Plugin.com

High Scores For TripIt From Business Travelers

Written by: Donna Ann Peck 1,165 views

Do you click through a stack of emails to find out when your flight leaves? A lot of web sites have taken over the functions of a travel agent, but few organize the details. TripIt is the first site to generate a master travel itinerary from email confirmations.

If you dabble in technology to be more efficient and organized, you will love TripIt. It automatically produces an online itinerary from confirmations from airlines, car rental agencies and hotels. The weather and maps also appear on one easy-to-read document that’s a breeze to access and update.

A+ for painless travel planning

Putting all your travel information online and letting it live there exponentially increases its usefulness. Because TripIt simplifies the process of creating final travel itineraries, travel managers and executive assistants can work quickly and efficiently.  “There’s a kind of magic to forwarding on a travel confirmation from an airline or a hotel reservation and having them aggregated into an itinerary, along with automagically added maps of the destination, local weather, and other useful information,” writes Tim “O’Reilly.

The magician here is TripIt’s ‘itinerator,’ generating itineraries behind the scenes. It supports hundreds of booking sites like Expedia, Orbitz, Hotwire, Priceline; travel agencies (Sabre, Worldspan) and most airlines, hotels and car-rental agencies.

You can spend more time planning for fun, like having dinner at a new restaurant. You can add directions, the dinner menu and photos. If you install TripClipper, one click on “Add to TripIt” in your web browser toolbar saves an interesting city tour to your TripIt folder.  Look at sample trips for ideas: Costa Rica honeymoon, Europe reunion trip, and New York City Labor Day Weekend.

A for accessibility

You can access your itineraries via paper, your personal calendar, an email or on any mobile device with a web browser. TripIt’s calendar feed works with Microsoft Outlook 2007, Google Calendar, Apple iCal, Mozilla Thunderbird (Lightning), and Lotus Notes. You don’t have to re-import the trip every time your itinerary changes. Just sync the new version with your calendar.

View your trip in one easy-to-read document on your mobile device. The free TripIt Phone app dials phone numbers with one touch; and provides flight times, confirmation numbers, flight status, and google maps. Your itinerary is even available offline or in airplane mode.

The $69 pro version is a genuinely useful service that will help you avoid some of the drama when flights are delayed or canceled. TripIt sends an email alert when your flight is delayed or canceled, suggesting alternate flights with available seats departing around the same time. TripIt pro also automatically shares these updates with key people.

A for Italy trip

A for my trip

Since my first business trip, I’ve understood the value of being organized. I found TripIt on Time.com’s 2009 list of 50 best websites. I stopped copying travel articles to my computer. Now I squirrel away gems for future trips in my TripIt folder, adding useful information until I have the magical ingredients, let’s say, for three perfect days in Vancouver.

I also forwarded my confirmation emails for a 10-day trip to the Alps to Plans@tripit.com. I added websites for hotels and tours using the Add-to-TripIt command I installed on my bookmark menu bar.

Beginning with Munich, I plotted the day-by-day itinerary. To recognize the Hotel Cocoon when I arrive, I added a picture of the entryway. I copied the dinner menu from Hacker-Pschorr Brewery. I clicked the map to launch the walking route from Hotel Cocoon to Marienplatz. The hybrid view shows Marienplatz City Center, National Theater, Royal Residence and the Hofgarten as they actually appear.

I’ll have the complete itinerary on my iPhone using TripIt’s free iPhone app so I can travel without my laptop. When I’m logged into the hotel’s WiFi network, the app launches a map when I click the address. I can also look at my itinerary on the full site. One caveat: the Itinerator recognizes precise commands such as the get trip command. When I emailed Re: get trip 12/10/09, I got an error message until I deleted Re: in the subject field. Call TripIt if you hit any snags.

Gregg Brockway, president of the San Francisco-based company, believes that organizing a trip shouldn’t be an extreme sport. He is an avid traveler, clocking 158,769 miles to 65 locations. He said kitesurfing in Cabarete, Dominican Republic, was a dream destination. “For me, there’s nothing better than a great day kitesurfing, followed by a lobster and beer dinner by candlelight on the beach with my wife.”

3 Responses So Far... Leave a Reply: