MakeMyTrip Enables ‘Social’ Travel in India with Tripalong

Travel becomes fun as you enjoy the journey, and not just the destination!

New Delhi, April 17, 2012: MakeMyTrip, India’s leading Travel Company, announced the launch of Tripalong, a revolutionary social application developed exclusively for travellers. Tripalong integrates with your favourite social networks and maps your travel itinerary to help connect with friends while travelling. Users enter the details of their flights on Tripalong and are notified if they are ‘intersecting’ with members from their social network (who are also Tripalong members). Once users share their flight (L-R) Keyur Joshi, Ramesh Srivats, Purab Kohli & Manish Kalradetails they can catch up with their friends who may be on the same flight, at the airport and even in the city they are visiting.  Users can also make new friends on Tripalong based on their profiles and interests. The application was unveiled at a press briefing in Delhi today by Purab Kohli, actor and an avid traveler. The app has been conceptualized and developed in association with TenTenTen Digital Products, a company that helps brands reach out to today's connected customer by creating large, social apps that become brand properties.

Speaking at the launch, Mr. Keyur Joshi, COO & Co-Founder, MakeMyTrip, said, “MakeMyTrip has always led from the front, using technology and innovation to deliver more power and choices to the traveler. We are extremely delighted to introduce Tripalong to India. Keyur JoshiThis is a social application that will enhance the ‘fun’ quotient of your travel experiences.  A unique platform to engage with old friends and meet new people, Tripalong extends our brand promise of creating Memories Unlimited!”

Mr. Ramesh Srivats, MD & CEO of TenTenTen Digital Products, added, "Social networks are more than just new "media". They have changed the very way in which people interact with each other. So there's no point in using them as yet another channel to pump brand messages. In fact, in this world, brands are built by actions, not words. Tripalong helps MakeMyTrip do just this. It's useful and cool. And leverages the customer's own networks to make his or her travel a lot more fun. And the fun has just started. We have lots of features that will be added to Tripalong as we go along, to make it even more powerful and even more useful."

Tripalong is extremely simple and easy to use. The application allows users to register on www.Tripalong.in. The user can link their Tripalong account with their LinkedIn and / or Facebook accounts which will provide access to their friends already on Tripalong. Upon adding flight schedule (date of travel and route), the application auto-prompts the user for Airline detail and departure time. It then shares details of friends registered on Tripalong who may be travelling on the same flight, or be at the same airport with opportunity to ‘intersect’. Friends can then choose to connect offline and check-in together to get a seat next to each other or meet at the airport. Tripalong also updates users on friends who are in the same city as they are travelling to – it’s like a helpful assistant that facilitates interactions on the go. In addition, whenever a user adds flight details, he/she is also able to see other registered Tripalong members on the same flight, along with their brief profiles. The user can then choose to send an invite to connect with any of them. Once the invite is accepted, users can plan their interaction off-line or via e-mail. Tripalong also enables users to notify members in their social network of their itinerary. Members can share flight details on Tripalong irrespective of where they have purchased their ticket from - although MakeMyTrip flight purchases can be directly synchronized with the app.

MakeMyTrip is sensitive to traveler-information protection and no other user-related data is exchanged with Tripalong members who are not authorized by the user. The privacy settings and networks/groups are auto-imported from Facebook/LinkedIn – thus only other Tripalong Members and the friends/social connections who the user wants to connect with, are privy to their travel information. 

How to use Tripalong – it is a few simple steps!

1)      Open Tripalong.in and Click on “Sign UP NOW”.

2)      You can click on fConnect to connect through Facebook, or your MakeMyTrip account, or even create a new account on Tripalong.

3)      Upon logging in, you can link your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts with Tripalong and also directly import information pertaining to flights booked through MakeMyTrip.

4)      Enter and save the key details of your profile - mandatory fields are ‘Name’, ‘Email ID’ and ‘City of origin’.

5)      Once you add a flight on Tripalong, you can select the origin, destination and date following which you will be able to choose the airline and time of departure from the drop-down menu.

6)      Upon adding a flight, you will be able to see other “Trip Pals” on the flight.

7)      You can then choose to connect with old friends or other Trip Pals based on profile and common interests.

Please Note:

• Tripalong works best with Google Chrome, Safari, Mozilla Firefox 8 and Above, IE 8 and above
• When logging into the app through Facebook, if you click on “Allow” to post on your behalf, the message that you have joined Tripalong and the Flights you wish to share will be posted on your wall –  you can change the privacy setting regarding access to view your wall-post any time through Facebook privacy settings