If flying with all-in-the-family airline alliances and interlining with alliance members is your thing, a couple of major global airline alliances have introduced some mobile apps to make your travels less turbulent.

Oneworld, which includes American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Mexicana and a bunch of other carriers, released a free iPad app in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. Portuguese is on the way, oneworld says.

The oneworld Flights iPad app searches flights from 12 alliance airlines and codeshare partners, and displays nonstop flights, best connections, length of each segment and total travel time, among other features the oneworld Flights app previously was available for the iPhone and Blackberry.

Oneworld also offers a Schedules and Trip Planner downloadable app for desktop computers. Not to be outdone by a rival global airline alliance, SkyTeam, which counts 13 members ranging from Aeroflot to Air France and Alitalia, recently updated its free iPhone app.

The SkyTeam app, created by GoldenWare, displays schedules and the most efficient flights options and provides details on meals and equipment. You can receive flight status updates from SkyTeam member airlines, as well as bag and carousel information.

In addition to a nearest airport lookup feature, the SkyTeam app uses the iPhone’s tap-to-call functionality to phone your airline in case you need to change or rebook your reservation.

The Star Alliance, with member airlines including US Airways, Continental Airlines, United Airlines, Lufthansa and Air New Zealand, among others, doesn’t yet offer mobile apps, although individual member airlines do, of course.

The Star Alliance does offer a downloadable Flight Status Widget for your desktop computer, providing timely flight status information from member airlines.

One Response

  1. Unexpected Traveller

    Good to hear about more mobile phone apps but I suspect that they may be missing the business market here without a Blackberry app. Still, their mobile site is quite usable provided you have ‘net access.

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