Take a Walk on the Wireless Side

Booking a Flight

When you're on the move, you may wish to keep track of the next leg of your journey. For example, you'll want to know as soon as possible if your flight is canceled.

All the portals we looked at except GoAmerica can retrieve flight info. GoAmerica includes a link to Trip.com's Flight Tracker, but that utility allows you to track only flights that are already in the air--not particularly useful for checking the status of your upcoming flight.

The others let you obtain details about flights by flight number or by selecting from a schedule, and the OmniSky and Palm.Net portals (both via the BizTravel Web Clipping App) let you book a flight directly from the PDA. If you want to book your flights through someone other than BizTravel, you'll run into problems. Unless you find sites that are optimized for mobile users, you'll struggle to connect to other travel sites' normal Web pages.

Most people will just want to learn the status of already-booked flights, and all the portals except GoAmerica permit this, either through the Travelocity Web Clipping App (on the Palm Vx and Palm VII) or through the Expedia section of Mobile MSN (on the IPaq). These services can tap into an itinerary of existing flights so you can check for any delays or problems. Furthermore, many airlines (including American, Continental, Delta, and United) have their own Web Clipping Apps for the Palm platform; these allow you to obtain information about delays and even check your frequent flier miles while you're waiting in the departure lounge.