SAA Offers Travel Info On-The-Go
SAA’s has just launched its very own mobile portal allowing customers to access comprehensive travel and airline information from just one point of reference, anywhere, anytime, using their cellphone.
The portal allows travellers to access the information from a capable cellphone device such as: airline flight schedules; directions to airline lounges at airports around the world; flight arrival and departure information; and destination information such as weather forecasts for any city in the world and a currency converter.
This new initiative is in partnership with selected Star Alliance members, who developed the Common IT Mobile Platform, which SAA used to launch its own portal for customers - making SAA the first airline in Africa to have launched the new service.
The portal is a universal feed able to access information on any airline and destination in the world.
Airline customers can also access World Tracer information, which tracks requests made about baggage, through the mobile portal. This tool allows passengers to track where their baggage request is with an airline and how close it is in the process to being resolved.
The portal is accessible by logging on to http://m.flysaa.com or http://mobile.flysaa.com.
The first phase of the initiative is not controlled by usernames and passwords. Once a customer enters the address, the information needed is readily available with a few clicks and entries.
Once on the site, the application automatically scales to the size of the handset being used. This convenient tool means no more clicking away to find the rest of the page not in view due to the limited size of a particular cellphone screen.
The portal is also currently available in five languages; English, German, Spanish, French, and Portuguese.
SAA plans to increase the functionality of the mobile portal with the launch of phase two later this year, which is more interactive. Customers will then have the ability to request frequent flyer mileage status, check notifications on any irregular flight operations, eg, flight-delays and check flight itineraries.
In phase three, also scheduled to be introduced towards the end of the year, customers will be able to check-in for a flight and board a flight by scanning their cellphone at a boarding gate using 2D barcode technology to be implemented at airports.