If you are a frequent traveler and flier, WorldMate for the iPhone might be just the app you have been waiting for. WorldMate lets you create travel itineraries by simply forwarding your confirmations from hotels, rental car agencies, and airlines to the service, which will then appear in the application. WorldMate for the iPhone comes in two versions: a free version (iTunes link) and a paid version, WorldMate Gold (iTunes link), which, for $9.99 per year, will send out push notifications whenever a flight is delayed or canceled. WorldMate gave us 15 free copies of WorldMate Gold to give away. Read on for details about how you can claim yours.
WorldMate gets its data from the FlightStats and directly from those airlines that are not in the standard reservations systems, which includes a large number of low-cost carriers. In total, WorldMate can monitor the flight statuses of over 350 airlines.
In case a flight is indeed canceled, WorldMate offers a built-in hotel search courtesy of Hotels.com. In addition, the app also offers users the ability to find alternative flights, as well as weather forecasts, a tip calculator, and a currency converter. All of these are available in the free and paid versions of the app.
What makes the app stand out, though, is that you just have to email your travel confirmations from airlines and hotels to WorldMate and the service will automatically translate these documents into an itinerary and display the info in the iPhone app. On iTunes, a number of users complain that WorldMate wasn’t able to understand their email confirmations. For me, this worked perfectly, though your mileage may vary.
In this respect, the app is quite similar to TripIt, which also converts confirmation emails into itineraries and displays them on the phone. TripIt’s iPhone app, however, does not send out push notifications.
Overall, the app is definitely aimed at the frequent traveler, though it can still be extremely helpful if you are just going away for a short trip. I tested it during a recent weekend trip and it worked like a charm. When my flight was delayed, I promptly received an update and the app also notified me of a gate change long before the gate agent even made the announcement.
If you frequently find yourself wandering down airport concourses, WorldMate is the perfect app to have around. You don’t have to constantly update the airline’s website or check FlightStats to see if your flight is on time. Instead, WorldMate will just automatically let you know if something is wrong.
WorldMate is also available for the BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows Mobile, and Palm OS.
Get WorldMate Pro for Free
WorldMate offered us 15 free pro versions for our readers. Just send an email to rww AT worldmate.com and WorldMate will contact you with more details on how to claim your WorldMate Gold invite.
