All business travelers look for ways to make life on the road easier. So the Global Business Travel Association and the Wall Street Journal started a “Business Traveler Innovation Awards” with the Traveler’s Choice Award going to Continental Airlines.
It’s Mobile Boarding pass allows passenger to display a 2D bar code, along with passenger and flight information, on mobile phones. Travelers don’t need paper printouts or boarding passes.
Other winners included:
- Hipmunk.com is a new travel search site that presents flight results in a visual "timeline" that allows people to select the best flight for them at a glance, while hotel results are presented on a map that also shows the neighborhood and surrounding landmarks.
- NeverLost is a real-time, navigation service offered to Hertz rental car customers. It keeps a signal where other less-sophisticated GPS systems lose theirs; lets users pre-plan their trip, save it to a USB flash drive, and then load it; and provides concierge-assisted routing services.
- Hyatt Hotels and Resorts for The Hyatt Meeting Promise: Meeting planners get a written guarantee that their event will be flawless. If their service or quality expectations aren’t met, Hyatt will take steps to resolve the problem or refund a portion of the master account with a credit for future use.
- Westin Hotels and Resorts for the Heavenly Bed: Westin is committed to helping its customers sleep better, launching a sleep study and sleep hotline with the National Sleep Foundation to help travelers troubleshoot common sleep problems while on the road.
- Apple Inc. for the iPad: The compact tablet computer resides somewhere between the iPhone and laptop. Its popularity has exploded since its introduction in January.
By David Wilkening
