I am often asked what I do or use as a frequent traveller that helps make my travelling a little bit smoother than usual. TripIt (http://www.tripit.com) is one of the top items on that list.
TripIt is a simple, ingenious and free tool that helps sort your travel for you. You can forward confirmation emails to it and it will re-sort them into a simple step-by-step itinerary for you.
Let’s say you have emails confirming your flights with British Airways to London from Brussels (leaving on the 15th, returning on the 20th) and that you also have emails confirming your hotel and a couple of tickets to see a show. Forward all of these to the e-mail address provided and the web site will create an itinerary showing you what time your flight is, a map that shows how to get to the hotel and to the show and the local weather at your destination.
It is useful because it does a few simple things that all seasoned travellers need to do:
- It sorts all your travel plans chronologically.
- It gives you a handy reference to all important details like reservation numbers, telephone numbers and addresses.
- It collects them in one central location.
Coupled with their apps for mobile phones (I have the Blackberry one which is minimalist and incredible to use) you have all that you need instantly available. Those of you without a smart phone can just print out the itinerary before you leave.
Two more features that make it truly a gem for travellers – frequent or otherwise:
- You can share a trip and all details with family and friends. This is fabulous and lets people know where you are and where you’re supposed to be which can be valuable if you need to be contacted urgently. The professional version (which needs to be paid for) makes all this a lot simpler.
- You can let someone organise travel for you and maintain your account for you.
The professional version has a number of nifty tricks for road warriors like the ability to find similar flights in case yours is cancelled which makes the USD 49.00 price incredibly worthwhile.