Travelling by air is fraught with uncertainties, from delays to cancellations to lost bags. Savvy travellers can already use Delaycast to assess their chances of having to wait longer than they'd planned, and now another brand-new service helps them notify the people who matter to them once they finally land safely on the ground.
ArrivedOK, a new service from Texas-based Eyeline Communications, lets air travellers automatically alert others that they've arrived at their destination. Users of the service, which just entered public beta, begin by scheduling their flight with the destination airport and expected arrival time, along with the phone numbers or emails of the contacts they'd like to be notified once they arrive. They can also compose personalized messages to be sent to different groups of recipients. They turn off their mobile phone during the trip, as generally required; then, when their plane lands and they turn it back on, ArrivedOK tracks their cell phone in the mobile network and instantly sends those tailored ‘Arrived OK’ messages to the designated recipients via SMS, email, Twitter or the user's blog. (Recipients must subscribe to a GSM/UMTS network for phone notification.) ArriveOK's technology is even smart enough to discern when a user turns on their phone much earlier than expected—indicating a problem—or when they turn it on in a country other than the one that was planned; in both cases, recipients are not notified, and the user receives an error message instead. The overall result? Not just a simpler and easier process on the traveller's part, but also a much less expensive one, since ArrivedOK alerts are three to eight times cheaper than calling or texting from abroad, Eyeline says.
ArrivedOK is being beta-tested in 10 countries—Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Russia, South Africa and Spain—through the end of May, and is free during that time. One to try out, partner with, or otherwise get involved in?
Website: www.arrivedok.mobi/hello
Contact: andrey.deriabin@eyeline.mobi
Spotted by: Judy McRae
This is a standard feature for travellers on Singapore Airlines. And it is for free (the airline sends the message on behalf of the traveller to the chosen family/friends list). Other airlines need to wake up!
Delaycast is off-line and has been for some time. Please stay current with trends.
ArrivedOK Facebook application is out now: http://apps.facebook.com/arrivedok
BTW I flew with Singapore Airlines thousand times and they do not provide that service.
At my office we get www.skylounge.com for free to track flights which are sent to my mobile. Many times I add arrival notification too. It's really geared toward business travelers. The nice thing is that you can copy in your assistant or travel agent. If you're in the air and will miss the connecting flight they can re-book everything for you. The downside is that you can't lookup your flight number online. You need to copy it from you confirmation.