Why I use Tripit to organize my travel plans

Let’s face it: sometimes planning travel can be a pain in the butt. Not only that, but actually going through with them—getting to the airport at the right time, catching your connecting flight at the right time, getting to the right hotel, etc.—can be equally frustrating if all your information is scattered across different e-mail accounts on different computers. Who here has sat down the night before you’re supposed to leave (or an hour before—we know you people exist) and think “So, what time do I leave again, and where am I staying?” I’m no power traveler, but as someone who has flown either for business or pleasure six times this year with three more trips to go, I’m getting frazzled just writing about it.

Sure, some travel sites are making it easier to keep track of the things you have booked. You can log into Travelocity or Orbitz to check up on your itinerary—assuming you booked your entire itinerary there, or that you even remember you booked your flight there in the first place. And even then, that doesn’t address the maps you might need to generate (even if only on your phone) when you get there. You may think these people don’t exist, but not only do they exist among our readership, they exist within the Ars staff as well. Clearly, travel can be quite an affair to the too-busy person.

That’s why I started using a service called Tripit. Launched in 2006, Tripit’s entire goal is to simplify the process of organizing and going through with your travel plans, and in doing so it has saved my sanity.

I don’t have time for much, but I can forward an e-mail

The beauty in Tripit is its simplicity—a key component for someone who is busy and/or forgetful. When you sign up, you can associate certain e-mail accounts (you can add more than one) with your Tripit account. Then go ahead and book your flight, hotel, rental car, and whatever else you can come up with at any of the many sites that offer such a service. When the confirmation e-mail comes in, don’t think—just forward it on to plans@tripit.com.

Tripit can parse the confirmations from practically any service and sort out all the relevant details into one, easy-to-read table on its website or iPhone app (I’ll go into this later). It doesn’t matter if you booked stuff for the same trip from different websites. Hotel from hotels.com, but a rental car from Orbitz? No problem.

Consolidation is your friend

The next time you log into Tripit, you will see your upcoming trip(s) listed:

When you click on a trip, it will display the details of your itinerary plus a map of your hotel (if you have one booked), the expected weather while you’re there, and even the weather when you’re expected to return back home. If you booked tickets for multiple people, Tripit can pick up on that info and display it as well. Additionally, Tripit provides buttons for online check-in for your flights, so you no longer have to fish around to get to the right site.

Your friends travel too

There’s an additional feature to Tripit that I don’t use (but other people do), and that’s the social networking aspect. You can add friends—I have added Ars Project Manager Clint Ecker as my (apparently) only friend—so that you can see each other’s travel plans. This is beneficial if you have friends and family scattered across the country and wouldn’t mind bumping into them on your travels. This actually happens to me a fair amount—I see certain friends of mine more often in cities that neither of us live in than anywhere else.

If you have those friends associated with your Tripit account, the service will let you know who’s traveling while you are, who might be coming to your hometown and when, and more. The only reason I don’t use this feature is because you can’t just search for other users within Tripit (or if you can, I haven’t found out how)—instead, you must enter your password for any number of online e-mail services, enter your LinkedIn password, or send invitations to friends individually: