TripChill ups user services with new applications

Mobile travel services start-up TripChill has unveiled a raft of new developments to help travellers. The US-based company, which is now supporting international travellers on its beta site, has launched a web-based interface for the iPhone. The application can be downloaded from the TripChill website for a small fee and sits on the Safari browser…

Mobile travel services start-up TripChill has unveiled a raft of new developments to help travellers.

The US-based company, which is now supporting international travellers on its beta site, has launched a web-based interface for the iPhone.

The application can be downloaded from the TripChill website for a small fee and sits on the Safari browser within the iPhone.

Alex Shore, president of TripChill parent Skyward Innovations, said: “iPhone users can use our free interface but people want to use applications that take advantage of the screen size and the ability to touch and move things around.”

Shore said the company had also submitted a Flight Options application to Apple, which will undergo a review and testing process before being available in the Apple Store.

The Flight Options application enables travellers who are stuck to access flight options and schedules from one airline to another.

Shore said the Apple vetting process could take from two to six weeks.

TripChill enables travellers to submit their itinerary and tracks their journey and alerts them to any flight changes in real time. It was unveiled service during the PhocusWright Travel Innovation Summit last November.

The company has spent recent weeks building up the system to support international addresses and itineraries in English.

Shore said the vision was to move towards a complete mobile concierge service enabling users to access targeted content such as restaurants based on their preferences.

TripChill is also developing further applications for smartphones such as calendar integration and improved ways of using contact numbers and e-mail addresses already stored on the phone.