WorldMate is a company that was created to make travel easier - easier to track, easier to book, and easier to keep up with from the moment you receive that itinerary confirmation email. WorldMate already has apps out for Blackberry, iOS, Symbian, and WinMo, and today it is finally filling in the glaring omission by announcing the official Android app.

Features

The most useful feature, to me and thousands of users of this free service, is the ability to forward those itinerary confirmation emails from any of the popular booking sites to trips@worldmate.com and have them automatically converted into a new travel itinerary, broken down into individual travel items.

Other features of the Android app, in addition to full itinerary viewing, so far include:

  • Flight status via Flightstats.com
  • Google Maps integration
  • Smart Hotel search and booking through Hotels.com
  • Currency and weather

I tested the service by emailing it one of my recent itineraries from CheapTickets, and it worked flawlessly, creating entries for each of the 4 flights as well as the hotel automatically. Obviously, the flights had departure and arrival times, but what I really liked was that it automatically added the hotel address and phone number in. Here is what a sample trip looks like:

Searching for a new hotel reservation, powered by Hotels.com, can be done from within the app, and the experience is streamlined pretty well - it's not simply loading a web version from their site.

Of course, this overview wouldn't be complete without a mention of TripIt and its Android app that was released a few months ago, which seems to be in direct competition with WorldMate. I suggest you give both services a try and decide which one is better.

Download

You can download the WorldMate app for free from the Market, by visiting http://www.worldmate.com/android, or by scanning this handy QR code with Barcode Scanner:

[qr]com.worldmate[/qr]

Full Press Release:

WorldMate Now Pilots Your Travel Itinerary On Android

Full-Featured Personal Travel Service Brings Business Class Level App to Platform

San Francisco, CA – September 14, 2010 – Today WorldMate launched their Android application, free for all users, following tens of thousands of requests seeking Android capability. As the established leader in mobile travel services with over 5 million active customers worldwide on BlackBerry, iPhone and Symbian platforms, WorldMate brings an unprecedented level of usability and polish to travel apps on the Google-backed platform.

WorldMate on Android elegantly manages a user’s travel itinerary, while also keeping travelers immediately up-to-date with rich travel alerts. These flight reminders notify users pre-flight about their departure and arrival times, terminals, gate and connection information. Notifications also keep users up-to-date on all aspects of itinerary such as meetings and upcoming trips with a simple daily alert.

With the Android app, users can access other services including:

· Full itinerary viewing

· Link to flight status via Flightstats.com

· Link to Google Maps

· Smart Hotel search and booking through Hotels.com

· Currency, Weather and more!

“We are really excited to bring this level of quality to the Android platform with WorldMate,” said Jean Tripier, CEO of WorldMate. “Our users demanded an Android version and we were happy to provide the experience for them and all Android users, at a level previously unknown to that mobile platform. WorldMate is devoted to lessening the pains of travel, and now an entirely new segment of smart phone users can benefit from our personal travel service.”

See more about WorldMate for Android and download the Beta from www.worldmate.com/android

About WorldMate:

WorldMate is the personal travel assistant chosen by over 5 million business and premiere travelers worldwide. WorldMate caters to every aspect of business travel, understands your personal preferences and recommends the ideal options for the best possible travel experience.  Partnered with Virgin Blue, American Express Business Traveler, Carlson Wagonlit and Travelport, WorldMate extends its reach to major travel audiences and is recognized for its excellence. This year WorldMate was honored with the 2010 National Business Travel Association ‘s Traveler Innovation Award.