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Apps That Organize Your Trips

  • Release time:2014-02-21

  • Browse:5713

  •    Tired of printing confirmation emails for every flight, hotel, car and restaurant table you reserve? Or typing the contents of all those emails into your calendar?


    Time for a travel organization app. There are several, and they can swiftly transform your emails into a single, easily shareable itinerary with confirmation numbers, addresses, maps and detailed notes. Which is best? That depends on who you are. All of the apps can help make itinerary creation a breeze, but each is distinguished by different features, be it flight alerts, currency converters, airport spa locaters or customizable lists like “Wines I drank along the way.”

    I tested some of the best-known apps — those most likely to appear in app stores and web searches — and split them into four categories to help you find a perfect match. I’ll share my personal picks at the end.

    For the app-averse ...

    The simplest way to combine your various travel emails into an itinerary is with TripIt(free), which has a clean, easy-to-read interface. Register for the service and from then on, whenever you receive a confirmation email — from an airline, hotel, car rental company or booking service like OpenTable, StubHub and Fandango — TripIt will automatically import your plans from your inbox, creating an itinerary with details like confirmation numbers, flight gates and hotel addresses. If you don’t want to automatically import your plans, just forward your confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com instead. Either way, you can view your itinerary on your smartphone or tablet (through the app and on your calendar if you enable “calendar sync”) and on the web (so if you still want to print it, you can). And you can share your itinerary with friends, family and social media followers. Relish quantification? You’ll enjoy visiting the website and seeing how many miles you’ve traveled.
    Those who pay $49 a year can upgrade to TripIt Pro, which includes alerts for things like flight delays, gate changes and better seats when they become available. Pro users can also monitor their frequent flier accounts. If you’ve been using TripIt, you know that some airlines have been unavailable, but you can now track your American, Delta, Southwest and United miles too.

    For the itinerary obsessed ...

    Like TripIt, TripCase (free) allows you to forward your email reservations to an address (trips@tripcase.com) and generate an itinerary. One can also be created manually by filling out tabs like flight, lodging and restaurant (though that could take longer than printing confirmation emails). You can sign up for TripCase on its website or app with either your Facebook account or email address. I did the latter and received an email with a “verify” button that I had to click in order to join. This wasn’t a smooth process; it took a few tries before I was successful. That said, the TripCase app does have some nice features, like the ability to look at your itinerary in “timeline view” as well as “action view,” which includes a fun heading that shows when you’re going. For instance, I have a coming trip to France, so mine said, “trip starts in 2 months.” There are good maps and, for any hotels on your itinerary, a graphic shaped like a Do Not Disturb sign reminds you of the checkout time. Action view also has handy icons that allow you to check local weather and email your plans to others.

    A similar app, TripDeck (free), lets you create an itinerary by filling out tabs including flight, train, cruise and lodging. Alternatively, you can sync the app with TripIt. I tried to do so several times, and each time, the app crashed. Eventually it pulled up one of my TripIt itineraries, but moments later, it crashed again. And again. It also crashed when I tried to add a trip manually, even when I made sure all other apps on my phone were closed. I tried on different days too. No luck. Next.

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