TripIt Pro Review: The Must-Have Travel App

So when you’re freshly back from a trip away, what’s the first thing you do? Have a hot bath? Order a delightfully unhealthy takeaway, because you’re “too tired to cook”? Sadly weep over your souvenirs? Well, I do all those things too, but after my trip to Prague, I added “write a TripIt Pro review” to my list. Because this is something that every traveller needs to own in order to make your trip completely stress-free, and if you suffer from travel anxiety, it’s an absolute MUST.

Now, you might be thinking to yourself, “but isn’t TripIt just some travel organizer app? I’m really organised anyway! I even have all my fluids in a plastic bag before I get to the airport! Why do I need an organizer app?” Well, I can understand where you’re coming from – that’s what most travel organizer apps out there do. You enter your flight details, and the app records them… and that’s about it. However, TripIt Pro completely blows this out of the water, by providing so much information which is going to be useful for you before you leave, when you’re at the airport, and once you get to your destination. Seriously, I’m never travelling without it again. Prague was by far the smoothest, most successful travel experience I’ve ever had.

Let’s look at all the ways that TripIt Pro is going to make your life much easier!

TripIt Pro: Before You Leave

Obviously you’ll want to download the app first of all – find it here on TripIt’s website!

Now, before you sign up to the Pro features, consider this – do you own or work for a company which uses SAP Concur? Because if you do, you may already have a complimentary subscription to TripIt Pro! Which makes your life even easier; yay! All you have to do is visit the SAP Concur App Center to connect your account; check out all the details here.

 

Easy trip imports

Next, you’ll be wanting to import your trip details. You can do this manually, by entering your departure and arrival airport, date of travel, and flight numbers – but really, wouldn’t you like to save that time? So TripIt Pro makes it easy for you. You can enter your email address into the app, and after giving it authorization, it’ll scan your emails for your flight confirmations and automatically import it into the app. It’s ridiculously simple! It even found my hotel booking confirmation and added that too, which gave me some BRILLIANT local information specific to where I was staying – but I’ll get to that in a minute!

If the idea of an app scanning your emails sounds kinda scary, please don’t be put off – it’s totally secure. It’s an automated process which only looks for emails from travel-related companies, so there won’t be some person looking through your receipts for leopard-print mankinis. Your secrets are safe! Plus, if you want, you can let it scan your emails until it finds the details and imports them, then go to Settings and flip a switch to turn the scans off until you next need it.

You can also forward your confirmation emails to an address at TripIt, which will then add it to your itinerary, so you have plenty of options!

Sharing with friends and family

There’s some other awesome options you can use here. Firstly, you can set up the app to share with your Inner Circle. So if you want to keep loved ones updated with your flight progress, or just make your friends insanely jealous, TripIt Pro will send them nifty updates on how you’re getting on. No more struggling to find a phone signal to send that “I’ve landed!” text message! You can also keep track of all your flight reward points, you frequent traveller you.

 

Busting travel anxiety

Now, on to one of my very favourite features, and a big reason to why this app is an absolute must for travel anxiety sufferers. One of the big anxieties when travelling is whether you’re going to be safe. You can look at the hotel reviews on TripAdvisor and see all kinds of glowing reviews, only to find that the area around it is awful. We’ve all had that one trip where the hotel is fine, but it’s in a sea of strip joints, surrounded by dark streets with shady types hanging out on them. The kind of area where you you start keeping a good grip on your personal alarm when you return to the hotel at night.

Well, TripIt Pro does away with this. By scanning your hotel information, it gives you a Neighborhood Safety Score. It looks at the crime statistics for the area your hotel is in, and breaks it down into categories, such as physical harm, crimes against female travellers, and more. Guys, this is AWESOME. It takes away that anxiety of not knowing what to expect: if your hotel looks to be in a dodgy area, you can make other arrangements, or at least know what to expect and budget taking public transport or taxis to deliver you closer to your door. This feature alone makes gives it my immediate and complete recommendation – and I haven’t even started on all the other anxiety-saving features yet!

TripIt Pro: On The Day Of Travel

As much as I love the features you can use when you first book your trip, TripIt Pro completely kicks ass in the hours before you leave, and on the day you’re travelling. Why, you may ask? Well, let’s have a look!

Flight Status Alerts

Firstly, make sure that your flight status alerts are switched ON. You do not want to miss out on these, because they’re about to make your life oh so easy!

Check-in alerts

I love this, because I’m the kind of fool who’ll forget to do an online check-in, then turn up all at the airport only to queue for an age. No chance of that with TripIt Pro looking after you: it’ll send you an alert that online check-in is available (which is awesome, because it often varies from airline to airline), and you can tap a button to take you to the appropriate page. It’ll even tell you what the weather is going to be like, so you don’t turn up wearing that cute sundress and sandals when there’s two feet of snow on the ground. How handy is that?

Go Now alerts

Not sure when you need to leave for the airport? Enter your location, and it’ll tell you when to start driving. If you’re going by public transport, it’ll give you a list of transport options, plus the price, in order for you to navigate your way there.

Airport maps

I think we can all agree that airports can be one of the most confusing places in the world, especially when you’re trying to find something in a hurry. First you need to find your check-in desk or bag drop, then there’s finding somewhere to get a bottle of water after security, then there’s the toilets, then there’s that last-minute purchase of a hat which you totally won’t use. Or it could just be the layout – for example, I was really confused at Prague airport, because the security checks were located right by the gate, rather than after the passport checks. One look at TripIt Pro’s airport maps eliminates all that pesky worry!

They’re brilliant, detailed maps. Plus, on larger airports (I’ve used London Heathrow as my example), you can filter it down to a single terminal, rather than having to squish an entire airport map on to your screen. You can also zoom in as much as you please, should you want to really examine that luxury airport lounge. And speaking of…

Airport lounges

TripIt Pro gives you you chance to live the high life, by detailing all of the airport lounges which may be available to you, the price of entry, and all the nifty gadgets you can find within. No more looking wistfully at the closed-off Eden that is an airport lounge, staring at relaxed travellers calmly working on their laptops in comfy chairs, whilst you perch on your backpack surrounded by wailing babies. This is definitely a feature that I’ll be using on future travels, especially as my boyfriend gets quite stressed by loud noises and general hectic activity. Even better, TripIt Pro provides you with a $25 credit for LoungeBuddy, so you can have a relaxing time courtesy of the app!

Live flight alerts

Even if you use no other feature on the app, TripIt Pro is completely worth it for the flight alerts. They are SO FAST. Trust me, if your flight is delayed, or if your gate changes, TripIt will let you know even before the airport monitors do. When I flew to Prague, I could only find a seat in the terminal from which I couldn’t see any of the screens (it was in a bar though; don’t feel too bad for me). No problemo. I put my phone on the table in front of me, and when TripIt alerted me as to which gate I was flying from, I was one of the first in the queue.

TripIt Pro is downright magnificent when you’re at the airport. It’s like having a guiding hand which is keeping an eye on you with every step. You won’t be late, you won’t get lost, you won’t get stressed. It’s as perfect an airport experience as you can have.

TripIt Pro: When You Arrive

Thinking that your TripIt Pro experience ends as soon as your flight takes off? Not so! The app still has some tricks up its sleeve which will make your life easier on arrival!

Baggage carousel location

I. Freaking. Loved. This.

One of my big anxiety points when flying is finding the correct baggage carousel. I hate the waiting, having to stop in the middle of a busy terminal to check a screen and find out which number carousel my bag will be on, getting trampled by people who are desperate to be off and on the way to their hotel. Anything that makes this part of flying easier will be a-ok with me.

Imagine my surprise when on landing, I switch my phone off airplane mode, and have a message pop up from TripIt Pro telling me which carousel to go to. I haven’t even got off the plane (indeed, it was still moving), and I know exactly where to go already.

If you could marry an app, then I would’ve done so at that point.

Destination tips

TripIt Pro is still looking after you, even after you reach your hotel!

My favourite feature is the Navigator – you can simply tap one button, and it’ll tell you how to get from your current location to your hotel. This is soooo useful – not only can you use it to get from the airport to your hotel (it gave me exact directions for the bus and tram journey I needed to do), but every time afterwards during your trip. Wandered off the beaten path, and need to get back? One tap, and you know the way! And if it involves public transport, it’ll tell you how much cash you’ll need to part with.

But what about if you’re at your hotel, or anywhere else in town, and you need something? Maybe an ATM, or a grocery store? Or even a bar or restaurant for a quick pit stop? TripIt Pro has even got your back covered here. Give those icons a quick tap, and it’ll calculate where your nearest ones are, and show you on a map.

 

TripIt Pro: The travel app you won’t want to travel without

My trip to Prague was the first time I’d used TripIt in any capacity, and I just instantly fell in love with it. Even though it’s a paid subscription, which I usually hate, I can see myself subscribing to the Pro features for many years to come. It costs only $49 per year, and it just makes everything so much easier! So many features just blew me away with their usefulness and practicality, just as the flight alerts and baggage carousel info on landing. They’re real time savers, and anything that simplifies the airport experience has to be good. Plus, there’s features such as refunds and alternative flights which I haven’t even had to use yet – judging by the quality of the rest of the app, I have no doubt that they’ll be simple to use and convenient.

But what struck me in particular is how this can be a real life-saver for anxious travellers. A lot of people are completely freaked out by airports, or the thought of getting lost or attacked abroad. My own mother is one of them; my boyfriend generally despises airports even though he loves travelling. TripIt Pro completely eliminates those fears. Neighborhood checks, in-destination navigators, airport maps, lounge access – these are all things with have a massive value to an anxious traveller.

I would recommend it in a heartbeat to anyone who has anxiety, and particularly suffers during the chaos of travel. By smoothing out the hectic events, the unknown, the random elements of travel, you can significantly improve your experience and your life simply by downloading an app.

Give TripIt Pro a try (you can do a 30-day free trial if you’re still not sure), and you’ll never look back!

 

Disclaimer: the lovely people at TripIt gave me a complimentary copy of the Pro app so I could test it out, but I’ve received no payment for this review. So you can be assured that everything I’ve said here is my honest opinion! Yay!

 

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