Stress-Free Travel with Apple

I love to travel. If I’m not actually travelling, I’m planning for trips that I’ll be taking soon.

There is however, one issue with travelling. The actual getting to your destination part can be a pain. Getting to the airport two hours early, endless queues for security, staring intently at the departure board to avoid the last-minute gate change dash that leads to you to sprinting halfway across a terminal… Even finding your seat on a flight, there are a many things that can take the edge off that awesome holiday feeling.

Fortunately, there are a few things which can help alleviate the stress of many of these travel niggles. Travelling with Apple tech can help make your next trip that little bit easier. Although sadly, I can’t promise it will get you through the passport control queue any quicker…

Recently I took a trip to Australia, so I had 26 hours of travelling. Thankfully, I had a head-start by having my Apple Watch and iPhone to help me get me through the trip with as little stress as possible.

Many airlines now have iOS apps, which save you the hassle of printing off a boarding card, like Ryanair for example and, inevitably panicking when you can’t find it in your backpack when trying to get through the gate. But, flying with the Watch really is a different experience. So, on the morning of the 27th of June, I dragged my suitcase up the escalator at Birmingham Airport, equipped and organised with my Knomo Knomad iPad case and was ready to fly!

Emirates was one of the first airlines to introduce an Apple Watch app so, after checking in on my phone, I had my boarding pass ready to go on my Watch in the Wallet app (a great primer for Wallet can be found at imore.com).

I have used airline apps on my phone before but, the Apple Watch really did take the experience to a new level. I was alerted (via vibrating ‘tap’ from my Watch) when my flight changed gate and, when boarding the plane, my ticket automatically appeared on the Watch face, ready for inspection. I breezed aboard feeling, quite frankly, like I was flying First Class, rather than economy!

Emirates offers in-flight WiFi that, whilst you do pay a small amount for it, it is surprisingly good (particularly given that you’re flying 50,000 feet above the ground)! I was able to continue iMessaging my friends, check my emails and, I even manage to stream some YouTube videos to keep me entertained across my two long-haul flights.

The Emirates App really was an asset to my journey, as you can see in the clip below. Not only can you easily view the amount of miles you’ve managed to collect, you can view a flights status, check out past trips (including it showing me my delayed flight back) and even book a flight directly in the app.

Emirates, as I mentioned before, aren’t the only airline which use allow you to use your Apple kit to make your travel easier and less stressful. There are numerous other apps that can make that 5 hour delay seem like nothing at all, or make your flight pass as quickly and smoothly as possible. Apple have a long list with direct links to the apps here and Time Out have put given their verdict on the top 50 travel apps in their own quirky style, too.

Another example of airlines doing tech well, is Virgin. I flew down to Melbourne as part of my Australian trip and, as it’s only a short flight, there were no screens for in-flight entertainment. Virgin however, offers an app that, once you connect to their inflight wifi, allows you to browse all of their entertainment library on your iPad or iPhone. Airlines really are starting to learn how their passengers fly, leveraging the fact that most of us are usually packing our own entertainment devices, they are catering to their customers by giving you entertainment in a more useful form. No more Only Fools and Horses repeats on tiny screens 7 rows away!

If you have a flight delay, particularly if you have a connecting flight, it’s crucial to be able to track your flight. Now, there are numerous different apps you can use for this, but one that particularly stands out is Plane Finder - Flight Tracker. This app also offers an Apple Watch app but, the stand-out feature is the ability to set custom alerts. Say you’re picking up a friend from the airport and they don’t have access to their phone to tell you that the flight is delayed, you can set an alert for their flight number. If it is delayed, it will tell you when they’re due to arrive. It also gives you all the information you could wish for about the flight, including weather patterns, and even whether there has been a strike at any of the airports the plane has gone through. If you’re doing a large trip, which involves multiple flights, I can’t recommend it highly enough. 

Flying isn’t always easy and I don’t know anyone who really enjoys being stuck in a large metal tube, in close proximity to a lot of strangers, as you streak through the atmosphere at nearly the speed of sound. But, travelling doesn’t have to be difficult anymore. By utilising your amazing Apple devices, your iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch really can make the entire process significantly smoother and less stressful (as well as making you seem pretty cool when you whisk aboard your flight with a flash of your Apple Watch)!

By Sarah, at KRCS Merry Hill.

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