Travel

Yesterday I read a press release about a new American Airlines application. As usual the release provided no link to the physical application but after searching I was able to find what I was looking for. The new Travel Bag application, provides users with a forum for talking about their travel experiences. It’s pretty much a travel journal for travelers. I can understand the ease of use of uploading Facebook photos via my mobile device but logging in to this application to describe where I’ve been traveling seems a little bit tedious.

Additionally, this application has absolutely no engaging content for me to interact with. If I’m not currently traveling I have absolutely no use for this application. Get this, I can’t even view my friends’ travel logs within the application! I hate to really criticize an application but when you figure American Airlines probably spent $30k building this application, you would hope that they had produced something highly useful.

One commenter on the application’s wall summed it up well:

I’m glad to hear that AA is getting such great reviews. That’s really great. However, I believe that AA would be an even better company if it went bankrupt. From really bad customer service to the computers that are unable to go back and look at previous reservation data, I would recommend this airline to anyone who is looking for a waste of time and money.

I don’t think this commenter spoke for all the users because one or two (possibly seeded) commenters appeared to actually enjoy the application. It’s great to see travel companies making an effort to enter the social networking space but next time they may want to focus on actually making the application social.

If keeping a travel journal sounds like something that would appeal to you on Facebook then go check out the Travel Bag application.

TravelPod.com has launched a number of Facebook applications but this one seems to top the rest. The Traveler IQ Challenge currently has close to 400,000 users and is growing rapidly. There is a reason for the viral growth. The Traveler IQ Challenge application provides users with an interactive way of testing their geographic knowledge.

Various cities and landmarks are displayed and the goal is to click as close as possible to where the place is on the map. The closer and quicker you are to the location, the higher the points. This game is fun and addictive. The best component is the ability to compare your scores to your friends. I am currently ranked 8th out of my 9 friends that have added the application which is pretty embarrassing.

This application should be used by all those intending to launch a game application. Everything about it is well thought out and executed. If you want to waste some time, go grab the Traveler IQ Challenge application. This is an addictive game though so don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Want a quick and easy way to find cheap deals on flights to visit your friends? Smarter Travel just released an application that allows you to find great deals on flights right from your profile. Once you add the application, it will show up in your profile and notify you of any special deals on flights wherever your friends are located. Also if you want to go visit a specific friend all you need to do is enter their name and the dates that you want to go visit them and the program will find the cheapest flight for you. While this is obviously a commercial application, it is well built and could prove useful for those that like to travel a lot. If you want an easy way to find good deals on flights to visit your Facebook friends, grab the Go! application by Smarter Travel.

Have you ever wanted to keep a world map to track all the places you have been? Have you been so many places that all your friends would be impressed? If you answered yes to either of these questions then the new Trip Advisor application is the application for you. Thanks to the team at Trip Advisor (Keith Fitzgerald, Tony Scelfo, Dima Tkach, Barry Revzin, and Jason Haruska) you can now showcase all the places that you have gone. Simply add the application and start adding the names of cities that you have traveled to. All of the places you have been will show up on this Google Maps mashup. While the map doesn’t show up on your profile, a link to the map does display and compared to other travel applications that you need to sign up for, this one requires no registration. Just add the application and start configuring. So if you want to show off all of your world travels to your friends, go grab the Trip Advisor application.