From the day you book your air ticket to the moment you open your hotel-room door, travel these days can be a seamless experience for anyone with a smartphone. Paper documents, cash and credit cards, even room keys and cards are all becoming artifacts of the past. And because of the convenience, the growth of online travel applications of all sorts is surging.
According to EyeforTravel, a London-based travel consultant, around 148 million travel bookings were made through mobile devices last year. Criteo, the Paris-based performance marketing company, says airline and hotel bookings made up 27% of all online travel bookings worldwide in the second quarter of 2016 on mobile apps and websites, based on data from over 1,000 travel agents. Smartphones' share of mobile transactions, meanwhile, grew 13% year-over-year in the second quarter last year.
"For all these experiences, from booking to getting to your hotel, there is one device that you cannot get away from and that is your mobile phone," Jason Lu, regional director for accommodation business at the Chinese travel services provider Ctrip, told participants at the Digi.Travel Thailand International Conference and Expo 2017 in June.
Most experts expect the number of mobile bookings to increase substantially because of new markets and ever-faster internet service in Europe and Asia. Asia is growing faster, with mobile transactions accounting for as much as 33% of all online travel bookings in Japan compared with just 8% in Germany.
AT THE AIRPORT
Often overlooked amid all the hype devoted to online flight and hotel booking is the fact that technology has made getting in and out of airports, typically the most stressful experience for travellers, a bit easier.
After you book your trip, the day arrives when it's time to actually travel. You might begin the day by using your smartphone to check the weather at your destination, after which you will probably open the Grab or Uber application to arrange a ride to the airport. On the ride there, you might find yourself browsing the airport's website or app to find out what there is to do there.
If your point of departure is Changi in Singapore -- voted the World's Best Airport by air travellers for the last five years in a row -- your experience could be more pleasant than most. Free internet is just one small part of the reason why.
Changi took top spot because of its "continuing ability to be able to innovate in product and service options for its customers, and to make the experience as relaxing and comfortable as possible", said Edward Plaisted, CEO of Skytrax, the UK-based aviation consultancy.
Among the 10 best airports in Skytrax surveys, five are in Asia including Changi (1), Tokyo Haneda International (2), Incheon International (3), Hong Kong International (5) and Chubu Centrair Nagoya (7). With online check-in and mobile boarding passes for most airlines, you no longer have to wait in line unless you have to check in your luggage at the express lanes.
After you check in, you can look for something to do to kill time before getting to the gate. On offer at these airports are numerous dining and shopping options, skywalks, spas, theatres, a traditional Japanese bathhouse (Centrair), a nine-hole golf course (Hong Kong International), a Korean culture museum (Incheon International) and a wild corkscrew slide (Changi). But it will be hard to find all the available services if you don't have the internet on your phone. This is where free internet at airports comes into play.
"The really big shift is how mobile complements the physical travel experience," Matt Asay, vice-president for mobile at Adobe, told CMO.com in August 2016.
"Today, if I'm sitting waiting for my flight at the gate and want to check to see where I am on the upgrade list, I don't need to hover around the departure gate asking the employees for an update. I can check it out on my mobile, so it makes my travel experience better."
According to Mr Asay, brands are looking to complement the physical travel experience with mobile data to give customers the information they need when they need it, because little things such as flight delays or gate change notifications are "where we will see the big transformation in travel".
"Brands need to be thinking about how to make the overall travel experience richer and better," he said.
A mobile consumer survey by Adobe Digital Insights found that first-time consumers started using mobile devices more than desktops for travel browsing in December 2015. By May 2016, mobile accounted for 52% of all travel-related browsing.
When Adobe asked more than 4,000 consumers to rate their satisfaction with their mobile experiences, 31% said they would search for their next trip from a mobile device. The majority consider their smartphones the most indispensable item they carry with them when they travel.
Nevertheless, mobile transactions still represent only 21% of travel sales, even though more than half of all consumers do their travel-related browsing on their devices. Mainly for security reasons, "people are still iffy about transacting on mobile", said Mr Asay.
"What's interesting is that while consumers are increasingly relying on mobile devices for their travel-related browsing, conversion [to actual purchases], while growing, is still low on mobile … and this isn't true for just travel companies; it's something we're seeing across the board."
IN THE AIR
After you've finished eating, drinking, sleeping and shopping at the airport you can now look forward to doing it all again on the plane, if you choose to. Most people will choose to eat, watch a movie, and then sleep on a long-haul trip, but with onboard bars, WiFi and even digital platforms to conduct meetings on some planes, there are more options these days.
Premium passengers on Airbus A380 flights can enjoy onboard bars and even a lounge. Korean Air's Celestial Lounge is available for both first and business-class passengers. Economy passengers, on the other hand, can shop in an onboard duty free gallery at the back of the Korean Air A380 economy class. The A380s of Emirates and Qatar Airways also have onboard bars available to first and business-class passengers.
Stepping away from the bars, onboard WiFi is the service most flyers now expect to have on a plane. The catch is that you still have to pay extra for it. Airlines that offer a limited amount of free WiFi onboard include Emirates, Qatar Airways, JetBlue Airways, Norwegian, Turkish Airlines, Air China, China Eastern, Nok Air and Philippine Airlines.
America's JetBlue Airways at the beginning this year became the first airline to offer free WiFi on all of its aircraft for all flights, while Norwegian, Europe's third largest low-cost carrier, is now offering it on most of its flights in Europe. However, most of these free services come with speed restrictions and other limitations.
Air China, for example, only offers the free service for laptops and tablets but not for smartphones. China Eastern's WiFi service can be used on smartphones but it is free only in limited amounts and on selected flights. On Thailand's Nok Air it is available on only two aircraft. Philippine Airlines (PAL) is the latest to join the free the WiFi bandwagon, announcing this month that passengers could surf the web for 30 minutes at no cost. The airline has 21 aircraft equipped with inflight WiFi connectivity, including six Boeing B777-300ER jets and 15 Airbus A330-300s.
Even though it is not free at the moment, onboard internet connectivity is becoming one of the essential factors that could influence a customer's decision to choose one airline over another, says Heiko Brix, senior director of sales in Southeast Asia and the Pacific for Lufthansa.
"We have state-of-the-art internet connectivity onboard as our customers told us that 85% of them need WiFi connectivity … and that is why we have 100% internet onboard in all of our long-haul flights and we are still number one in this aspect," he said.
"It is a very attractive product where 53% of our customers say that the internet is essential for their experience and 40% said that whenever there is internet available onboard, that might even make them decide to fly with Lufthansa."
The company's target is to make the service available throughout its entire fleet. Meanwhile, it is appealing to the meeting, incentive, conference and exhibition (Mice) segment of traveller with its "FlyingLab". The airline can now offer Mice groups online conference infrastructure onboard where participants can follow speaker presentations via their own smartphones, laptops or tablets.
The image and presentation of the speakers is transmitted on a split screen so guests can use WiFi to connect to the transmission via wireless access points or hotspots. The first Lufthansa FlyingLab took place in July 2016 on a flight from Frankfurt to San Jose, California -- on the subject of virtual reality.
"You could start your conference at 12,000 metres above sea level with speakers connecting 40 to 60 people onboard with their laptops and smartphones. This is an innovation that was developed within the Lufthansa group which is actively requested, and customers are paying for it," Mr Brix said.
AT THE HOTEL
Once you arrive at your destination, you probably will take out your smartphone again to find out how to get to your hotel. If you booked your room in advance and if the service is available, you can now go straight to your room and use your phone to open the door.
"From our hotel and reservation technologies, you can use the 360-degree tour, VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) technology to choose your hotel then you can choose the floor, the room number, everything you want," said Mr Lu of Ctrip.
"When you check in, the whole process takes 30 seconds, where all you need is your ID card and your mobile phone. You don't need the room key because your phone can open the door and every single electronic device in the hotel can talk to your mobile phone."
The Chinese travel services provider has more than 1.2 million hotels in its network. Its visual tour and app programme, which brings together individual travellers and local experts at their destination, has more than 10 million travellers signed up.
"If you use the services, before you enter the room, the whole room can be set up according to your preference such as the brightness and the temperature," said Mr Lu. "This is not the future -- the whole programme which was launched in China in March now consists of more than 500 hotels."
In China, 95 people out of 100 own a mobile phone, which means that there are close to 1.3 billion devices in service, while 858 million of them have either a 3G or 4G connection.
"This is a huge market and you cannot get away from it. According to Ctrip's transactions, more than 70% of them go through mobile phones. … That is why we have paid a lot of attention on our mobile applications," Mr Lu added.
The travel services provider now has more than 300 million active users on its applications. To keep them coming back and using more and more Ctrip services, it's essential to engage them "before the booking, when people make the booking, and after they have made the booking", said Mr Lu.
This includes heavy advertising, often featuring celebrities and entertainers, heavy promotions of special offers, bundles, and social media providing useful and personalised travel information after customers have finished, along with a platform for them to chat and provide previews.
CONNECTED IN THE AIR
Inflight WiFi charges around the world (US$ except where indicated)
Thai Airways International: 10 MB for $4.99, 20MB for $8.99, 30MB for $12.99, 100MB for $34.99. Not available when overflying some countries including China and India
Singapore Airlines: 5MB for $5.99, 10MB for $9.99
Cathay Pacific: $12.95 on flights less than 6 hours, $19.95 for longer flights. One hour of continuous use available for $9.95
AirAsia: 10MB for $9.99
Virgin Atlantic: $22.30 per flight
American Airlines: $16 per day; $49.95 for a monthly pass on domestic flights; $12 for two hours, $17 for four hours or $19 per flight on international journeys
United Airlines: $3.99 to $15.99 on domestic flights (according to distance travelled); from $1.99 to $3.99 per hour
Aer Lingus: $9.95 per hour or $18.95 per flight; free in business class
Delta Air Lines: $19.95 per hour or $39.95 per flight on a laptop or tablet; $14.95 per hour and $29.95 per flight on a mobile
Southwest Airlines: $8 per day
Finnair: $5.50 for one hour; $16.50 per flight on Airbus A350 (free in business class)
Qatar Airways: Free for the first 15 minutes; $5 for one hour, $10 for three hours; $20 per flight
JetBlue Airways: Premium WiFi is $9 per hour, while basic service is free
Philippine Airlines: Free for 30 minutes or 15MB. Basic WiFi plans start at $5 for 35MB, while the $20 plan for 150MB is for those who need more usage
Emirates: OnAir service on the A380 costs $7.50 for a mobile device and $15 for a laptop
Lufthansa: FlyNet onboard WiFi service is billed by Deutsche Telecom. A one-hour pass costs €10.95 and a 24-hour pass is €19.95
Norwegian Air Shuttle: Free WiFi Access via Row 44
Qantas: WiFi is available on some A380s under a trial period. Costs have not been published
Prices and availability may vary according to the airline and aircraft