The title may sound like an oxymoron, I mean, how happy can you be when travelling, if you don’t own your own personal jet or eye-candy stewards to serve you freshly squeezed juice, and centre filled chocolates with a gentle shoulder rub thrown in for good measure?

But funnily and also thankfully enough, airports have realised that an unhappy traveller comes a close second, to a plane full of screaming babies, hence the recent shift towards travel friendly airports.

Since I am currently based in Singapore I shall talk about the airport that I am most familiar with. Changi Airport offers free wifi at all four of their terminals. Now travellers can surf the net, log on to their office network, if they are suddenly overcome with love for their jobs, or more realistically, check their personal email, update their blogs, Facebook account and register and update their ArrivedOK account. With over 400 free internet kiosks and 80 laptop Ethernet access points located throughout the terminal lounges and transit areas, Changi Airport offers everyone in the vicinity wireless broadband, keeping us happy and connected.

This shift towards being contact-able on the go is great news. There used to be a time when I would have to lug a whole bag of coins to call home while waiting the requisite three hours before boarding. On days that I forgot my bag of change, I used to stare at the worn out linoleum on the floor until my eyes crossed and vision blurred. Thankfully now there are much more constructive things for travellers to do with their time. Of course the luxury of free wifi and air-conditioning is still a foreign concept in some countries, so if you have any horror or happy airport experiences to share, please do, because I would love to have a list of airports I should avoid or at least come armed with an arsenal of entertainment, so as not to go crazy with boredom.

As the saying goes about too much of a good thing…., Its now come to a point, that airports have become such wonderful places to be at, that non travellers seem to prefer to while away their free-time napping or reading magazines while sipping coffee, making it no longer a place no longer exclusive to those of us toting boarding passes.

If this trend continues, one day genuine travellers will no longer have anywhere to hangout at during the three excruciatingly long hours until boarding, what with all the seats taken up by the non travelling riff-raff surfing the net on the mobile phones while sipping their cup of expresso!

What media air travelers choose to inform their friends and relatives about their flights, provided with a choice between SMS, email and social media? See our latest stats on that topic.

ArrivedOK is the service that notifies your designated recipients about your arrival to airports worldwide. ArrivedOK doesn’t do this by tracking flights, it does it by tracking your cell phone when you switch it on in your destination. Once it has been detected as on in the visiting mobile network the arrival notifications are sent out automatically. Users can choose how to send those alerts – by SMS, email, or via social media/networks.

And here comes the interesting part – what media air travelers choose to deliver their arrival alerts? Our latest stats say that despite all that social media buzz, people still prefer SMS and good old email. Perhaps because email notifications are free of charge at ArrivedOK, one might say, but that’s not the case: ArrivedOK provides all social media alerts for free too but they show dramatically lower popularity.

Here is the percentage of all ArrivedOK arrival notifications by media channels (March 2009 – January 2010):

LinkedIn is not included in the stats as we just integrated recently.

One thing could explain the popularity of SMS among our users – ArrivedOK text alerts are remarkably cheaper than roaming text tariffs, but that does not explain the lower usage of social media services, which are completely free.

We would say that Twitter is doing fine, Facebook is overrated, and Blogspot and LiveJournal numbers reflect the decline of blogging.

This is basically European stats as we don’t currently provide the service in the United States and China (though we’re working on it).

ArrivedOK website – http://www.arrivedok.mobi
ArrivedOK Partnership – http://partners.arrivedok.mobi

ArrivedOK is now working with LinkedIn, which is going to make both ArrivedOK and LinkedIn more powerful for you.

When you set your arrival alerts on ArrivedOK you can now make them appear in your LinkedIn status immediately after landing, letting your colleagues and business contacts know where you are in real time – without using your mobile or smartphone onboard. You can also customize your message to your LinkedIn connections, making it different from arrival alerts delivered to your friends, family, or posted to your personal blog.

Let the places you travel contribute to your professional identity on the web. Work, business or leisure, your trips bring important information about who you are, what you do, and how you do it. Show your followers that you’re a smart traveler.

How does ArrivedOK work with LinkedIn?

When you want to share your arrival details with a broader audience via LinkedIn (posting to Facebook, blogs and Twitter is also available) – go to your ArrivedOK Preferences and connect LinkedIn to your Profile.

When creating your arrival message, go to ‘Post to blog/network’ section, check ‘LinkedIn’ box and type your message if you want. That message will appear in your LinkedIn status right at the moment you turn on your phone upon your arrival, altogether following our standard ‘I arrivedOK in…’ text.

So go ahead and get started. Link your ArrivedOK and LinkedIn accounts today.

Permalink: http://blog.arrivedok.mobi/&post=1347

ArrivedOK introduces invites and badges.

Invite your friends and earn free credits when they subscribe to ArrivedOK and make a purchase. Got a blog or webpage? Place our badge on your website and earn free credits too.

If you’re a registered user of ArrivedOK, you can now earn bonus credits and use the service for free. You don’t even have to purchase a service package to make it happen – if any user comes to ArrivedOK from your webpage or via your invitation and buys a package, you receive free credits. Its as simple as that. The more users you attract, the more credits you get.

We are giving away 3 credits for a package purchase. This is worth 3 arrivals tracking, or 3 SMS alerts, or 1 arrival with 2 alerts, and so on. The formula is simple: 3=1+1+1.

Choose, whichever work best for you: invites or badges. If you’re a prominent blogger with a large following and heavy traffic, we would recommend badges as your best option. If you just want to share info about ArrivedOK with your fellow travelers, we recommend using the invites.

If anyone buys our (competitively priced) Economy Class or Frequent Flyer package, you get your free credits, which you can use to notify your friends and family about your arrivals anywhere. This is particularly good news for those of you who were not too pleased when ArrivedOK went commercial (yes we do read your emails and feedback).

And one more thing (attention Twitter and Facebook users!). All badges are linked to ArrivedOK with your user ID in the URL so we know which users come from you. You can actually use your unique URL wherever you like (even without a badge – in your tweets, emails, posts, etc.) to attract more subscribers and earn your free credits.

Not subscribed to ArrivedOK yet? You can do it here.

So, share and enjoy. Merry Xmas and…
Happy Landings!

As probably many people out there, we at ArrivedOK are waiting for the premiere of Up in the Air -- a movie about “an emotionally disconnected air traveler’s pursuit of 1 million frequent flier miles”, as someone put it.

Release date: 25 February 2010 (Russia).

There’s another funny trailer here at YouTube, where the characters are sitting at an airport lounge, tossing their frequent flyer cards and asking intimate questions about each other’s air miles balance. Very romantic :)

Ryan Bingham/George Clooney: How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you’re carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life… you start with the little things. The shelves, the drawers, the knickknacks, then you start adding larger stuff. Clothes, tabletop appliances, lamps, your TV… the backpack should be getting pretty heavy now. You go bigger. Your couch, your car, your home… I want you to stuff it all into that backpack. Now I want you to fill it with people. Start with casual acquaintances, friends of friends, folks around the office… and then you move into the people you trust with your most intimate secrets. Your brothers, your sisters, your children, your parents and finally your husband, your wife, your boyfriend, your girlfriend. You get them into that backpack, feel the weight of that bag. Make no mistake your relationships are the heaviest components in your life. All those negotiations and arguments and secrets, the compromises. The slower we move the faster we die. Make no mistake, moving is living…