thewinchester

I know there's quite a few fliers out there who use TripIt as part of planning and managing travel.

I've been using it for the past three years as a paid subscriber, and after planning a two week trip in Asia starting from tomorrow, there's a number of things about it which really annoy the heck out of me.

I've decided after months of waiting for TripIt to get its act together, trying to work with their support people to get simple but important improvements and fixes going, that enough is enough.

Their lack of action needs more of a public discussion and airing, particularly amongst the frequent flyer community who use their product. As such, I've written an article as part of my trip report, titled My beef with TripIt.

The article covers a selection of the most annoying bugs and user interface issues I come across while using the service. In having a vent about TripIt, I'd love to know what others think too.

Do you use it? Do you find the same problems? If you're a free user, is it good enough for you to upgrade? Do my issues sway your opinions of the site?

Love to hear your input and views, if only to work out if it's just a user experience person finding things nobody else is - or there is actually more to it and this is actually a real issue/annoyance for users.

FriendlySkies

Interesting read. I've been using TripIt for about a year, and I have not had many problems. I don't use it to check weather, instead I use it to have the info in one place when I might need to pull it up.. There are times when I wish that it would be easier to fix info when I've got a schedule change, but overall, it suits my needs.

cordelli

Honestly, I find the drop down box on the website you go to after you link to the other thread way more irritating than any of those issues. None of them really have ever bothered me.

lewinr

I agree that the speed at which TripIt implements fixes, new features and improvements to their interface is poor. I have some features that I requested over a year ago which also seem to me to be obvious and easy to implement. I am sure there are many other people who are also making requests/suggestions so TripIt does need to filter and prioritize. But in some cases I don't understand how things got implemented the way they are from the start.... it makes me wonder if the people at TripIt just don't "get it".

I've been pretty impressed with some of the competitors to TripIt which I've seen emerge in the last six months. (Or maybe I only learned about them in the last six months). TripIt had a huge lead, but these competitors are cheaper or even free, and offer very similar functionality. If TripIt do not get their act together soon, one of their competitors who "gets it" will push them put of top spot. Let's not forget what google did to yahoo...

SocialAdept

Slightly off-topic, but has anyone ever tried to complete a trip only on the information stored in trip-it? I dislike carrying bundles of print-outs and would rather just store everything in my Android phone with the Trip-it app. It seems too me that a simple print-out should be no more legitimate than the data on a screen you present to airline agents, security etc.

joejones

I spent three weeks in Europe this spring and used TripIt for just about everything, including three airport check-ins, several hotels and a cruise. The only time we needed a printout was for a hotel in Austria where the desk clerk insisted on getting "a ticket" from us, so I borrowed a computer and printed out the reservation confirmation sitting in my Gmail account.

JMN57

My complaint (and I have given them feedback) is that they automatically populate the itinerary with maps, directions, made up check-in times (how many itineraries show a 4PM check-in event when my flight lands @ 7:30PM or a check out at noon when I am already on a plane. Really, don't bother with all that garbage and save the programming cycles for doing a few things right rather than many things poorly. Frankly, I think WorldMate is much better (I use both) and the only reason I use TripIt is that it provides an iCal feed to my Google calendar (we use google apps as our corporate e-mail backbone). If WM did that, I'd lose TripIt.

I would love it if they just populate the items that are sent and not embellish it with other junk. If I need directions or a map, my Droid Incredible can get that for me with a touch of a button. All that junk just clutters up everything and makes it hard to see what I want - my travel info.

wco81

I only use it on the web site, to put together itineraries that I print out.

For European trips, without data roaming, you can't really use it anyways, though it does seem to cache some data.

I don't find the Google Maps integration useful (again, if you don't have data roaming, you can't really use those maps) so I delete the auto directions and maps of hotels most of the time. Instead, I take screen shots of Google Maps exactly the way I want it centered and zoomed and then upload them as files.

But I find that those screen shots render better through Mobile Safari than in the TripIt app.

I fly at most half a dozen leisure trips a year so don't see the point of upgrading to Pro, because the gate changes and last-minute info. is rarely relevant.

I've played around a bit with Kayak Trips but maybe I'm just used to TripIt, it's fine for my purposes.

joejones

I use the iPhone version without data roaming and it works just fine. You can't get maps, as you noted, but itinerary details will sync to the iPhone's TripIt app in advance, and you can also sync your iPhone's calendar from the TripIt calendar feed in advance so that plans show up on the iPhone calendar in the iPhone's time wherever you are.

wco81

True but I rather have a few pages printed out to look at than waking up the iPhone and loading the app and scrolling around.

I do have the calendar syncing with my Google Calendar, which sends SMS alerts. But I really don't rely on it since I have the printout.

The auto time zone thing seems to work though.

SocialAdept

You can cache an entire trip if you load it with the Tripit app before heading away from an area where you have wifi/3G connection.

I do agree with you on the maps though, I tend to print those out as well. If google maps would allow offline caching it would mean the world to me.

JoostvD

I'm using TripDeck on my iPhone to sync trips from TripIt. The data in TripDeck only downloads from TripIt when I am at home. Most of my travelling is by train and neither TripIt or TripDeck are good with trains - for example, neither of them include which platform the train is leaving. I've contacted the support people at TripDeck and they say they will add this information in the future.

For maps, I use OpenMaps on my iPhone. When I am at home, I simply download maps of all the cities I will visit and I use the "pin" feature to place a pin on the map for my hotel or other places I need to go.

I also keep copies of email confirmations on my iPhone. A few weeks ago, I picked up train tickets after reserving on the Internet and the agent forgot to print out one ticket. Since the confirmation email (with booking number) was also on my iPhone, I showed it to the conductor and he confirmed it by telephone. This was very convenient.

bnamike

I've figured out that when i sign into the TripIt website, go to Settings, and then the About Me section, there is a check box that reads "Auto-add maps & directions to my trips"

Once I unchecked that box, no more maps and directions added to the new itineraries created by TripIt..

wco81

Plus they're easy enough to delete, at least from the website (which is great because I can edit it from anywhere).

For an upcoming trip to NY, they put in the directions from JFK to my hotel but they're driving directions when I'm going to take the AirTrain and the LIRR.

I couldn't edit the directions so I deleted them and then looked up the public transport directions in Google Maps and then typed them in (shorter than Google Maps list of steps) into the Notes for the hotel.

frequentfoulup

I use the free version, I don't see the additional value for the paid version, at least for me. I use the iphone app and find it useful for a single page glance at the whole trip, especially when my company does not book Hertz and I go to the Hertz lot out of routine.

That alone makes it worthwhile. Now anywhere else I would need to explain to someone why I didn't realize what car company I was booked on but here on FT many will understand...