For just $49 you can give someone their own personal travel assistant for a whole year. TripIt Pro eliminates stress and saves time and money on the road. And, with new flight refund tracking, it might even generate some cash. That definitely beats a reindeer sweater or a cheese log! 

TripIt Pro has all the goodness of TripIt, plus:

• Alerts about flight delays, cancellations and gate changes.
• A helping hand when you need to find an alternate flight with open seats.
• Frequent travel account information all in one place.
• Airfare refund tracking – the average refund is $150!

You can learn more about TripIt Pro here. Or, if you’re ready to cross someone off your holiday shopping list now, get a gift subscription here. Our store is open 24/7 and there’s no shipping! 

Happy Travels!

The post Give the gift of peaceful travel for the holidays – TripIt Pro appeared first on TripIt Blog.

What we’ve seen so far:

• 1 in 10 monitored flights is eligible for a refund  
• The average refund is more than $100
• The median refund, after change fees, is about $50 
• Yes, that means TripIt Pro basically pays for itself when you get a refund 

We also have the scoop on refunds by airline. People flying on these three airlines have been twice as likely to get a refund:

• Virgin America
• Alaska
• Frontier

Also, refunds happen more frequently for flights that are booked more than 30 days in advance, which means TripIt Pro subscribers can plan ahead without that nagging feeling that a cheaper flight is just around the corner. (And be sure to put your flights in your TripIt itinerary so we can start tracking them as soon as you book. If you use Gmail or Google Apps, set up Auto Import for “hands-free" itinerary creation and we’ll add your flights for you automatically.)

And there is another fun TripIt Pro bonus happening right now…if you sign up by November 30, you get a special 90-day free trial courtesy of SpringHill Suites by Marriott®!  

The extended free trial means you’ll have your own personal travel assistant over the holidays and during the winter months, when delays, schedule changes, airport chaos and unpredictable weather can quickly take their toll on a traveler’s sanity. Won’t it be nice to have the peace of mind that comes with TripIt Pro’s flight alerts, alternate flight finder and automatic trip sharing? 

And who knows – you may get a refund that will let you buy an extra gift for yourself this year!

The post TripIt Pro scores airfare refunds for 1 in 10 flights appeared first on TripIt Blog.

The whole thread is packed with handy tricks, and here are a few of our favorites…

“Make a permanent 'generic' packing list for trips of (x) and (y) days, whatever your common lengths will be. Fill it with even the 'obvious' stuff (socks x 3, toothbrush) and amend it after each trip to make it better. After many revisions, you will have the *perfect* packing list for any trip.” – courtesy of rokusan

“Phone chargers: hands down, this has been my most forgotten item. But you know who has a ton of them? Your friendly hotel desk operator. Often they have an entire box in the lost and found (heck, they probably collect a dozen a week), and will let you have one if you know to ask.”  – courtesy of deludingmyself

“Get in the habit of dedicating a particular zippered pocket in one of your bags (always a carry on, just in case) as the place where you put receipts. At the end of every day gather up your receipts and shove them there. You'll thank yourself for keeping them all together when it comes time to fill out your expense report.”  – courtesy of FlamingBore

If you need help with your travel expense reports, you may also want to check out TripIt’s API partner ExpenseCloud. It’s a free app that integrates your TripIt data (such as airfare, hotel and rental car information) with automated expense reports. Learn more about ExpenseCloud and other TripIt API partners here.

Do you have any special tricks that keep you sane when you’re traveling a lot? Comment on this blog post and share your expertise with other travelers! 

And if you have ideas that would help us make TripIt more useful, please send us your feedback. 

The post Road Warrior Newbie Gathers Great Travel Advice appeared first on TripIt Blog.

We’re pleased to announce that TripIt is the official mobile partner for JetBlue’s All You Can Jet Pass! Grab an AYCJ™ Pass and you’ll enjoy unlimited travel on JetBlue from September 7 to October 6. Get more information and purchase your Pass here. 

Unlimited flying means a lot of trip details to organize, whether you’re using your AYCJ Pass for business or pleasure (or both!). That’s where we come in…

First, forward your JetBlue confirmation emails to TripIt to “auto-magically” create itineraries for AYCJ trips, complete with maps, directions and other helpful information. Then, send us your confirmations for hotels, rental cars, airport shuttles, and more (we support more than 1,000 different booking sites) and we’ll add them to the correct itinerary. 

Once you create your trip itineraries, it’s easy to go mobile — just download our free apps for iPhone, Android or BlackBerry and start traveling! All of your itineraries will be right on your phone. You can also use our mobile site, m.tripit.com on any web-enabled mobile device. 

We’re looking forward to seeing all of the different trips you go on with your AYCJ Passes. If you have an epic itinerary you want to share with us, send it to feedback@tripit.com. Your travels might be the subject of a future blog post.

Happy AYCJ travels!

The post TripIt teams up with JetBlue for All You Can Jet™ appeared first on TripIt Blog.

Nominees were chosen by corporate travelers, who picked out services, products and ideas that help make business trips easier and more productive. Submissions were categorized, and the public voted for their favorites. We’d like to extend a warm “thank you” to all of the generous travelers who voted for TripIt. We’re thrilled that you chose us, and we couldn’t do it without you!

The post Thanks for voting us “Most Outstanding App” appeared first on TripIt Blog.

While you were traveling all those miles and km, we’re happy to report that we were hard at work making improvements to TripIt.

So far, in 2010, we…

• Launched our free BlackBerry app
• Updated the look and feel of our free iPhone app, and added trip sharing and TripIt Pro Point Tracker 
• Launched TripIt Groups and TripIt for Google Apps to help business travelers get more out of their trips, and companies get more out of their travel programs
• Improved TripIt Pro Alternate Flights so travelers have even more options for rescheduling
• Integrated with Yapta airfare tracking service to help you save money on fares
• Created TripIt SmartSolution with our partner Lexmark– the quickest, easiest way to print out copies of your TripIt itineraries

We have plenty of exciting stuff in the works for the second half of the year, too. And, if you come up with any ideas or suggestions for us while you’re busy traveling another billion or so miles/km, please let us know. 

Happy Travels!

P.S. If you’re traveling a lot, you might want to check out our TripIt Pro Summer Sale — you’ll save $20 on a one-year subscription to TripIt Pro.

The post TripIt travelers have logged over 1 billion miles/km this year appeared first on TripIt Blog.

 Today is the official kick-off of our TripIt Pro Summer Sale! Upgrade to TripIt Pro this summer and get a 30-day free trial and your first year for only $49–a $20 savings off the regular price of $69. 

 TripIt Pro itinerary monitoring, mobile flight alerts and alternate flight options are all great ways to help you manage your summer travel. Plus, we recently made some updates and improvements to TripIt Pro so it’s even more valuable for busy travelers.

As a special bonus, TripIt Pro now automatically includes a complimentary first year of membership to Hertz’s #1 Club Gold — a $60 value. You’ll enjoy expedited rental car pick-up and drop-off, plus many other travel benefits from Hertz. Learn more. 

Alternate Flights has always offered TripIt Pro travelers an easy way to reschedule flights, but we recently improved it to include even more flight options, including flight status and open seats on all available airlines. Great for getting yourself out of summer flight delays! Learn more. 

We also expanded TripIt Pro Point Tracker to include more than 70 different loyalty and reward programs. You can now keep track of all your points from airlines, rental cars, hotels, credit cards and more, in one place. Learn more.

If you have TripIt Pro and an iPhone, you can use Alternate Flights and Point Tracker on your phone with the latest version of our free TripIt iPhone app. Don’t have the app yet? Download it now.

As always, please feel free to share your feedback about TripIt Pro. Let us know how it helps you stay on schedule, and how we can make it better.

The post Save $20 on TripIt Pro during our Summer Sale appeared first on TripIt Blog.

TripIt SmartSolution is the quickest, easiest way to print out copies of your TripIt itineraries. It’s a printer app that connects your Lexmark printer to your TripIt account. Just hit the TripIt icon on the printer’s touch-screen menu to pull up a list of your trips, and choose the itinerary you want to print. You’ll have a copy in hand seconds later, and you don’t even need to turn on your computer. Check out this quick video demo to see the app in action.

TripIt SmartSolution helps your co-workers and family print your trip details, too. This can really come in handy when there is limited access to shared trips on TripIt using mobile apps or the web. 

To celebrate the launch of TripIt SmartSolution, Lexmark is giving away five Pinnacle Pro 901 printers! To enter the giveaway, just follow Lexmark and Tripit on Twitter, and tweet about the giveaway using the hash tag #smartsolution. Good luck! See more contest details on Lexmark’s blog.

Already have a Lexmark printer? TripIt SmartSolution is available for free and immediate download at smartsolutions.lexmark.com for the Lexmark Platinum, Pinnacle, Prestige and Interact Web-connected touch screen AIOs.

The post Win a Lexmark Pinnacle Pro 901 printer appeared first on TripIt Blog.

TripIt can be invaluable for organizing group trips to sporting events, theater performances, city tours and festivals like the World Cup. Just forward all of your group’s booking confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com and everyone can share the same TripIt itinerary.

South Africa estimates that over 2 million travelers will attend the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which runs from June 11th to July 11th. The football matches are being held in 12 cities, including Capetown, Johannesburg and Durban. Most of our World Cup travelers are flying into one of these three popular cities.

With its amazing wildlife preserves and vibrant cultural attractions, South Africa is a popular tourist destination, even when it’s not the host of the most viewed sporting event in the world. If you’re planning a trip, check out our South Africa trip planner page for details on popular airlines, airports and destinations. 

If you’ve got a great World Cup itinerary that you would like to share publicly on our blog, please email us at feedback@tripit.com or post it in the comments here.

P.S. Our home team USA managed a tie with England on 6/12, but have a must-win against Slovenia on 6/18. USA! USA! USA!

The post Travelers taking TripIt to the World Cup appeared first on TripIt Blog.

 Improvements to Alternate Flights…

• Longer list of alternate flight options.
• Available seats and flight status details now displayed on the main search results page.
• Set the time frame you want to use to find alternate flights. Search within hours or days of your original departure.
• Change the departure and arrival airports in your search. Just type the airport code in the search box.

We're pleased that we could make Alternate Flights even more useful for frequent travelers, and we're planning more TripIt Pro improvements in the near future. As always, we'd love to hear your suggestions. Email us at feedback@tripit.com.

Want to learn more about TripIt Pro? Visit our TripIt Pro page. 

The post New improvements to TripIt Pro Alternate Flights appeared first on TripIt Blog.