Trip Itinerary App Tour: Group Trips, Split Costs

0:00All your trip bookings in one place

Four booking confirmations: a hotel, a train, a flight and a dinner.

Each one sits in a different friend's inbox. Nobody has the whole trip.

A gold petrel flies in. A phone rises.

One trip. Everyone's bookings.

0:18How do I turn booking emails into an itinerary?

The website's button reads Start your free trip. The first trip is free.

A booking confirmation email is forwarded to plans@petrelvoyage.com. In under a minute it becomes the Lisbon trip, filled in day by day.

Petrel also reads PDFs, screenshots and photos of paper tickets. Drop in several files at once, even a whole folder.

A group chat screenshot goes in, with plans buried in the messages. Petrel lists the plans the chat names. You tick which ones go on.

Exports from other trip apps import too: .ics, CSV or PDF. The import card names TripIt, Tripsy and Wanderlog.

0:59Day-by-day itinerary, trip map and directions

Every flight, stay, train and plan sits on its day, in order. Day by day, from check-in on Thursday to the flight home on Tuesday. Airport to hotel: bike ~37 min, drive ~17 min. Directions offers Google Maps, Waze or Apple Maps. A time with an asterisk is an estimate. The booking did not state one. Edit the day to set it.

Two plans at the same time on one day are both flagged: Time conflict. Remove one if it is a duplicate.

The Bookings tab lists every flight, stay, train and reservation.

Gold arcs trace the flights in from Chicago, London and Madrid.

The map closes in on Lisbon and the day trip to Sintra.

The Map tab puts every stop on the trip on one map.

Search a place by name and city, and it joins the day with its address attached. Each day takes notes, photos and links.

2:07How do I plan a group trip with friends?

Publish the trip and copy its link, then send it to the group. This view-only link opens with no account.

The link shows the plan. Costs and confirmation numbers stay private. To let friends edit, send the invite link instead. "Anyone who opens this link can view and edit the trip with you, and their Petrel account is free."

An announcement is pinned to the trip: Flights are all in. Check your seat. A vote on dinner: three places. Change your vote and the count follows. Everyone's flights sit in one list, whoever booked them. Each traveler's seat and confirmation number sit beside their name.

Recent activity shows who added each plan.

2:59How do I split trip costs with friends?

A $192 expense, Petiscos and wine, is added. Three of the four stay on. It splits between them: $64 each.

A photographed receipt from Cervejaria Ramiro fills in the amount, €60.00. Shared costs add up to a short list of who owes whom. Dollars and euros are totaled separately, never converted.

People in the split do not need an account. Add their names by hand.

3:32Can I see my itinerary offline? (live status, calendar)

A departures board flips to the flight home: LIS to ORD, 10:35 AM. With no signal, saved trips still open, every day of them. Offline is read-only. Changes wait until you reconnect.

The Calendar button exports the whole trip as one calendar file (.ics). It opens in the share sheet. Calendar subscribe lives in Account.

3:58Is there a trip itinerary app for Apple Watch? (widgets, Siri)

On Apple Watch, the next thing on the trip counts down on your wrist. The rest of the trip scrolls underneath.

Widgets show the next plan on the Lock Screen and Home Screen. A Live Activity follows the next departure.

Ask Siri: what's next on my Petrel trip?

4:24Where do I keep boarding passes, passports and IDs?

A boarding pass attaches to its flight and opens full screen, offline. Attach the pass your airline sends you.

The vault holds passports, IDs, insurance and emergency contacts. Each is encrypted on your device. Petrel cannot read them.

On iPhone, the vault opens with Face ID.

4:48How do I track the countries I have visited?

Every trip adds countries, cities and miles to your own map. Places from before Petrel can be added too.

Each country you visit earns a passport-style stamp. View all opens the tier stamps and achievements.

Trips earn Petrel Points. Ranks climb from Fledgling to Giant Petrel. 50 achievements to earn along the way.

About a week after you get home, a recap email arrives. The numbers and the route, with a link to the full recap, day by day.

5:26How do I keep work trips separate, with an expense report?

Filing a trip as Work moves it to its own tab, apart from personal travel.

A work trip produces a reimbursement-ready expense report. It lists vendors, categories and totals, each currency on its own.

5:45Where can I find a free ready-made itinerary?

Before you book, the library has free itineraries by city and country. Typing Lisbon finds a three-day plan, laid out day by day. Pick a start date and copy it into your trips.

6:00How much does Petrel Voyage cost?

Your first trip is free, with every feature and no card.

Voyager adds unlimited trips.

Invited friends never pay.

Petrel works on iPhone, Apple Watch and any web browser.

6:18The whole trip, start to finish

The whole Lisbon trip scrolls past.

You booked the trip. Petrel organizes it. petrelvoyage.com