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iPhone/Flight Track Pro App/TripIt/iCal on Mac

iPhone/Flight Track Pro App/TripIt/iCal on Mac

Old Jul 8, 2010, 5:45 pm
  #1  
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iPhone/Flight Track Pro App/TripIt/iCal on Mac

Does anyone use these, or any combination thereof, to keep track of your trips? I'm trying to find a reliable way to put my monthly flying schedule on my iPhone via Mac/iCal and MobileMe.

Another UA pilot wrote a program that imports our schedule info from the UA Employees' website into iCal, and I've used it for a couple years, but lately tried to integrate TripIt and an App called Flight Track Pro. All seemed well until MobileMe got jammed up, quit syncing properly, and therefore quit syncing iCal stuff to my phone.

The Apple "chat help" wasn't. They just told me that the 3rd party software was to blame, so I removed it, dumped the Calendar items in the library, emptied the Safari cache, and started fresh, to no avail.

Not as if I'm going to miss any flights or anything, but I'm just trying to find a reliable combination of these or other products that will help me keep track of things. Any insight is appreciated.

FAB
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Old Jul 8, 2010, 5:49 pm
  #2  
 
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I use Flight Track Pro, Tripit, and Google Sync. Works great with my Mac and iPhone/iPad.
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Old Jul 8, 2010, 5:59 pm
  #3  
 
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I use TripIt Pro and it works like a charm. Automatically sends SMS (or email) notifications for gate changes, delays, arriving gate & baggage claim device, and when check-in is available.
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Old Jul 8, 2010, 6:17 pm
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If the stuff is in tripit, you can just add your tripit calendar to iphone/ipad/mac/google calendars, etc. I've tried other methods, and that one is the best for me, but none of them are perfect. For example, the timezones are sometimes screwed up using this method. (try to use "automatic" in tripit, when you can, but it's still not perfect. You will see.)

tripit has device/program specific instructions. They refer to this method as "subscribe to your calendar feed". and they have links to "get your ical feed". As you update things in tripit, your updates will flow to any device/program that subscribes to that feed. (Some devices/programs update more frequently than others.)

http://www.tripit.com/uhp/calendarInfo

If you are just tracking flights, then tripit stuff of course flows well to the flight track pro app. But hotels and any other stuff doesn't, so you still need the ical feed in the native calendar apps, and you probably want them in google calendar or in your mac's calendar app anyway. All of those programs and outlook also all support subscribing to an ical feed. And you can even import google calendar, etc into your i<idevice> using google's ical feed as well. I think its better to maintain your calendar in the cloud rather than trying to do it on one machine, but I suppose that mobile me attempts to do the same thing for those that want to pay for mobile me and keep their calendars locally. I use google for that.

-David

Last edited by LIH Prem; Jul 8, 2010 at 6:27 pm
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Old Jul 8, 2010, 11:47 pm
  #5  
 
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TripIt's server generates an iCal feed which you can subscribe to using the iPhone's calendar application. It is separate from MobileMe, Google or whatever calendar server you prefer, though you can usually set up your web calendar to automatically display TripIt events alongside your own calendar events.

The best feature, in my opinion, is that the TripIt calendar is time zone independent, meaning that the calendar feed will always show up in terms of the time zone that your phone/calendar app is currently using. This is really useful for planning transpacific trips (where you often arrive before you leave) and complex trips between several time zones. I generally plan my schedule at each destination using the TripIt web app, where everything always shows up in the local time wherever it is happening. It will then be automatically reflected on my iPhone and Google calendars in Japan time, and I can use those times to tell my wife/friends/co-workers when I am arriving, when to call or not call me, etc. If I need to refer to the itinerary in local time before my trip, I open it in the TripIt web app or use their iPhone app. Once I get to the destination, I set the iPhone to local time, and my itinerary shows up in local time on the iPhone's calendar.
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Old Jul 9, 2010, 9:55 am
  #6  
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I use TripIt to build itineraries for leisure travel, which is the only type of travel I do.

Usually, these international flights rarely have schedule changes so I don't need to know the gate assignment up to the minute.

I linked TripIt to my Google Calendar, which is set to automatically SMS me notifications so when I add events, I get SMS which is kind of annoying. Probably should turn that off. But it might be useful for calendar-obssessed types.

Also have PageNow Personal Finance.app and put in my Skymiles account details and it automatically loads my DL flights on there and sends push and email notifications. Again, I don't have to know these details up to the minute but it is nice to be able to easily store them on the iPhone without manually entering the data.

These are all free and have no desire to upgrade to the pay services. Maybe if I flew a lot for business, I would think differently.

Calendar.app on the iPhone is mainly a conduit for my Google and work calendars. I do have a Mobile Me account but I don't store the calendar up there. May not always have a Mobile Me account so I rather rely on Google Calendar or whatever is free.

That's the main value of the cloud services, that they're free. Otherwise, not worth the potential loss of privacy storing your data there.
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Old Jul 9, 2010, 1:51 pm
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Originally Posted by wco81
Also have PageNow Personal Finance.app and put in my Skymiles account details and it automatically loads my DL flights on there and sends push and email notifications. Again, I don't have to know these details up to the minute but it is nice to be able to easily store them on the iPhone without manually entering the data.
I do all the things mentioned in this thread with the exception of TripIt Pro but would like to know about this "PageNow Personal Finance" app for the iPhone/iPad. I can't seem to locate it but it sounds like it would help with the travel alerts I need especially as I am a DL flyer.
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Old Jul 9, 2010, 2:43 pm
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I also use TripIt Pro with my iPhone. I very much recommend it. I actually just use the United ICS download links to populate my calendar so I can't speak to the TripIt iCAL feed.
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Old Jul 9, 2010, 6:57 pm
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Originally Posted by Xeno
I do all the things mentioned in this thread with the exception of TripIt Pro but would like to know about this "PageNow Personal Finance" app for the iPhone/iPad. I can't seem to locate it but it sounds like it would help with the travel alerts I need especially as I am a DL flyer.
OK, it just comes up as "Finance" but it is put out by PageNow.

Actually, I just activated the push notification this morning. But all along, I've been getting emails from them whenever there was any status change to my Skymiles account, such as the monthly Amex miles and when I purchased tickets.

Free app. so no harm in trying, though you do have to input your SM number and password. At some point I probably registered my email so that is how I'm getting email notifications.
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Old Jul 10, 2010, 4:27 pm
  #10  
 
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Glad to see that PageOnce Finance app sent me an alert about a change to an upcoming trip. I usually check the DL web every weekend for changes like this but now perhaps this app will help as in this case the change is more than 3 hours so I can weigh my options.

Edited to say that by the time I called DL, I was reminded of the distraction of having to manually remove this itinerary on TripIt then submit the next itinerary to TripIt should it would be shown in FlightTrackPro. Sure wish that could be automated but as most trips are international and not domestic I don't think TripIt Pro would be the way for me to go.

Last edited by Xeno; Jul 10, 2010 at 6:29 pm
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Old Jul 17, 2010, 9:38 am
  #11  
 
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Originally Posted by freshairborne
Does anyone use these, or any combination thereof, to keep track of your trips? I'm trying to find a reliable way to put my monthly flying schedule on my iPhone via Mac/iCal and MobileMe.

Another UA pilot wrote a program that imports our schedule info from the UA Employees' website into iCal, and I've used it for a couple years, but lately tried to integrate TripIt and an App called Flight Track Pro. All seemed well until MobileMe got jammed up, quit syncing properly, and therefore quit syncing iCal stuff to my phone.

The Apple "chat help" wasn't. They just told me that the 3rd party software was to blame, so I removed it, dumped the Calendar items in the library, emptied the Safari cache, and started fresh, to no avail.

Not as if I'm going to miss any flights or anything, but I'm just trying to find a reliable combination of these or other products that will help me keep track of things. Any insight is appreciated.

FAB
I use TripIt Pro (SMS notifications) and their iPhone app, as well as have it sync with my calendar. I believe if you're using iOS 3.0+, the subscribed calendar will automatically sync OTA (over the air) so you dont have to use the iPhone app if you don't want.
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Old Aug 8, 2010, 8:33 am
  #12  
 
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I think it was last weekend, that I purchased a domestic ticket for January. I forwarded the itinerary to TripIt and this was quickly added to my schedule in FlightTrack Pro on my iPhone 3GS.

However, the January flights are not showing up on FlightTrackPro on my iPad. I was hopeful when the app was updated this past week but no such luck.

Anyone know what may be going on?
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Old Aug 8, 2010, 11:03 am
  #13  
rlb
 
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I use Tripit also, the free version- on my computer and iphone- for mostly leisure travel- one really wonderful part- is you can edit it, with emergency numbers and other information, and print it off your computer for those that need to know where you are at all times, or you can "share" it with others. Good program. rlb
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Old Aug 8, 2010, 1:09 pm
  #14  
 
 
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Originally Posted by Xeno
Anyone know what may be going on?
Make sure you are still logged into tripit in flight track pro on the ipad, and then do a refresh. If that doesn't do it, log out and log in to tripit from flight track pro on the ipad. The login is behind the left hand pane, touch the little i in the circle on the bottom left to get there.

-David
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Old Aug 8, 2010, 1:27 pm
  #15  
 
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Thanks David. Not sure how this got disconnected.
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