Tripit Pro Review and How to Get a Free Subscription

If you’ve already applied for the Barclay Arrival World Mastercard, then you’re entitled to a free Tripit Pro Subscription.  Here’s a quick review of Tripit Pro and how you can activate it for free.

If you don’t have the Barclay Arrival Card yet, it’s a great travel rewards card and they’re currently offering a sign-up bonus of 40,000 points (worth $400) and 2x miles back on all purchases.  You can read our review here or go ahead and apply for the card right now.

Tripit Pro Review

Since I travel frequently for work and pleasure, it can be daunting trying to keep track of all my travel arrangements.  Google Calendar can only go so far when you have flights, hotel reservations and more to deal with.  And generally whenever I fly domestically on Southwest (which is most of the time) I make multiple reservations so that I can flex my schedule accordingly.

For example, for an upcoming bachelor party in Denver, I booked one flight home at 10 am and another at 5 pm.  That way, if I just need to get the hell out of there on Monday morning I can do so at 10 am instead of waiting until 5 pm.  Booking with points on Southwest is one of my favorite benefits in the travel industry since there are no change/cancellation fees and the points go right back into your account.  I actually forgot to cancel one of my back-up flights a couple weeks ago and the points still went back into my account.

Testing it Out

Since I was recently approved for the Barclay Arrival card and I had about 9 different itineraries planned from spring to summer I figured it would be the perfect time to give Tripit Pro a try.  It didn’t hurt that it was free either.  I set up an account at Tripit.com and it automatically went in and scanned my e-mail for all my itineraries.  It found some but not all so I had to manually forward a lot of the itineraries to [email protected].  Every itinerary that I booked after I was a member though automatically got updated into my Tripit Pro account.  Here’s what my current dashboard looks like.

You can see that it’s pretty cool how they lay out each trip you have and the dates for that trip.  Tripit Pro will automatically categorize hotel stays as part of the same trip as long as the dates fall within your outbound and inbound flight.  It will also let you know about any potential conflicts.  Obviously the system isn’t perfect since it’s all automatic but you can easily edit, adjust or update itineraries.

The Extra Features

I think the coolest part about Tripit Pro though is that they automatically send you check-in notifications, flight updates and seat tracking updates.  Since I fly Southwest a lot and I’m tall at 6′ 3″, I like getting an A boarding pass so I can sit in an exit row.  But I’m way too cheap to pay for the early boarding.  Now I get a notification 5 minutes before check-in time (24 hours before my flight) and all I have to do is hit one button and my name and confirmation number are pre-filled and I can check in with one more click.

I haven’t used the seat notification alerts yet but if you fly non Southwest Airlines then this feature could be pretty handy too.  If you’re stuck in a middle seat, you can set an alert for aisle or window seats and the second one becomes available, you’ll get a notification.  I usually sign up for flight status updates from the airlines but Tripit Pro also offers this service.  I did both on my last few Southwest flights and the delay notifications came within a few seconds of each other from Southwest’s service and Tripit Pro in case you were wondering how they compare.

A Traveler’s Best Friend

I think Tripit Pro can make life easier for even the casual traveler since it will help you keep organized and on top of everything.  Most people use their smart phones for playing games and checking Facebook but there are a ton of efficiency apps like this one that will help save you time and money.  If you have the Barclay Arrival Card you can activate your subscription from your card’s dashboard and you won’t have to pay the $49 annual subscription fee as long as you hold the card.

If you don’t have the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard, you can read our review here or apply now.  You can also get a free subscription to TripIt Pro with the No Annual Fee Version of the Barclay Arrival card.

Readers, have you ever tried out Tripit Pro or a similar service?  What do you use/do to stay on top of your travel plans?

-Harry @ PF Pro

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(Editor’s Note: I have no relationship with Tripit Pro other than they provide an awesome service that’s free if you have a Barclay Arrival Card.  I do get a small commission if you sign up for that card using one of my links though so it’s a great way to support the site!)