Booking Flights with Apps

Everyday it is possible to do things with apps once thought to be impossible. One such thing is booking flights straight out of an app without even needing to go to a web browser. Multiple airlines now feature apps with such capabilities. 

I took some time to explore apps for booking tickets for flights. After a bit of searching I found that there is a small group of such apps. Both Sourhwest Airlines and Continental Airlines are among this group of companies trying to keep up with the times. I tested both apps, which are available for free, and you can indeed book tickets straight from the mobile device being used. They are both easy to follow step by step apps leading to eventually entering payment information and booking the tickets. All of this was done straight from the app without having to use a web browser to complete the transaction. 

I also tried out apps that were not directly related to an airline but found that when trying to actually book the ticket you are linked up to the companies website instead of using the app to complete the transaction. 

Below is a slideshow of screenshots from the Continental and Southwest apps. 

Reaction to Middle East Panel

About a week ago, my Jour289I class took a break from our normal discussions to have a guest panel of journalists from the Middle East. There were eleven countries represented from across the whole region. It was definitely an interesting experience learning from journalists in those countries. It was also interesting to see how different each country was in terms of what they can report and how easily people could access good journalism in the various countries.

One of the reporters particularly stood out to most people. She was a reporter from Saudi Arabia. She was telling us about how hard it was to be a female reporter in the country because of the various restrictions places on women in the country. For instance, there is a certain age that women have to be in order to drive or take a taxi in the country. Since she was not old enough to do either of these things, it was difficult for her to make it out to the scenes of various stories to report on them.

Another thing that caught people by surprise was that there was a general agreement among most of the journalists that they can not write stories about their monarch, president, or who ever was in charge. Being an American, this was quite interesting. Since there are always stories about the president (almost every president) doing things incorrectly or how they are bad for the country, it was interesting to hear that they can not even write criticism about their leaders.

Overall, it was a good experience to hear from the journalists from the different Middle East countries. It presented a type of journalism I was not used to and I’m glad I got to hear from the panel.