The Best Android Flight and Trip Tracking Travel Apps

My Top Favourite Free Android Flight and Trip Tracking Travel Apps

 

First Published: Mar 18, 2012 EntrepreneurJourney.com

Travelling will never be the like the old days due to what technology brought us on our smart phones or tablets via hi-tech apps. Just 3 years ago, I could not have possibly imagined that just forwarding my trip confirmation email to these app email addresses can perform magic instantaneously on my android devices and all the travel itinerary and detailed hotel information will be organized day by day. Today, I will discuss my top 5 favourite travel apps you should try to make your next travel smooth and hassle free. 

WorldMate by WorldMate - A very popular mobile travel app. Free version has lots of features which can not be found on some other paid version apps. Among all other app websites, only on WorldMate’s website did I find the Check-In button that lets you check in from home and receive a boarding pass before leaving home. WorldMate does have a paid version for other platforms, but not for Android. However, I would not buy a paid version for a $10 annual fee when I can buy other paid apps for a one time $5 or $10 only. 

TripIt by TripIt Inc. - Tripit is another travel organizer app that shows all your trip details in one place, including flights, hotels, cruises, restaurants, concerts, etc. Many other travel apps uses TripIt or have the ability to sync with TripIt. So having a TripIt account gives you the advantage of sending your travel details to other apps without sending a confirmation email to each of them again. 

Kayak Flight Hotel Car Search by Kayak - Kayak is an all-in-one app that lets you search hotels, flights, setup price alerts, etc. and at the same time you can track your flights. The only thing I can complain about with Kayak is that it takes up more space on your device as it is more than just a flight tracker. 

FlightTrack by Mobiata - When it comes to flight tracking, FlightTrack does the job very well. However, there is no free version. The basic version costs $4.99 and it does not offer to sync with Tripit or anything else - you need to enter your flight information manually. The pro version costs $9.99 and has the ability to sync with TripIt. Its major disadvantage is that it can only track flights - nothing else. 

World Economy, Recession, and Investment Opportunities

Reading the World Economy

First Published: ADawnJournal.com May 31, 2009

While there is a lot of talk about the current economic strife affecting a large part of the globe, it is natural that there will be different levels of concern in different nations. This is a global recession, and it is affecting people on each continent. But when one says “global”, does that mean that everyone is in the same boat? Well, no, of course not. There are different levels of indebtedness and different prospects for recovery in just about every independent economy. How countries have prepared for a time just like this will affect how able they are to deal with it. Some countries are not, for their purposes, in recession at all.

Reading the finance pages of daily newspapers, it can be tempting to try and keep score, as we watch one economy after another slip through the trapdoor. When one country goes it is natural to look at its near neighbours and its historical allies and trading partners in order to see if they will follow – or how their own plans will be affected. It is easy to see, in retrospect, how the major world economies slipped into recession, as credit was given in too cavalier a manner to people who were ill equipped to pay it back. There are some countries who have fallen in a secondary wave because their industries have been hit by a reduction in orders from recession-bitten nations.

Then there are other countries who have managed to remain as yet untouched by the grim hand of recession. It is interesting to look at these countries and see what they have in common – usually it is the fact that they have strong infrastructures, an industry that the rest of the world relies on even in times of financial privation, or have been more or less isolationist from a trade point of view. Some combination of the above is a recipe for being largely recession-proof – but at the cost of being less likely to profit from a global boom.

Reading the recession is worthwhile, whatever your reasons for doing it. If you are a potential investor, it helps to know what countries are ripe for investment opportunities and which are to be avoided at all costs. If you are concerned about your own position within an industry, it can help to see how that industry is faring worldwide. It is also true to say that the first people to see (and maybe profit from) th e end of the global recession will be those who follow the financial news from all over the world.

Although this world is split up into hundreds of countries, and those self-same countries are often devolved into administrative regions, there are generally global consequences to local issues. You may not know today how a drop in the price of a certain commodity will affect your own life, but by watching the stories as they play themselves out you can give yourself a firm grasp of the issues that may not matter right now, but will begin to pretty soon.

Will There Be A Recovery?

Recovery Confusion? Yes. No. Maybe?

First Published Date : July 12, 2009 ADawnJournal.com

As weeks go by in 2009 and we wait for the increasingly bizarre financial drama to play itself out to a conclusion we can at least rely on the assembled highly-paid financial experts who make up institutions no less venerable than the International Monetary Fund and OECD to favour us with the information that there will be a recovery, definitely, next year, but it might not be as strong as we imagined. On the other hand it might be. Then again, at least there will definitely be growth in the economy. There probably will, anyway. We don’t know how much. What we do know is that it will follow a contraction in 2009, and that contraction will be around 4%. Or maybe less than that. Maybe 2%.

The thing is, these conclusions are arrived at after no small amount of study and analysis by people who genuinely know how money behaves, and they have certainly got more of an idea how things are set to pan out than most of us – more of an idea, in fact, than at least 99.9% of us. And that last figure is not a forecast, it is a fact. But when the forecasts we read differ so considerably from week to week, and these forecasts emanate from people who really know this stuff, who digest the important figures with absolute certainty due to careers spanning decades – what on earth are the relative greenhorns to think? If the experts are predicting zero growth one week and 2% the next, 4% contraction one week and 2% a month later, what are we to do with that?

It would do the reader and indeed the writer a massive disservice to call any of us financially illiterate. It could even be said that one of the few bright sides of the global recession is that it has made the average individual a lot more financially savvy. People who could not have distinguished a contraction from a recovery a year ago, who eighteen months ago knew only that bulls and bears could have been found together in a Chicago sports awards dinner, all of a sudden have a lot more of an idea what is happening – even if they are largely powerless to prevent anything. The fact that we all know a little more about the markets is something which will hopefully work in favour  of preventing a similar recession any time in the near future.

For the time being, what can we believe with any concrete certainty? Well, the rest of this year will see continuing contraction, on balance. We can be fairly sure it will be light in comparison with the contraction that has gone before it. We can be sure, too, that next year will see a recovery of sorts. A recovery with appreciable growth might be possible. We should definitely see some growth. But don’t put any money on that coming true, because if the IMF are not certain, who can be?

8 Free Lounge Passes from BMO World Elite MasterCard

8 Free Lounge Passes This Year

The BMO World Elite MasterCard is changing their lounge access program from Priority Pass to LoungeKey. I wrote about this here a few days ago: BMO  World Elite Switching Lounge Program. Today, I will provide you with further details on how you have 8 free lounge passes this year.

The lounge program change takes place on August 8, 2018. Until then, you will have 4 free passes from Priority Pass, which are given each year. Once the switch takes place, meaning after August 4, 2018, BMO will throw in another 4 free lounge passes for the rest of the months until December 31, 2018.

What it means that you will get these 4 extra free lounge passes from LoungeKey in addition to the free lounge passes you had from Priority Pass from Jan 1 to Aug 8. It is recommended you finish using up Priority Pass passes before August 8 because the Priority Pass program (through BMO WE MasterCard) will no longer be valid after Aug 8.

And then finish using up the other 4 LoungeKey passes by December 31. Because the LoungeKey program will reset on Jan 1 with 4 new free passes and each subsequent year, there will be 4 free passes from LoungeKey.

If you are doing a lot of traveling this year, these 8 passes will come in handy. For myself, most of these passes will be wasted because my trip to Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Singapore starts in late November and I will get free lounge access from my business class tickets.

BMO definitely deserves credit for giving 4 extra passes, as they had the option to not provide any free LoungeKey passes for the rest of 2018.

Watch my video on this here:  BMO World Elite MasterCard Gives 8 Free Lounge Passes This Year  and subscribe to my YouTube channel, as I bring you travel and credit card videos to enhance your travel experiences.

5 Low-Cost Start-Up Business Ideas

Starting A Business on A Budget

First Published: Feb 19, 2012 EntrepreneurJourney.com

Starting a new business is always a good thing. However, it may not be realistic for everyone to start a full-phase business due to lack of money and paperwork requirements. But it does not mean you need to give up. Here are 5 low-cost, no hassle business ideas that should motivate you enough to start your new venture, or to look for other similar ideas to get going with your first business.

Tutoring

Tutoring is almost free to start, and with the least possible paper work. Do not associate tutoring with only teaching kids. You can teach any skills you possess to anyone, young or old. Some possibilities include teaching English, math, physics, computers, music, and so on. If you do not possess the skill to teach something you love, you can learn it first and then start teaching that to others.

Catering

If you have a passion for food and love to cook, catering may be the answer for you. You need to have a license and there may be other requirements to operate a catering business. Please contact your city or municipal authorities to find out more. If you can provide good food at reasonable prices, your catering business can grow very fast. However, because you are dealing with food preparation, food safety rules and regulations have to be maintained at all times.

Accounting and Tax Services

If you are an accountant or tax specialist, you can start your accounting and tax services from your home office. Your target customers will be small businesses and individuals requiring tax preparation, financial planning, bookkeeping, and so on.

Child Care

This may not be for everyone, but if you love working with kids this may be for you. You may need to have a license, depending on where you live. Check with your local authorities what the requirements are before starting a child care service. Very good money can be made providing child care services. You can offer your services to cater to different types of needs such as on the weekend only, daytime hours only, or evenings only.

E-Commerce

With a very low start-up cost, e-commerce can have no boundaries in terms of what types of Internet business you can run from home. It is possible to setup an international business from home with an eBay account and a PayPal account.