MtStream

Is TripIt pro worth the $70? Are there competing services that you would recommend over TripIt.

Needs:
Office personnel have access to my iteneraries and any changes due to flight delays, etc.
Good resource for identifying and changing flights due to flight problems (delays, etc.).

I know the TripIt iPhone app is very limited and other apps will use their information. I'll start a seperate thread for discussion of the phone apps.

Thanks

sbm12

If you just want them to see your feed of travel details you can give them access to the iCal feed. I've done that with my wife and now she can see where I'm going and when. It makes scheduling much easier, especially since I don't remember half my trips until a week or two out.

Not so sure about other options for notification of delays, etc.

And there are a bunch of discounts floating around making TripIt Pro a bit less expensive; I'd search around before paying full price. For example TRIP49B is valid through tomorrow (9/16) for $20 off.

TheMadBrewer

Like with anything else, I guess it depends

I've been using the free version of TripIt for a while (2 years maybe -- 1.5 at least) and was given a chance to buy a subscription to Pro at $49, which I did.

In my case, I'm often co-ordinating a trip with lots of people -- everybody buys their own tickets but we travel together on the ground. TripIt has been great for keeping track of that and TripIt Pro gives me email alerts when somebodies flight is late/canceled. Yes, I could get that info from the airlines websites, but I find its easier just to get an email rather than having to check.

So, for me it is worth $50 -- is it worth $70? That is probably the max I'd pay, and I might not even go that high.

wifi-jedi

Try Worldmate Pro. They have an iPhone and Blackberry version that syncs your travel itineraries from their website worldmatelive.com.

MtStream

I tried the free Worldmate service (same service just missing some additional features like TripIt). I had very high expectations given what looked like a well advanced iPhone app (push notifications and full functionality). However, I forwarded 4 flight confirmations (all from AA) and it only picked up one correctly. I tried manually setting up the others based on what it could figure out and ended up with a mess and no clear easy way to clean it up (poor user interface for doing that). I did download the free iPhone version and found the same mess (as expected) but still no easy clean up of information.

I think both apps are onto a really great idea and could have something huge with some additional features/functions. The question is "who will get there first?"

In the mean time I took advantage of the discount code above and chose TripIt Pro - Thanks SMB12 for posting that!

As far as I'm concerned there still isn't a clear answer - it gets even more cloudy when considering the phone app functionality. I'm hoping TripIt continues to improve quickly.

mordy2000

I've been using TripIt for a while now also and find that it does a great job of building my itineraries -- where I can access it quickly from my iPhone. While it does a great job when I email my confirmations (they literally appear in my itinerary in mere seconds), and they are accurate, they don't handle changes very well.

For example, I had a car rental in an itinerary and I updated my reservation and sent the new confirmation - so now my itinerary had 2 car rentals in it, instead of replacing one with the other.

I upgraded to Pro with their $49 promotion (they claimed that as an early adopter, I would never have to pay more than $49 a year even if they raised prices) and gave it a try. It's nice to have others copied on my itinerary. The texting every time there's a flight change or delay is nice in concept, but most of the airlines already offer that service now (AA for example). So when I got the text of a delay, I already knew about the delay, so it was a reminder that I was delayed. Hm. Maybe when I fly airlines that don't offer this feature, it will be handy.

I'm left wondering if TripIt Pro is really worth it, but for now, I spent the $50 bucks and said "lets see what they make of this" -- I give them a year -- and I'll decide next year if this is something worth holding on to.

Mordy

BurBunny

I've been using the free versions of both TripIt and WorldMate the past few months. I like that the WorldMate has a Blackberry ap that works nicely, but feel it's missing some features (such as adding cruise itineraries and other "leisure" type activities easily). TripIt often picks up the emailed confirmations a bit better, though I find the online interface clunky when it goofs on something.

If TripIt had a BB ap, I'd probably go that direction, but I'm working with both for now to keep dupes and see who wins out overall.

wifi-jedi

I did have some issues about WorldMate Live when I forwarded confirmations as well. I found if I removed the FWD from subject header and the forward header it worked out great for me. I pretty much got addicted to WorldMate because of their Blackberry app. Looks like based on the reviews I am going to have to give TripIt a try.

chejus

I´ve usted Tripit - free version - for about 1 year without problems.
I´ve subscribed to Worldmate Gold for USD 49.- for 1 year but I don´t quite like it.
I feel more comfortable with Tripit. it picks up emails better and since I do not live in the USA, there are some things of Worldmate that I don´t need.

In view of this I will try to cancel mi Gold subscription to Worldmate and continue with tripit - free version for some time.

jg70124

I too used the free version of TripIt and Worldmate. In the end, I settled on Tripit, because:
1) Tripit allows more control of notification emails. Worldmate sends confirmation emails for every new addition, which seemed goofy since things only get added when I add them.
2) Tripit lets you move or copy items from one itinerary to another, while Worldmate does not. This is an because both programs occassionally put stuff in the wrong itinerary.
3) While WorldMate has an application for WinMo (my platform), it frequently crashed my phone.
4) Worldmate provides no way to display itineraries in Outlook unless you the use Blackberry version. Tripit provides a calendar feed, which is not perfect, but better than nothing
5) Worldmate showed consistently inaccurate weather forecasts, and would not automatically show weather for my current location (TripIt does).
6) Tripit offered a year's subscription for $49, versus $129 for WorldMate

DMSFCA

I was once the biggest fan of Worldmate and bought the blackberry and iPhone versions and pay for the gold membership, but I'm starting to move to the TripIt camp due to the excellent third-party support. If they came out with a true blackberry application, I'd never us Worldmate again.

On the iPhone there are many excellent third-party applications that work with your TripIt data, my favorite two, which I have purchased, are FlightTrack and Flight Update. They do the same thing, I can't decide which I like more.

I just use the free TripIt for the iPhone, which seems fine for my needs. Right now I just forward all my confirmations to both services and can freely use both apps. Until TripIt comes out with a Berry version, I can't bail on WorldMate completely.

cparekh

I was a worldmate user for over a year, and their Blackberry app works really well. Since I switched from BB to an Android phone, worldmate is out of the question. TripIt allows some access, though somewhat limited compared to the BB or iPhone. So, for me, TripIt is it, until either worldmate or TripIt (or someone else) comes out with an Android itinerary app.

wco81

Does TripIt Pro offer SMS notifications?

When you're overseas with iPhone and not data roaming, email notifications aren't particularly useful. But SMS would be more useful.

My main interest in TripIt was to have easy formatting and printing of itineraries -- I had been doing it in a document with screenshots of maps and so on.

The TripIt printout did all that I expected, with confirmation codes and schedules. Does it check airline schedules in real-time and notify you? That could be useful but for leisure travel, the flights are just a small part of the complete trip itinerary.

Didn't really use the TripIt app. much because I didn't use international data roaming. And even when around Wifi, the itinerary viewed in mobile Safari looked better. I could better make out the map screenshots which I'd uploaded. But I also had the printout too.

elliterate

Yes, TripIt Pro offers SMS notifications. And they offer fine-grained controls over which notifications you want and how you want them.

My favorite notifications are the arrival/connection summaries. They time them so they arrive just as you reach your gate, so you walk off the plane and immediately know which gate/carousel to head to without having to hunt down a monitor. Not strictly necessary, but a very nice touch.

Also, I just got a flight delay notice for a UA flight. It was about a minute behind the robo-call from United (which makes sense, since United should notify you before telling any external subscribers like TripIt.) Sufficiently timely if, like me, you don't care for United's robo-calls and would prefer to disable them.

The other thing I like about TripIt Pro is the "alternate flights" functionality. Along with my flight delay SMS was a link to alternate flights that I could take and their estimated full-ness.

alanw

I ordered Pro as soon as they offered it for me, and it was good timing since I was a few days from starting a RTW trip. I had several friends who were joining me on the trip and had shared their TripIt itins with me.

I must have gotten 200 emails during that 10-day period about flight delays, most from flights that were no longer in the itins of those people. It was a complete nuisance, exacerbated by the fact that one thing TripIt doesn't do well is keep track of changes and duplicates in your itins.

I had two flights that were delayed, one of which I was never notified about and the other I received the message as I was boarding the now-three-hours-later flight.

I canceled as soon as I got back from the trip.

If TripIt would just let me punch in PNRs and then go parse all the info, I think it would be much more useful - especially if it kept track of changes automatically. That's something I would pay for!