How mobility has become ubiquitous
I had been on a vacation a couple of weeks ago. Thinking about work while on a vacation is not my idea of fun. However, I couldn't help but notice how mobility had changed the way we planned and managed this vacation compared to earlier vacations.
Right from finding a good travel deal, ticket booking and cancellations, resolving seat related disputes (amicably) to sorting out booking related issues, we did everything on-the-go. My iPhone proved to be really handy in this whole process.
Commute time from office to home was put to good use by browsing and searching for a good travel package. It proved to be a little challenging as most of the travel sites were not mobile friendly leading to a lot of squinting, dragging and zooming in & out. While we had to do most train and flight bookings via the websites, it was very helpful to get the confirmation messages on the phone. We were able to put these to good use at a later stage. Eg: A flight delay alert via the mobile enabled us to enjoy a leisurely lunch vs rushing to catch a taxi.
The seating dispute was an interesting story. We boarded the train to find our seats occupied by two fierce looking persons with the ticket checker nowhere in sight. We had incidentally misplaced the e-ticket printout for that journey. I had a bright idea and opened the ticket confirmation email on the iPhone. The unauthorized occupants of our seats realized that they were in the wrong train bogey and vacated the seats with an apology. (Turned out they were not that fierce after all). All this was resolved amicably without any harsh words/raised voices typical to that part of India.
It is also interesting to note how government departments are accepting mobile based proofs. We had requested for cancellation of an accommodation booking via emails that went unanswered. When we finally managed to go to the tourism office and used the (very handy) iPhone to show them our emails, they accepted and gave us the refund despite the fact that the cancellation deadline had passed.
For most part of our journey, we realized that all we needed was a smart phone! We had a complex schedule involving many flights, trains, back up bookings etc. Once we entered the entire schedule into my phone, it became the only assistant that we needed. Digital record of all bookings, transactions etc were stored and could be retrieved easily.
Things have improved from a few years ago where booking were done through agents, you had to carry heaps of documents while on travel and heaven help you in case you forgot or lost anything. While everything is not digital or seamless like our package tour operator's schedule, but I for one could see the huge leaps that we have made.
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