Want to book tickets on the go? Well, most of the travel websites have a good wap site, but not a downloadable app and sites like Cleartrip have optimized the mobile site for iPhone and Android users, but not about the ‘feature phone’ users?
Minkle, Mumbai based startup has launched their mobile app, Minkle Fly (in partnership with Cleartrip) that offers interesting features
- User Interface : 5-clicks and you have the ticket.
- Flight Booking – Bookings are made via Cleartrip.com (API) and bookings from the app are done at the same price as those shown on Cleartrip.com. App also provides advanced search features and filters akin to what one would expect from an OTA on the web. The missing elements are features like trip bookings and discount coupons.
- Flight Cancellation – Cleartrip’s mobile site doesn’t allows flight cancellation and Minkle Fly is currently the only Flight booking app that allows the user to cancel tickets as well, from the app itself.
- Minkle Airport – A feature built on top of Twitter, it lets you virtually ‘check-in’ (similar to foursquare) in to an airport or a particular flight and engage in discussions with your fellow-passengers while you are at the airport, allowing people to get tweets about flight delays (data collected from users), find someone to share a cab with or just network.
- Cab Booking – Book cabs once you have confirmed your flight booking; (currently available only for major cities).
Minkle’s revenue model is based on ticket commission and lead generation (for taxi services). The company plans to launch more apps on other ticketing as well as locational services.
Minkle team needs to really be fast enough to build a ‘travel ticketing app’ and not simply rely on one service provider – it won’t be long when Cleartrip/iXiGo etc launch their own mobile app.
Download the app from here and share your feedback with the team.
