If you travel regularly or are planning an extended trip, get TripIt.

Tripit works like this:Whenever I get an itinerary from an airline, rail company, hotel (pictured below) I forward the confirmation to  Tripit. Users can currently forward confirmation emails from over 1,000 different booking sites.

Thirty seconds after Tripit has got my email, they send one back:

Its like magic!  Every now and then one doesn’t work (Interislander ferries in NZ didnt work yesterday!). Tripit creates an itinerary from the confirmation. You can see my upcoming trips below on my Tripit homepage:

 Each of these Trips will include the Confirmations I send and it adds useful info like maps showing how to get from my hotel to the airport etc.

This means that by the time I fly out, I have an entire Master Itinerary for the whole trip with all my conformation numbers, airfares, times etc plus maps, directions, weather and more. For me that saves me hours per trip cutting, pasting, typing, printing and emailing.

I can look at that itinerary on-line and I now carry it on my iphone. I can print it for myself and others. I can email it to staff, family and clients. Aspects of it will pop up on my Facebook and on Linked In so friends and colleagues can see when they will be close to me and where I will be! It even links into my computer’s calendar and Google calendar.

Tripit then texts me with reminders through my trip. For example, it tells me when I need to check in. It lets me know which gate I will be taking off from and landing at. As soon as a flight is delayed or cancelled, it texts me. It will even recommend alternate flights I can discuss with the ticketing agent. With other add on apps, my phone can automatically trigger emails and texts to friends, family and staff telling them that I have arrived OK!

Tripit even monitors my frequent flyer programs!

There are two versions. A freebie and a paid one. I m not being given any incentive to tell you about Tripit-simply doing the viral thing because it really does help simplify travel!! Let me know how you get on with Tripit or other tools you might be using!

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