Traveling these days is hard enough without having to keep track of all the times, flight numbers, airport codes, maps, paperwork, and e-tickets that besiege us every time we take a trip.
To control the madness, we recommend TripIt, a service that organizes your flights, car rentals and hotel bookings, storing them all in one easy-to-access place (i.e. your phone).
Just sign up for a free account and begin adding your upcoming trips. You can either input information manually or simply forward travel confirmation emails to the site and they’ll do it for you. (We like the latter route since we’re a tad lazy).
While the site is useful, what really makes this service sing is the iPhone app, which features a host of additional features, including maps to get you to the airport and seat plans of the plane you’ll be flying.
In other good news, TripIt recently teamed up with Yapta (as covered in Netted, Yapta helps assure you get low-priced airfares). Now when you forward flight confirmation emails to TripIt Yapta can track your for lower ticket prices or refunds with a single click. If your airfare dips they’ll help you get a refund for the difference.
You can also share travel plans with friends (when you register it searches your address book and Facebook account for other TripIt users). That way, if somebody you know is also going to be in, say, Maui, you’ll be able to connect with them, and you’ll know their itinerary (and vice versa).
About the only thing that TripIt can’t help you navigate are interminable airport security lines.