Travel Tips: Organize Your Travel with TripIt
Updated: Jun 26, 2021
Is your inbox full of confirmation emails from airlines, rental car companies, or hotels? I realized last month that I had a bunch of trips coming up over the summer and I was feeling overwhelmed about keeping all of the details straight. Since I love to travel, it seemed wrong to be losing sleep over the disorganized disparate mess of emails in my inbox. TripIt came to my rescue!
TripIt is incredibly easy. After you have created an account (for free) you simply email your confirmation from your travel reservation (works with over 3,000 sites, including travel agents, cruises, restaurants, and more) to plans@tripit.com. TripIt knows who you are based on your email address and automagically creates a detailed organized itinerary for your trip.
Here’s an example of what the flight portion of an itinerary would look like using a web browser:
Did you notice that it has a map and the local weather? Very helpful!
Here’s what a complete itinerary would look like on an iPhone:
Aside from the organization capabilities, TripIt also lets you share your itineraries with family, friends, and colleagues. I can’t believe I wasted so much time typing up custom itinerary emails for people in the past. Now I simply get a private custom link from TripIt and email it to whomever needs to know about my travel plans.
But wait! There’s more! Everything that I have mentioned so far is free. If you spend $49 per year to upgrade to TripIt Pro you get several must-have features. My favorite one is mobile alerts. I like to receive text message updates, since it doesn’t require Internet or 3G access and they are easy on my phone’s battery. TripIt gives you lots of choices for what alerts you want to receive and via what method.
In addition to mobile alerts, TripIt Pro also lets you track all of your frequent travel accounts, shows you alternate flights should you need to make alternative arrangements, and tracks the price of your flights so that you can request a refund (if eligible) when the price drops.
Those are the features that I like the best, but there are many others to explore on their website. I can assure you that I have not received any compensation for writing this post. In fact, once my 30-day free trial has expired I will be paying them $49 for a Pro account. For me, the ability to take these details off of my to-do list is priceless. Thanks TripIt!
