TripIt wants to take the cluttered mess of travel reservation e-mails and turn them into a polished, easy-to-follow itinerary.
It mostly succeeds, using an excellent cross-platform approach and requiring minimal effort from the user to create an itinerary that is accessible from an iPhone, iPad, Android device or the web.
After creating an account, simply forward any travel confirmation e-mails to plans@tripit.com. Then TripIt will sort the confirmation information and order flights, hotel bookings or other travel arrangements into a sequential itinerary. This can be quite useful for booking a multi-day or multi-city trip with several flights, hotel accommodations or rental cars. For items booked from a major company site or service like Orbitz or Priceline, the information goes through without a glitch and puts the travel information within easy reach.
The same goes for events. For example, sending ticket information from a Ticketmaster or EventBrite confirmation is then added to an existing itinerary or creates a new activity.
A travel or event itinerary can be shared with a traveling partner or anyone across your contact list or social networks. While most users will probably not want to broadcast the details of travel plans, being able to send it to a spouse or significant other is extremely useful.
More technical users can import TripIt into a calendar application, such as Google Calendar, iCal or Outlook. There is a good walkthrough on the TripIt site, and it’s quite handy to have this information within one’s calendar.
Things get a little more complicated, however, when booking specific events or lodging from smaller inns or B&Bs. For example, while putting together an itinerary for a trip to Europe this summer both an inn and bed-and-breakfast reservation e-mail were not recognized by TripIt when sent to the system.
When this happens the information is saved as a note, which can then be edited and added to the itinerary. The most peculiar reservation that did not take was a train trip from Eurostar, the major train line that connects London to Paris.
For those who like to test out beta products TripIt offers automatic import of travel e-mails from Gmail. Just like your Google account to TripIt and then forget about having to forward e-mails. So far it worked very well with a couple of recent hotel reservations.
For frequent travelers TripIt offers TripIt Pro, a $49 per year service that monitors travel activity by alerting users about such travel changes as flight changes, cancellations, delays or check-in reminders. Many of these services are available individually through different airlines, though this removes the hassle of signing up each time.
One of the most helpful features from TripIt Pro is the ability to view and manage one’s frequent flyer miles all from within TripIt. The unstable nature of airline fees means flying exclusively on one airline is virtually impossible; being able to quickly view several accounts can really save time.
There is another level of service for businesses. Those who must handle multiple arrangements for an office staff can sign up for one of the business plans, which begin at $29 per month for up to 10 users.
For most users TripIt’s free service will suffice. The ad-supported app is free – though those who want to kill the ads can opt for the $3.99 version on iOS. Signing up for TripIt Pro lets users download the free version without any ads.
For those with the travel bug, TripIt is definitely worth checking out, as it eliminates the need to search through one’s Gmail archive in order to track down that confirmation number or hotel address. While those who take the path less traveled may not have as smooth of an experience, TripIt is an excellent rethinking of travel organization in the smartphone era.
Download TripIt (no ads) from the App Store ($3.99)
Download TripIt (ad supported) from the App Store (Free)
Download TripIt from Android Market (Free)
On Target:
- Extremely easy to use
- Well-designed apps
Off the Mark:
- Not all e-mails will add to itinerary
