5 Travel Apps Every Business Traveler Must Have

The growing shift to the mobile app culture has created an easy way for a business traveler to stay in touch, travel more efficiently and get more work done without the need to drag a big device. With almost a million downloadable apps in app stores today, how do you sift through the crowd platform to find a few that suit your travel needs?

Before we list other apps we recommend, don't forget about the Travelmath iPhone app and Android app! Download your favorite version from the iTunes store or Google Play:

Now that you have the Travelmath mobile app, here are 5 more travel apps every business traveler must have:

One: FlightStats
FlightStats won the 2013 “Best in Business Travel app from The North American Business Traveler Award.” It is accessible through iPhone and Android phones.

FlightStats lets you access worldwide flight statuses by flight number, airport or route. It scans essential information like departure and arrival times, flight delay indexes, shows the departure and arrival gates and weather conditions of the flight you are tracking.

It has a zoomable map and you can check the flight’s timeline to get in-depth descriptions of all activities related to the flight you are tracking. It is not limited to the United States. It tracks flights worldwide.

For example recently we tracked a flight on an American Airlines flight from Tokyo Narita Airport to Dallas Fort Worth Airport. Using Travelmath’s calculator for flight time prior to travel and FlightStats, we were able to match and confirm the arrival time at Dallas airport and the gate to pick up the luggage.

FlightStats is a free app. The most important feature of the app is the ability to find out status confirmation of flights up to three hours prior to departure. You can set up flight alerts to monitor if a flight is on time or delayed. A notification will be sent if the flight is delayed by more than 30 minutes, canceled or diverted.

You can also sign up for notifications when a flight has landed if you have to pick up an out of town associate or overseas clients. You will be notified almost immediately if the flight is delayed or if it has just landed.

Information: FlightStats

Two: Seat Guru
If you are a business traveler chances are you know the seats you want for your regular fights. However for those days when your favorite seats are not available for the same route, what do you do?

Download Seat Guru app and take a look at the airplane seat map and cabin photos. Seat Guru offers over 700 seat maps and 100 airlines. The app provides a superior flight search engine where you can purchase a wide selection of flights through TripAdvisor and get real-time flight status alerts to stay informed of any delay or cancellation.

The app is free and was voted as “Best Travel App of 2012” by The Next Web.

Information: Seat Guru

Three: Wi-Fi Finder by JWire
According to JWire there are over 650,000 locations in 144 countries worldwide where you can locate free or paid WiFi using Wi-Fi Finder. Staying connected is cheap using Wi-Fi Finder. Imagine with Wi-Fi you can use Facetime, Skype or WhatsApp Messenger apps to speak to anyone in the world for free – no phone lines or simcards required.

To find out time difference, just use Travelmath’s time difference online calculator. For example if you arrived in Papeete Tahiti at 7 pm, New York City local time would be 12 midnight. The time difference is 5 hours.

The Wi-Fi Finder uses GPS function on your iPhone to locate the closest Wi-Fi hotspot and how to get there.

Information: Wi-Fi Finder

Four: Google Translate
There are human powered translating services but for simple translating tools to get by in restaurants or shopping, Google Translate app would definitely be a better “investment” to mingle with the locals.

Google Translate is available in 70 languages. You can speak, type, write or take a picture to translate. You can translate offline while traveling and save your translations and use them again and again.

Information: Google Translate

Five: Evernote
Evernote is free but if you use the paid version ($45 annual subscription fee) you get more features, which we think are beneficial especially for business travelers. Through Evernote you can write notes and capture ideas, view notes saved before traveling, keep track of all your files, access files and notes from your smartphone, iPad or laptop.

Evernote will help you reduce paper clutter. You can even take snapshots of restaurant menus, business cards and labels and record voice reminders. It was awarded as one of New York Times’ “Top 10 Must-Have Apps”.

Information: Evernote

Do you have a favorite travel app? Let us know.