TripIt Review: Final look at the old app in a new era [2024]

The idea of a vacation after a long term of work or studies can easily excite any traveler. It’s all fun and games until you realize how exhaustive travel planning can be when it comes to scheduling and organizing tasks.

But, here's the good news: We've found these best travel planner apps that can help you create a full-fledged itinerary with just a few taps, so you don’t have to pull your brains out doing it yourself!

TripIt travel planner is one of them. While it's primarily used for business travel, it can be used for vacation travel as well. 

In this article, we are going to review this travel planner and find out whether it delivers what it promises! If you are looking for planning vacation travel, however, we recommend using Pilot, a great travel planner app we built specifically for vacation planning.

Let’s start the review of TripIt with what exactly are they.

What is TripIt?

TripIt is a travel planning app that is designed to create itineraries by integrating all your travel details in one place. It helps travelers organize, manage, and track itineraries in a hassle-free manner. But if you know already, there are other travel apps out there offering similar services. 

So, how does the TripIt app stand out from the crowd?

As a travel planner, TripIt does a bit more than allow you to create itineraries for your favorite destinations. It makes sure you get to your destination on time and enjoy your tour by avoiding obstacles and making use of opportunities on your way. All and other additional useful features, with a pricey premium subscription, unfortunately.

Is the TripIt app worth your time, and should you upgrade to a TripIt pro if you’re an avid traveler? Let’s find out how and if TripIt is worth it!

Is TripIt free?

The short answer is "it depends". 

There are 4 different plans for TripIt depending on your needs. The basic plan is free to use but offers a limited-service of additional features that can benefit frequent travelers. So, how much does TripIt Pro cost?

TripIt Pro costs $49 annually, with per-user license plans for TripIt for teams and up. Below’s a rundown of TripIt’s subscription plans and the features that they offer.

TripIt Subscription Plans

Still not sure if you should get TripIt Pro or just stick to the basic plan? We'll give you a rundown of all the features that is covered in each plan so that you can be well informed before you make the purchase.

TripIt:

The basic plan is free to use. Its features are limited to gathering all travel-related details into an itinerary. It’s recommended for starters or people who don’t travel very often. Here are the features offered in their basic subscription:

• Organized Trip planner + master itinerary
• Cross-platform access
• Auto-import plans straight from your inbox
• Syncs plans onto your calendar
• Group trip planner
• Important travel information
• COVID-19 travel guidance
• Shows Transportation options (includes airport and terminal maps)
• Shows neighborhood safety scores
• Nearby place recommendations
• Tracks and summarizes your travel stats
• Carbon footprint and carbon offsetting options
• Upload up to 3 documents per trip

TripIt Pro:

The paid version costs $49 annually and offers additional features that come in handy for regular travelers. The additional features that you can’t find in the basic subscription include:

• Seats, fares, and points tracker
• Real-time flight alerts
• Check-in reminders + commute times to the airport
• Shows terminal and gate reminders and security wait times
• Airport and terminal/gate navigator
• Country-specific information
• Faster security lines with CLEAR membership
• Travel your rewards program
• Updates friends and family on your travel plans
• Upload up to 25 documents per trip

TripIt for Teams:

The version is great for companies to create and share trip plans related to business trips with their employees. This version is more of a centralized control center for travel operations. 

TripIt for Travel Management Companies:

The specialized version is geared towards travel management companies (TMCs). If you are traveling with one of their partners, you’ll be able to access and change your plans through the TripIt app anytime on any device! You can also access your TMC contact information on the app and contact them for any questions.

What are the Major Features Offered by TripIt?

There are many features that TripIt and TripIt pro offers, but here are the major features that a subscription to TripIt gets you:

• The ability to create multiple itineraries that include all travel-related details from flights, accommodation to car rentals
• Displays interesting travel stats, total carbon emissions of your past flights, neighborhood score, and nearby attractions of places you visit

TripIt Pro has additional paid features that include,

• Flight status, real-time alerts on flight delays, transportation options, and alternative flights 
• Rewards point tracking, seat tracking, and VIP travel benefits to help you save money
• Detailed maps of airports
  

How Does TripIt Work?

Once a user creates an account on TripIt, it will form itineraries based on confirmation emails regarding flights, accommodation, and other bookings. These details can be gathered automatically by the app from the inbox or manually forwarded to TripIt’s email address by the user. Once done, you can share it with other people, edit it, or sync it with your calendar. 

In order to view your trips, others need to have a TripIt account as well. You can sign up for a 30-day free trial to use Tripit Pro, but you still have to enter your credit card details.

How to send your itinerary to TripIt?

The first step to generating your itinerary from TripIt is to forward all of your bookings to their system. This step is super simple!
After booking your flight, hotel, rental, or other tickets and reservations, forward the confirmation email to plans@tripit.com. They will instantly generate or add the reservation or ticket into your own master itinerary.

You can also set up their auto-import email services so that they’ll be able to automatically scan through your emails for any reservation or tickets and add them to your itinerary! Find this feature on the home page of your TripIt app.

How to cancel your TripIt Pro Subscription?

Say you’ve upgraded your TripIt to their TripIt Pro Subscription and are not impressed with the features that come with your subscription. It’s super easy to modify or cancel your subscription. Here are the steps

1. Make sure you’re signed in to your account
2. Click on your username.
3. Go to “Settings”, then “Billing Information”

In this section, you’ll be able to modify your billing information as well as cancel your current subscription to TripIt Pro. TripIt will not offer you a refund of your annual fee, so make sure you cancel your subscription or turn off auto-renewal before the renewal date!

If you’re on the TripIt Pro free trial and would not like to get charged the annual fee, make sure you follow the steps above to cancel your subscription before your free trial ends.

Is TripIt Pro worth it?

If you’re a frequent traveler and would like to have the added benefit of real-time alerts and updates to your travel plans, it’s definitely worth it! 

However, for 49$ a year, the features that come with TripIt Pro subscription does not seem worth it to us. For example, we’ve found that many of the alerts that TripIt sends out are a mere duplicate of alerts airlines sent to travelers. These TripIt alerts can also sometimes be inaccurate, which may lead to frustrations.

There are other alternatives out there that offer more document uploads, group planning, trip updates, and organized itineraries, such as our Pilot travel planning app!

Here's a rundown of all the pros and cons of TripIt in detail.

What We Like About TripIt

Automation 

With the auto-import feature, you have to invest little to no effort to create an itinerary because TripIt will handle most of it. This is an impressive feature for busy professionals who don’t have time to sort emails and send them to TripIt manually.

Convenience 

We think TripIt does a great job in bringing all vital details regarding your trip into one place. You don’t have to go through the hassle of rummaging your bag to find out reservation receipts or scour through emails to retrieve flight information as everything is there in the app. 

Useful Features

TripIt walks an extra mile in certain aspects. Its features like neighborhood safety score help you stay clear of shady areas or be more vigilant when you are touring in cities like Mexico. It also tracks your flights’ carbon footprint and suggests ways to offset them, which is awesome.

Prompt Alerts

For TripIt premium users, the app is really useful when it comes to receiving real-time notifications on flight delays, cancellations, and gate changes – sometimes, even before the airlines! It even alarms users when the departure time is close, so you won’t miss the flight.

Ability to Plan Trips in Groups

You can invite your friends and family members to join TripIt and plan your travel journeys together. Users can share their itineraries with others and grant access to contribute or edit details. It also makes it easy to share important trip-related details with multiple people.

Why TripIt is Outdated

Premium version is expensive

If you are not a frequent traveler, the TripIt premium version may not be a cost-effective option because the free version is equipped with most of the essential features of a trip planner. In comparison, most more modern travel planning tools, such as Pilot, are a free service.

Too Many (Annoying) Emails

Some users have complained TripIt spamming the inbox with excessive and unnecessary emails about every single update. It can be annoying as the whole purpose of using a travel app is to minimize clutter. But, you can manage it by changing the settings via the desktop app. TripIt is owned by SAP, a large and old company that isn't exactly known for being "customer-centric."

It isn't "fun"

TripIt was built for business travel, not vacation travel, meaning it lacks a lot of features that would have you replacing Google Docs, Spreadsheets, etc. You're frankly still better off using those tools than TripIt in its current iteration (that's why we built Pilot). It can be useful, but there's little delight or fun in using the tool, since it wasn't built for that. 

That's fine if that's what you're looking for, but we believe that travel planning should be a fun experience given the anticipation for your trip!

Issues with Auto-Import 

Although the app works well most of the time, users have encountered some issues where the app has failed to import confirmation details automatically, especially if it’s a small hotel or rental service. In this case, you have to enter the details manually.

Dull and Dated Web Interface

Compared to the mobile version, the web app is particularly outdated. It can certainly shine better with a good upgrade. It can be useful, but it's certainly not "cool". This unfortunately also results in a subpar user experience compared to more modern apps.

Inaccurate Alerts (sometimes)

There tends to be rare inaccuracies related to flight delay alerts and information related to alternative flights. But, this is a small percentage of users. As a rule of thumb, it’s always better to double-check with the airlines regarding these matters – so you won’t miss a flight.

Is TripIt Worth it?

Now for the final question, is TripIt actually any good, and if so, should you pay for their pro subscriptions?

TripIt is a great app if your main concern is having all travel confirmation and reservation details organized in one place, especially with regards to flights.

But, if you are looking for a more modern trip planner that focuses on the “experiences” of your trips like where to go, what to see, and do, then you need a better option. Besides, the antiquated look doesn't really match the excitement of traveling!

I certainly think there are better free options to use than TripIt, so for that instance, We believe that you should not sign up for its pro version unless you're a frequent or business traveler looking for a way to stay organized.

Our Rating: 3.8/5 

Pros:

• Automated itinerary.
• Convenient all-in-one itinerary
• Cool and useful extra features
• Instant alerts
• Group trip planning is available.

Cons:

• Expensive premium subscription
• Bland design and user experience
• Very “official”, lacks fun
• Spams emails with notifications.
• Issues with auto-import and inaccurate alerts.

A newer alternative to TripIt

We also didn't think TripIt was enough. That's why we've created our own social trip planner, Pilot!