It's happening more frequently now -- innovations in mobile are finding their way into travel companies' desktop solutions.
That's what happened with India online travel agency Cleartrip, which has implemented, on an opt-in basis, a one-click flight-booking feature on its website and in Cleartrip Mobile called Expressway.
Hrush Bhatt, Cleartrip founder and director of product and strategy, writes in a blog post that Expressway replaces the previously mobile-only Express Checkout feature and that the adoption of the latter by mobile customers "spurred us on to develop Expressway as a solution that works across all devices."
With Expressway you add your profile and the details about your debit and credit cards -- including American Express, MasterCard, Visa and others -- and store them in your Cleartrip account. And, if you also book for family members or other people, you can enter their names, as well.
Then when you are ready to make a flight booking, just one click should do it, Bhatt writes.
Your personal data is subject to 128-bit encryption, there is no storage of your credit card CCV number or password, and the whole implementation is PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant, Cleartrip says.
The project took "months and months" to carryout, Bhatt writes.
Customers are able to book the flights in one click because they don't need to re-enter all their profile and credit card information when they book.
Finding ways to streamline the flight-booking process is in keeping with Cleartrip's DNA as the online travel agency argues that its site "gives you what you need without any annoying fluff. Who needs banners, pop-ups and blinking glitz? Search, book, go. That’s what we’re about - Making travel simple."
Other travel companies, such as Kayak, have first implemented features on mobile devices and then migrated them to the Web. For Kayak, its mobile booking assistant debuted in its iPhone app and eventually evolved into a Book Kayak option on the website instead of linking users to supplier sites for bookings metasearch-style.
Cleartrip made news last year when Concur took a $40 million stake in the India OTA.