Peach and orange sunsets, rolling vineyards, mountainscape views complete with a deep blue sky and pine scented breezes — if you like to travel, then joining the Jetsetter community will feel exactly like how winning a Golden Ticket to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory feels to a chocoholic. Membership to this invitation-only travel community awards you with insider access, expert knowledge and exclusive deals on the world’s greatest vacations.
Now Jetsetter offers you the opportunity to book one of their memorable vacations via your iPhone with Jetsetter. The app was originally launched in March of this year but it has just gone through an update. With this update in mind, let me take you through the steps of booking a much needed get-a-way.
Getting Started
Once you have installed the Jetsetter app from the Apple store, go ahead and launch the app. Once the chic cover screen has loaded, you’ll be asked if you would like to allow push notifications. Try not to get distracted by the enticing background photography and make your selection. You will then arrive on the Featured page.
Starting up the Jetsetter app
I Thought You Said Invitation Only?
I did. While you are free to explore the Featured, Collections and Search page, marking trips as favourites, seeing your booked trips and most importantly, actually booking a trip are all reserved for members only. However, one of the perks about the iPhone app is that you are automatically granted a Jetsetter invitation just by using the app alone, so you’ll be good to go once you register, which you can do under the Settings button (located under More).
Options under the More button & registering
Picking Your Destination
The Initial Search
There are three ways to find a trip with the Jetsetter app. The first is by using the Featured screen. The Featured screen is a list of the featured vacations currently available on Jetsetter. As you scroll through the list you will see photos, the hotel name/trip opportunity, the location and how many days are left of the sale. Every once in awhile you will see “flash sale” instead of the number of days. Flash sales are the perfect opportunity to get up to 50 percent off the normal Jetsetter price but beware — they are on a first come, first served basis.
The Featured & Collections screens
The second way to find a trip is via the Collections screen. Collections are just what they sound like, collections of specific types of vacations/destinations. For example, select one of the “Amazing Art Hotels” or book into one of the “Top Destination Spas.” Browse through the “Toast to Summer Sunsets” collection or daydream as you take a 360 tour of some of the destinations in the “Explore in 360” collection.
Lastly, you can use the search function to search for a vacation that matches your destination, activity or hotel preference.
Searching by country & activity
Narrowing it Down
When you see a holiday that takes your interest, you can select it to see more details. The more detailed view lets you flip through photos, read reviews and see the full details of the trip. You will also find a review from one of the Jetsetter Correspondents.
Trip summary & correspondent's review
The Booking Process
You have perused the vacations on offer; you have read the reviews, checked all the details and drooled over the photographs, you’re ready to book and here’s how to do it.
To start off with, log in to your account under More > Settings. Then select the holiday you wish to book from the list. Pressing the Book Now button on the main summary page, the little orange button at the bottom right, will move you on to the main booking phase. If you don’t see the button, it might have just changed to “tap to see rates.”
The next part of the booking phase is making the actual booking. For hotel trips, you will be presented with a calendar for you to select when you will check in. To select your date, just press on the day you want and a little flag will show what you selected. To see other months of the calendar, scroll down the screen.
After you have told Jetsetter when you will check in, you need to tell them when you want to check out. Again, just tap on the date you have in mind and a flag will confirm it. With your dates all selected, you will swiftly be taken to a new screen where you select the room type for your stay.
Selecting your check in and check out dates
If you are booking a package trip rather than a hotel trip, you will be presented with a list of check in/check out dates under different occupancy types. Find the dates that work best for you, the occupancy you want and to the right will be an orange button with the subtotal. Pressing that button will move you onto the next phase of the booking process.
Selecting your room type & selecting a package
After selecting your room type/package option, you will be prompted to sign in if you didn’t do so at the beginning. The next screen will prompt you to enter your payment details. If you have any security concerns you can review Jetsetter’s security policy. Don’t forget to accept the terms at the bottom of the screen and then click “submit order.” That’s it. Your trip is booked.
Inputting your payment details & your completed order
One of the nice things about the booking process is that it is easy to get to the previous screen at any time by pressing the big, black and white arrow at the top left corner of the screen.
What Happens Next?
Directly after booking your trip, you will receive a confirmation email with your Jetsetter booking number. Your trip will also now show up in the My Trips area. You have the option to add special requests and adjust or add any guests that will be coming along via the app itself. From the simple Your Trip page, you have one-touch access to your itinerary, hotel details, Jetsetter support and personal assistance via the Get Me To screen.
The My Trips screen & Special Requests screen
The Your Trip screen & adding traveller details
The Get Me To screen let’s you receive on-screen help in multiple languages. Just select where you need to go, how you want to get there and what language you need the message to be displayed in. Once you click Show Translated Message you will have the exact phrase you need, in the correct language and all you have to do is show your screen to someone.
Get Me To screen & an example help screen
Once Jetsetter receives the confirmation number from the supplier (hotel, resort, tour operator, etc), they’ll send you another confirmation with your Jetsetter confirmation number and a confirmation number from the supplier (anytime from 0-7 days, but usually on the same or next day).
When you return from your trip, Jetsetter will send you a post stay survey. As Jetsetter explains, “We gather information about your Jetsetter booking experience, as well as your approval rating for the supplier. We use this information to improve Jetsetter, as well as share the feedback with our travel partner so they can better improve their own product.”
Conclusion
There is no denying that the Jetsetter app is a beautifully designed app. The photography and descriptions entice you in and the clean, easy to use layout makes booking a trip quick and easy, perhaps even too easy! There are one or two small bugs in the app, like the English description not changing once you translate a help message, but these are very minor and Jetsetter has confirmed that they are in the process of fixing them. Therefore the only other area that I can fault this app on is that it makes me want to book vacations and many of them. Not just because they look so great but because the process was so simple.
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