On the Road with the Egencia App

Working in the travel industry often means that every now and again, you get the chance to go on a business trip yourself. I was particularly excited about my first trip with Egencia, giving me the chance to meet my colleagues in India and China and to work on some exciting projects while overseas. Being a traveller by nature, I couldn’t wait to start planning my trip. Finding my flights was easy and intuitive using our online booking solution, which comprehensively displayed all in-policy options on the desired route and was capable of booking a multi-leg trip with just a few clicks. After some research on the best hotels to stay in I decided to ask for some expert advice from one of my managers. His answer was short and simple: “Get your phone out and we’ll book your hotels on the app!”

‘The app’ in this case referred to our smart travel companion, Egencia® App, available on iPhone, Android and iPad. All my flight details were already updated in the trip view section of the app and it suggested to ‘Add a Hotel’ for the time of my stay. All I needed to do was tap a button and the app came up with a variety of in-policy options. I decided to go with my manager’s favorite hotel, which happened to be a ‘Mobile Only Deal’, meaning that the room rates are discounted if booked through the app.

After a few weeks of impatient waiting, the day of my departure finally arrived. To my surprise, my phone had notified me overnight that my flight would be delayed by about three hours. Knowing that this would mean missing an important connecting flight, I went straight to the airline rep who managed to book me on a direct flight to Delhi. “Great, now I’ll arrive three hours earlier than initially planned!”

After a 13 hour journey I was glad to arrive at my hotel and to set myself as well as my phone to ‘sleep mode’. A great week in India, including a team excursion to one of the new 7 wonders of the world, went by and it was time for the next part of my journey.

Now, I don’t know if it’s just me but it seems that every flight I intend to board will either be delayed or cancelled. Thanks to Egencia® App I knew this in advance via the in-trip alerts service and managed to rearrange my transfer from Shanghai airport to the hotel.

Due to the flight delay I arrived four hours later than expected, at around midnight, in China. This was visible in both the face of my driver as well as in his ability to find the right hotel. Thank god I had my phone on me! The ‘Trips’ section of Egencia® App had all my hotel’s details saved and the handy map view feature pointed us in the right direction. At 2am both my friend the driver and I could finally finish our day of work.

After two weeks of travelling for business, my feedback is that life on the road would have been a lot more difficult if it wasn’t for the Egencia® App smart travel companion, who’s there when you need it most. Everything you need for your trip is there, connected in one place. I’m thankful for this opportunity because it makes my job, promoting Egencia’s products and services to clients and prospects, a lot easier knowing that our technology works and really makes the travel you need to do more like travel you want to do!