Brings on-the-go flight search and booking to hundreds of millions of mobile device users.
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) September 29, 2011
Hipmunk, the travel search site, today announced the availability of its innovative flight search for mobile devices running the Android operating system. Following Hipmunk’s successful launch of the iOS applications this year, the Android App is a native app designed to feel at home on Android. Radically different from other travel apps on Android, the Hipmunk Android app was built to respect the uniqueness of the platform and users’ expectations from device. The Hipmunk Android app helps users find and book the best flights faster and more reliably and is available for free on the Android Market.
Features of the Hipmunk Android App include:
- Flight results displayed in the same visual timeline Hipmunk site users know and love;
- Flights automatically sorted by “Agony,” a combination of flight duration, number of layovers, and price, with the option to sort by flight price, duration, departure and arrival time;
- At-a-glance WiFi information;
- Multiple booking options, including directly with many airlines;
- Booking through the mobile browser, or a finish code to book later from a computer;
- Ability to email search results to a friend, family member, or colleague;
- Android “back button” compatibility to dismiss results;
- Saved searches that allow users to easily flip between up to five recent searches to find their best travel options.
“More travelers are turning to their mobile devices to search, modify, and book flights, and we’re seeing this reflected in our own Hipmunk traffic, where about 20% of our searches come from mobile devices,” said Adam Goldstein, CEO Hipmunk. “With the Android market continuing its rapid growth, we’re excited to streamline the mobile experience for our loyal users and bring our unique flight search to Android’s over 100 million users.”
In keeping with Hipmunk’s vision to provide travelers with the best flight search experience possible, Hipmunk designed the Android app interface to allow users to navigate the app more intuitively. The “back button” works well to dismiss search results, rather than a graphical back arrow like iOS, and the email and sending options have a distinctly Android feel.
“There’s no technological reason that Android apps can’t be just as good, if not better, than iOS apps,” said Ryan Oldenburg, Android Developer at Hipmunk. “And, as an avid Android user, I was determined to prove that, by developing an app that fit well into Android and wasn’t just a clone of our iOS app.”
The Hipmunk Android App is available for free from the Android Market here.
About Hipmunk
Hipmunk is a remarkable new travel search site that takes the pain out of travel planning. With its innovative “Agony” and “Ecstasy” sorts, Hipmunk presents flight results in a visual ”timeline” and hotel results on a map, allowing people to select the best flight for them at a glance and view where in a destination they will be staying. Hipmunk is one of Budget Travel’s “Top 10 Most Useful Websites,” Inc.’s “Best Booking Website,” TIME Magazine’s “50 Coolest Websites,” and Travel + Leisure’s “Best Websites of 2011.” Co-founders Adam Goldstein and Steve Huffman were named to Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s “Top Tech Entrepreneurs” and Inc.’s “30 Under 30” lists. The company launched in 2010, is based in San Francisco, and has funding from Ignition Partners, Y Combinator, SV Angel, Webb Investment Network, Quest Hospitality Ventures, and several angel investors. For more information and to book your next flight or hotel, please visit Hipmunk.com.
Media Contacts:
Jacqueline Tanzella, Hipmunk
415-794-1118
Jacqueline(at)hipmunk(dot)com
###
Jacqueline Tanzella
jacqueline@hipmunk.com
415-794-1118
Email Information
Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/hipmunk-launches-android-flight-search-application-130304421.html
Hipmunk, a year-old travel startup with a focus on flight and hotel search, has released a mobile app for Android devices.
Hipmunk for Android mirrors the aesthetic of the Hipmunk website and the feature set of the previously released iPhone application, but it’s created from scratch to offer an experience unique to Android.
[More from Mashable: Bump Hits 50 Million Downloads; What’s Being Shared? [INFOGRAPHIC]]
The Android app features flight results sorted by “agony” and “ecstasy” — the company’s custom algorithms are designed to surface the most enjoyable flights. App users can sort by flight price, duration, departure and arrival time, view if there’s Wi-Fi on board, save searches, and book travel directly with airlines or third-party services like Orbitz.
Hipmunk joins other travel-booking apps, including ones from Travelocity and Kayak, in the Android Market.
[More from Mashable: CTRL + C Your Way to Instant Search Queries Social Sharing]
“There was a fair amount of pressure on us to do an Android version,” Hipmunk co-founder and CTO Steve Huffman tells Mashable. Huffman says that the startup was reluctant to build an Android app at first. “I was a naysayer of the whole thing … because there weren’t very many good Android apps out there.”
So Hipmunk hired Android developer Ryan Oldenburg to tackle the challenge. “He’s got this chip on his shoulder about the quality of Android apps, and he’s determined to make Android apps that are just as good as iPhone apps,” Huffman says.
The investment in Android is likely to pay off for the young travel startup. Already, 20% of all Hipmunk searches happen via mobile devices and search-to-buy conversion rates on mobile are on par with website conversion rates — and that’s without an application on Android.
Why is Hipmunk so popular with web and mobile flight searchers? Huffman says it comes down to a commitment to offering the best possible search experience.
“There aren’t any options online where users aren’t being abused by the services that they’re trying to use — specifically travel,” Huffman says. “We care very much about the experience the user is going to have … whether it’s on the site or on a phone.”
Next up, Huffman says, Hipmunk plans to add hotel search to all of its mobile applications and release updates to the website.
Hipmunk has raised roughly $5 million in funding. Huffman says the startup is bringing in revenue and not looking to raise an additional round at this time.
Image courtesy of Flickr, San Diego Shooter
This story originally published on Mashable here.
Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/hipmunk-flight-search-takes-off-android-090647503.html
Hawaiian Airlines has some snazzy low fares as part of their current sale for fall/winter travel. Depart from Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, Las Vegas, and Seattle. Dates will vary by route, and all tickets must be booked by October 3.
Fares available for roundtrip travel between Las Vegas, NV and Honolulu, HI from 11/21-12/13/11 1/5-2/9/12. Fares available for roundtrip travel between Los Angeles, CA and Honolulu, HI from 11/21-12/13/11 1/5-2/9/12. Fares available for roundtrip travel between Oakland, CA, Sacramento, CA, San Francisco, CA and San Jose, CA and Honolulu, HI from 11/21-12/13/11 1/5-2/9/12. Fares available for roundtrip travel between Phoenix, AZ and Honolulu, HI from 11/21-12/13/11 1/5-2/9/12. Fares available for roundtrip travel between Portland, OR and Honolulu, HI from 11/21-12/13/11 1/5-2/9/12. Fares available for roundtrip travel between San Diego, CA and Honolulu, HI from 11/21-12/13/11 1/5-2/9/12. Fares available for roundtrip travel between Seattle, WA and Honolulu, HI from 11/21-12/13/11 1/5-2/9/12. Fares available for roundtrip travel between Portland and Kahului, HI from 11/21-12/13/11 1/5-2/9/12. Fares available for roundtrip travel between Seattle, WA and Kahului, HI from 11/21-12/13/11 1/5-2/9/12. Fares available for roundtrip travel between Las Vegas, NV and Kahului, HI from 11/21-12/13/11 1/5-2/9/12. Fares available for roundtrip travel between Oakland, CA and San Jose, CA and Kahului, HI from 11/21-12/13/11 1/5-2/9/12
Fares include:
Las Vegas to Honolulu $390 round-trip, incl. all taxes
Los Angeles to Honolulu $412 round-trip, incl. all taxes
Oakland to Honolulu $346 round-trip, incl. all taxes
Phoenix to Honolulu $410 round-trip, incl. all taxes
Portland to Honolulu $362 round-trip, incl. all taxes
Sacramento to Honolulu $410 round-trip, incl. all taxes
San Diego to Honolulu $370 round-trip, incl. all taxes
San Francisco to Honolulu $412 round-trip, incl. all taxes
San Jose to Honolulu $410 round-trip, incl. all taxes
Seattle to Honolulu $372 round-trip, incl. all taxes
For more great fares to Hawaii, visit our fares pages for Kahului-Maui.
Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/hawaiian-sale-fall-winter-travel-120706723.html
It’s time to cut taxi fares, says Alan Fels.
Source: HWT Image Library
TAXI fares should be slashed to improve service and stem the decline in passenger numbers.
The cost of cab fares was a major contributor to passenger dissatisfaction and was driving people away, taxi inquiry chief Prof Allan Fels said yesterday.
Do we pay too much for cabs? Have your say below
Releasing an update of submissions, he said the complicated licensing structure – there were too many hands in the till – was largely responsible for siphoning off profits and ensuring drivers were poorly paid.
An estimated $4 of every $20 cab fare went to licence holders who had no direct input into the taxi industry.
Prof Fels would not be drawn on how much taxi fares should fall, but overhauling the licence regime could see fares fall by a fifth.
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Prof Fels’ comments contradict the Victorian Taxi Association, which wants fares to rise at least 12 per cent to stem the flow of drivers leaving the industry.
The inquiry has identified possible potential changes including:
INTRODUCING a more flexible, hybrid service that’s a cross between a taxi and a bus.
GIVING poorly paid drivers a bigger slice of the profits.
CHEAPER and more flexible taxi options catering to the disabled, low-income earners and young people forced to drive or walk instead of catching a cab.
CONSIDERING a London style mini-cab hire system.
Prof Fels said public satisfaction with the city’s taxis was at a record low, with the high cost of fares a major contributing factor.
“The high cost of fares seems to be driving people away,” he said.
“They want cheaper, more flexible customer-focused transport options that meet their needs.”
While conceding the quality of many poorly paid drivers, and customer service, were issues, Prof Fels laid the blame squarely with a system in which 80 per cent of licence holders don’t drive a cab.
“Every time you get into a taxi, the first thing you pay for is the $500,000 licence cost,” he said. But with a cost of $1.5 billion, a mass buy-back of licences was not the answer.
Victorian Taxi Association spokesman David Samuel called for fares to be raised by 12 per cent.
There had not been a fare rise since 2008.
”You could argue that we should have a 30 per cent increase, but that would just scare off customers,” he said.
thomg@heraldsun.com.au
Article source: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/cut-cab-fares-to-lift-service-fels-urges/story-fn7x8me2-1226152315200
MEDAN – A small aircraft with 18 people on board is feared to have crashed on Thursday in Indonesia’s Sumatra island, officials said.
The Cassa 212, carrying 15 passengers and three crew, was flying from Medan city in North Sumatra to the nearby province of Aceh when it lost contact with air traffic control, Bambang Ervan said.
“It took off at 7:18 (0018GMT) and was supposed to land at 8:00,” the spokesman told AFP, adding that a search and rescue team was trying to find the aircraft.
“Most probably it crashed as it sent an emergency signal,” he said, adding it was not known whether there were foreigners on board.
Local search and rescue chief Suhri Sinaga said that the aircraft sent an emergency signal in the Bahorok area of North Sumatra province.
“We are trying to locate the aircraft,” he told.
A helicopter chartered by US giant Newmont Mining crashed on Sunday in central Indonesia, killing two people on board.
Earlier this month, an Australian and a Slovak pilot were killed when their small Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft, which was carrying fuel and food to a remote area in Papua province, went down.
Another small aircraft, which was also transporting supplies to remote villages for a Christian humanitarian association in Papua, crashed last week, killing its American pilot and two passengers.
The sprawling Indonesian archipelago relies heavily on air transport and has a poor aviation record.
Article source: http://rp1.abs-cbnnews.com/global-filipino/world/09/29/11/aircraft-18-aboard-feared-crashed-indonesia
29 September 2011
Last updated at 13:51 ET
The pilot left the plane uninjured after the landing
A light aircraft has crashed on landing at Shoreham Airport in West Sussex.
Sussex Police said there had been no fire and the 75-year-old experienced pilot from Cranleigh, in Surrey, had walked away with minor cuts.
The two-seater plane, a Taylorcraft, somersaulted on landing, ending up on its roof, at the end of the runway.
Fire crews turned the aircraft upright following the incident, which happened just before 15:00 BST. There were no passengers on board the plane.
Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/uk-england-sussex-15113747
German airline Lufthansa announced plans Thursday to order 12 new aircraft — including seven Airbus jets — for a total list price of 1.0 billion euros ($1.4 billion).
The German carrier said in a statement its supervisory board approved plans to purchase 12 new jets, including two new Airbus A380 super jumbos, an A330-300 and four Airbus A320s.
In addition, Lufthansa would buy five new Embraer195s.
“The new, modern, fuel-efficient aircraft will be delivered in stages from 2012,” the statement said.
Chief executive Christoph Franz said the purchase of the new aircraft “will serve primarily to ensure that we can meet short-term requirements while modernising and consolidating our European fleet until such time as new aircraft technologies are available.”
It was part of the group’s strategy to deploy aircraft that were fuel efficient and had low noise and emissions, he said.
The order will be financed from “our cash reserves or from external sources,” Franz added, without giving any further details.
Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/lufthansa-orders-12-aircraft-1bn-euros-160711654.html
Despite the European debt crisis, fares to Europe remain “stubbornly high,” said George Hobica, founder of AirfareWatchdog.com. “We suspect it’s due to consolidation, capacity cuts and plain old demand.”
Fares from New York to Madrid, for example, are as low as $762 round trip versus $1,197 at the beginning of the summer, according to Bing Travel, the Microsoft search engine. But that’s still about $50 more than a year ago, when the same route was $709. Similar patterns can be seen in round-trip fares between New York and Paris. Holiday tickets are up too, with an average price of $936 versus $861 last year, according to Bing’s Holiday Travel forecast.
How do you keep the price of your ticket in check? Below, some tricks to finding the best fares this fall and beyond.
USE A JUMP CITY Forget your final destination for a moment and focus on the cheapest flight you can find to Europe, which may involve spending a night in a city not in your original travel plan. Bing’s flexible flight search lets you compare up to five routes at once for the best price within a 30-day range. (Conduct your search as usual. Then, under the Flights tab, click “flexible search,” then “select a city” under Destinations to look for major European hubs like Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and Paris.) After finding a flight, search for a European budget carrier like easyJet or Ryanair to fly to the city you had originally planned to visit. “Historically, the cheapest jump cities have been Dublin, Zurich, Frankfurt and Madrid,” said Rick Seaney, the chief executive of Farecompare.com.
For example, the least expensive nonstop flight for a weeklong trip to Paris from New York in mid-November was about $840, according to a recent search. Flying round trip to Dublin instead and using Ryanair to get to Paris and back saves about $232 — which can more than cover a cheap BB for the two nights you may need to spend in Dublin to make this itinerary work.
If you don’t have a long layover as a buffer, you run a greater risk of missing connecting flights if there are delays by dealing with multiple airlines on separate tickets. And don’t expect the second airline to take responsibility if you do miss your flight. Still, the savings can outweigh the risk. Trains, which are often more convenient in Europe than planes, can be another way to get to your destination from a jump city. Momondo.com, a Danish travel search site, compares air routes with more than 4,000 train routes across Europe. Depending on the schedule, you may not have to spend money on a hotel.
BE FLEXIBLE You can often save by adjusting your travel dates by a day or two. ITASoftware.com, which provides the technological backbone for many airfare shopping sites, allows users to scan an entire month’s fares for the least expensive rate. (Click on “airfare search,” then “see calendar of lowest fares.”) Monday, Nov. 5, and Tuesday, Nov. 6, were the cheapest dates that month to fly nonstop to London from Atlanta ($884 round trip) for a week’s vacation, according to a recent search. The next best was Thursday, Dec. 1, or Saturday, Dec. 3, at $900. To book, users must go to another site. Bing Travel offers a handy flight summary after each search that suggests cheaper options in a pop-up box. For instance, the cheapest rate for a New York-to-Rome flight departing on Friday, Oct. 21, was $900 round trip. If you left a day later, you could save $50, according to the flight summary box.
LOOK BEYOND NONSTOP FLIGHTS Choosing a flight with a connection or stopover may not be as fast as taking a nonstop route, but the savings may outweigh the inconvenience. The cheapest nonstop flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam for a week in late November was $1,011 on Delta, according to a search on Hipmunk.com, which sorts fares according to an “agony” index that factors in price, length of flight and number of connections. By taking a connecting flight that stops in London for about three hours, you could shave $100 off the price. Also, don’t overlook alternative airports. The cheapest nonstop flight from Newark to London’s Heathrow airport for a week in late September was $778 on Virgin Atlantic, in a recent search. Flying into London’s Gatwick airport instead on Iceland Express with a short stop in Reykjavik was about $130 less.
FIND PACKAGE DEALS Buying your flight and hotel together at an online agency like Expedia or Travelocity can be cheaper than booking separately. A four-night trip for two people in mid-October to London from Newark, staying at the Radisson Edwardian Mercer Street Hotel, was $1,885 a person if the hotel and flight were purchased together at Expedia.com versus $3,629 if booked separately. A weeklong trip to Dublin from New York, staying six nights at the Hilton, was $934 a person if booked together at Travelocity.com, $249 less than if booked separately.
TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT CODE SHARES With code sharing, the industry term for an agreement that allows airlines to sell one another’s flights as if they were their own, you could book a flight to Paris on Delta and end up traveling with Air France, a code share partner with Delta. But while the flight might be the same, the price might not be. Sometimes the difference can be substantial. For example, a recent online search revealed that a nonstop flight in October from New York to Rome operated by American Airlines was $1,612 if booked through British Airways (American’s code-share partner). That same round-trip flight was $1,412 if booked through American.
You can spot a code share when comparing fares online; if you see the same route and departure times from two different airlines, it is most likely a code share. To be sure, you can check the flight details, which spell out which carrier operates the flight.
SEARCH FOR UPPER CLASS SALES Several major airlines have been running business-class sales to Europe over the holidays, when business travel can dry up, with prices as low as $1,320 round trip (before taxes and fees) from New York to Brussels, $1,470 from Boston to Frankfurt and $1,648 round trip from Chicago to London on Lufthansa and other carriers. But unlike in previous years, said Joe Brancatelli, publisher of the travel Web site JoeSentMe.com, who alerts members to such sales, few airlines are promoting the deals on their Web sites, forcing travelers to “peck and hunt” for the sales online.
Travelzoo.com, which offers a list of Best Europe Flight Deals, recently pointed out premium-economy round-trip fares from $1,162 (not including taxes and fees, which can add up to $250) on Air France from New York to London, and $1,857 (not including taxes and fees) from Los Angeles to London on Air New Zealand. But act quickly if you want one of those cushy seats. Mr. Brancatelli said one of his subscribers booked a ticket to Glasgow for Thanksgiving for $1,200 round trip, but by the time he told his friends about the deal, the price had gone back up to $5,000.
Article source: http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/travel/finding-cheaper-fall-flights-to-europe-online.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Stelios was a breath of fresh air in 1995. He was not part of aviation’s old
boys’ club and not afraid to ruffle feathers. Leasing two old Boeings (that
he daubed with orange paint), he set about challenging every aspect of the
traditional aviation model, from the need for in-flight catering and
allocated seating to the paying of commission to travel-agents. What
followed was extraordinary growth, with easyJet becoming the UK’s biggest
airline, currently serving nearly 50 million passengers a year.
But Stelios’s CV has also been littered with heroic failures. His cruise line,
that aimed to take no-frills cruising to a younger market, with much
publicised routes in the Côte d’Azur and the Caribbean, was an unmitigated
failure and now only exists only as family-friendly operation in Greece. His
easyrivercruise is defunct and what of his easy4men toiletries? They rank
right up there with solar-powered torches as viable products. Easy come,
easy go.
But can he succeed again with an airline? The rumour mill is now working
overtime. Some have suggested Stelios is looking at a full-service airline
that cuts out old inefficiencies, others have talked of him revisiting
supersonic travel – Concorde II with a luminous hue perhaps? But the smart
money is on him sticking with what he knows: a ruthlessly efficient,
low-cost airline built around online technology. Gaining slots at Heathrow
and Gatwick might be a problem, but at the rate at which routes are being
cut elsewhere (passenger numbers have fallen by up to 70 per cent at UK’s
regional airports as airlines ditch routes, cut back on frequencies,
increase prices and add swingeing extra charges), there might be scope. The
airline industry could certainly do with the competition.
So here’s a novel idea: how about a low-cost airline with entirely transparent
pricing? Go ahead and take out the entertainment and reclining seats, insist
on online check-in, printing your own boarding passes and paying to check in
a bag, but let me get to checkout and pay the same amount as I was quoted in
the first place. In other words, don’t charge me for booking, checking-in or
paying by card – these are simply the costs of the business.
If that was to happen I for one would be first in the queue for this airline,
however eye-wateringly bright the livery.
The battle between “L-Word” actress Leisha Hailey and Southwest Airlines continues to escalate.
In a statement late Tuesday night, the airline said it kicked Hailey and her girlfriend Camilia Grey off a flight earlier this week for profanity — not because the actress planted a kiss on her partner.
“Additional reports from our employees and customers onboard flight 2274 during a stop in El Paso on Sunday now confirm profane language was being used loudly by two passengers. At least one family who was offended by the loud profanity moved to another area of the cabin,” Southwest wrote.
Hailey and Grey said in a statement Tuesday that the two “take full responsibility for getting verbally upset with the flight attendant after being told it was a “family airline.”
However, Hailey remained insistent that both women would both file formal complaints with the airline. “We want to live in a society where if your loved one leans over to give you an innocent kiss on an airplane it’s not labeled as ‘excessive or not family oriented’ by a corporation and its employees,” the two wrote.
The couple are now facing accusations that this is all a publicity stunt for their band Uh Huh Her Music’s 21 day concert tour, which kicks off on Oct. 8.
When asked whether this was a stunt on Twitter, Grey, who tweets under @UhHuhHerMusic replied: “No stunt. Just unfortunate bigotry.”
Article source: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2011/09/profanity-and-a-publicity-stunt-the-leisha-hailey-southwest-battle-rages-on/