal.

An amazing skydiving stunt

A great post by Tim Hughes about the Three (actually more) lies the travel industry keeps telling consumers. Many travelers will find them quite familiar:

“Again and again the travel industry thinks that lying to a customer is the best way out of an uncomfortable situation. As a consumer of online travel I have come across three standard lies that the industry keeps telling me. They are:

1. I would like to help you but “the system” wont let me;

2. The flight/hotel/boat/train is fully booked; and

3. The flight/boat/train is on time.”

Read more: Three lies the travel industry keeps telling consumers (with Qantas, Hilton and Virgin Express examples)

Frequent flyers across the Atlantic know that flights from US to UK in the winter can often arrive 1hr+ early due to tailwinds. This is the case when ArrivedOK may think it is Right Place, Wrong Time situation as described here:

If you turn on your phone in the expected destination but 30+ minutes earlier than your scheduled time, ArrivedOKs will not be delivered and you’ll get an error message.

One of our users suggested a workaround for that issue: you just deliberately set your arrival time in ArrivedOK an hour earlier than your planned arrival. This way you can signal your recipients about your precise landing time.

Another thing you can do is postponing to turn on your mobile phone until your scheduled arrival time, though in that case your recipients will get their alerts later than you land. However, if you want to contact your driver automatically when you arrive, the first hint fits you better.

It’s another time when terrorists tried to blow JW Marriott in Jakarta. Took that picture couple of years ago while staying at that place. There always was a lot of guards around the hotel, however that guy with M-16 didn’t help this time. Our condolences to the victims’ families.