Travel Technology

Free Technology Tools for Travelers

There are a lot of new technology tools for travelers that I come across in various forums and articles. Two free ones I’ve become a big fan of recently are AwardWallet and Tripit. Unlike most tools which seem cool in concept but which I never end up actually using, AwardWallet and Tripit actually do make my life easier. This is not about peer to peer services, but frugal travelers often end up with a lot of information and plans to keep track of, so today’s post is about some tools that help with this.

awardwalletThe first is AwardWallet, a website that tracks all of your miles and points program balances in one place in real time. It’s important to track this stuff if you are playing the credit card game to fly for free and get free hotel stays.

For new users of AwardWallet, you can use this link to sign up and the first 10 people can get a free upgrade to your account using this code: free-hnifye.

 

tripitThe second tool is TripIt. This website and phone app collects all of your travel plans into one place, building easy-to-view itineraries which can also be shared with other people on your trips. You simply forward the confirmation emails you get from airlines and hotels to an address they provide, and Tripit parses the information in these confirmations. It’s remarkable how accurate they are with most major airlines and hotels. With hostels and other non-standard emails you can enter the information into your itinerary manually. If you move around a lot when traveling, this is a super useful way to view your whole itinerary in one place, keep track of confirmation numbers, addresses, directions, and other essential info, and view it all offline on your phone whenever you need to reference something.

What tools do you use? Share your tips with my readers in the comments.

2 Comments

  • AwardWallet is just what we needed – we do play CC miles games. It was even better than I first thought. I signed up and got myself an AW account, then got my wife an account. We didn’t need 2 accounts, both of our CC cards could be on 1 AW account. Fortunately I only loaded 1 airline before checking to see if multiple people’s CCs could be tracked one 1 AW account. They can and it’s simple. One place and we can track all our FF Miles – in real time. Great tip.
    I wonder if AW will have a feature to allow you to see all recent CC activity so you can quickly check multiple CC usage for fraud while traveling.

    • Note that one limitation of AW that I didn’t mention is the (stupid) airlines that block AW. Currently this includes Southwest, United and Delta. They do have a work around for United and Southwest (see the News section of your AW account for info on this). I wonder if AW accessing financial data might increase the number of programs that blocking AW entirely.