Business traveler Matthew Daimler launched SeatGuru more than a decade ago, having become frustrated at the vast differences between seating arrangements across airlines. In short, he was determined to collect this data and share it with other fussy travelers. The result? A single, color-coded interactive airplane seating chart. Green is a ‘good’ seat, red is a ‘not-so-good’ seat, and yellow is a ‘avoid-at-all-costs ‘seat.
In the ten years since launch, SeatGuru has expanded to cover more than 700 aircraft seatmaps across almost 100 airlines. Oh, and in 2007, SeatGuru was acquired by TripAdvisor.
Today, SeatGuru has well and truly arrived in the digital age with the launch of its first iPhone app. The free app features SeatGuru’s collection of color-coded airplane seat maps, and gives travelers some helpful tools through integrating TripAdvisor’s flight search engine, meaning you can to book a flight on the move. You can also get real-time flight status updates.
“We’re excited to put the power of SeatGuru’s flier-backed seat maps and recommendations in the hands of iPhone users,” said Jami Counter, senior director of SeatGuru. “Our free app gives travelers the peace of mind that they’ve found the best airplane seat at the lowest price, in an easy-to-navigate display to help make the air travel experience less stressful.”
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The app will also let you see comments left by other travelers who have sat in the same seats you’re thinking about going for. You simply hover over the seat in question, and voila.
Whilst TripAdvisor powers the flights search engine, real-time flight status updates comes courtesy of FlightAware. Not only will this alert travelers if their flight is delayed or canceled, but it also lets you arrange for notifications to be sent to family and friends if your flight is subjected to delays mid-flight.
The SeatGuru app is available to download today worldwide, though its enhanced flight shopping functionality with localized information is restricted to users in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia.
➤ SeatGuru
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