Travel Planning Blog

How long should a layover be? Rules of thumb for domestic and international connections, when a short layover is fine, and what to do if you miss one.

A travel documents checklist for any trip: what to check weeks ahead, what to carry, what to keep as a backup copy, and how to store it all safely.

A business trip itinerary that survives the week: what to put on it, how to build it from bookings you did not make, and how to keep receipts straight.

A trip planning spreadsheet template with the columns that matter, the four jobs a sheet does badly, and how to move a finished one into a real itinerary.

How to split costs on a group trip: what to agree before anyone pays, how to log expenses as you go, and how to settle up with one number per person.

A practical guide to planning a multi-city trip: choosing the route shape, pacing the stops, and keeping every booking in one plan that reads offline.

TripCase shut down on April 1, 2025 and the saved trips inside it were deleted. Here is what the app did, what became of your data, and how to rebuild an old trip from the confirmations still in your inbox.

A practical guide to trip planning automation: which parts of a trip are worth handing to software, which are not, and a ten-minute setup for your next one.

TripIt has no export button. Here is how to get your trips out with its calendar feed, plus how to move out of Wanderlog or Tripsy, what carries over, what does not, and how to check the result.

Most itinerary apps only read forwarded email. Here is how to turn PDF, photo, and screenshot travel confirmations into one plan, free.

Your airline app is good at flight status tracking. Here are the three gaps it leaves, and a practical checklist for when the delay actually lands.

What a trip itinerary builder actually has to do, plus a step-by-step for turning scattered bookings into one day-by-day plan that works offline.

What an offline travel app really has to do, plus a checklist for making your flights, stays, and reservations readable when your phone has no connection.

Most travel apps build your itinerary by connecting to your mailbox. There is another way: send the app only the confirmations you choose, and nothing else.

Booking confirmations look like structured data and are not. Here are the specific problems that break naive parsing: missing years, trips that cross New Year, and flights that arrive twice in different formats.

Shared trip collaboration done right: how to plan a group trip so everyone sees one itinerary, costs get split fairly, and nobody misses the early ferry.

A step-by-step guide to building a travel expense report for reimbursement: collect receipts, categorize spend, and export a clean report finance will accept.

The story behind the name Petrel: why a small storm-riding seabird that always finds its way home became the mascot for a travel app that plans itself.

Forward your flight, hotel, and activity confirmations and get one organized day-by-day itinerary. Here's how email forwarding itinerary building actually works.