You ask “have the iPhone and iPod Touch changed how we travel?” I’d say yes they have.

You don’t need a 3G or even an internet connection if you download an app before you leave on a trip. I see people using them all the time.

I have read that 30% of the city guides that Lonely Planet sells are now apps.

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Hi Darren, just finished listening to your podcast about dirty selling tricks in the holiday business. We are a holiday company and we come up against these tricks everyday. We often have to try and price match “quotes” that customers have got from other companies that we know are too low to be true. Here are some of my tips to help customers not fall for the tricks:-

1) Get quotes from different companies. If one quote is a hell of a lot less than another then you know it’s probably too good to be true.

2) Also, when you are speaking to different companies ask them to check the availability on the flight before you book. If most of the companies are saying the flight is full in the cheap classes then you know the one who says it’s available is probably telling porkies and will probably try to change your flight once you have booked.

3) Get the holiday company to agree prior to booking that if any of the partsof your holiday substantially changes you can cancel the booking with a full refund.

4) Do searches on the internet for reviews of the company you are dealing with. If they seem to have a habit of doing this then it will show up.

5) As per usual make sure that the company is ABTA and ATOL protected.

6) The OFT does actually come down very hard on travel companies that advertise deals that are not true and so if you come across a number of deals advertised that are no longer available then feel free to let the OFT know. To be fair to the holiday company though only do this if quite a few deals are not available. I know working for a holiday company myself that we get a lot of deals from tour operators and through no fault of our own they can sell out before you have a chance to take them down from the website

Hope this helps!

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Charles – your six points are great. It is so true if the deal sounds to good it could be just rubbish. Great idea for consumers to get several quotes if they are unsure, as always make sure they are acreditated…

Travel app lover
james

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My husband has an iPhone and it’s already changed how we travel. We can now go on a road trip and book our accommodation from the road. We can also tweet to ask for lunch/dinner recommendations. Plus we use the map feature so we don’t need other maps or GPS systems.

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I’m just about to upgrade to an i-phone, purely to keep in touch and use it when i travel, especially for Twitter. I am a bit worried about the high roaming fees though, but I’m sure there are ways round these things.

I like your 5 min podcast – it’s probably about the right length to listen to on the blog without downloading. But your player doesn’t show up in the feed, unlike other podcasts I listen to, which could be a disadvantage when people are scanning their feed for interesting stuff.

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