A travel site tip

Dear PropellerHeads: Your column on travel sites last year pointed me to Hipmunk, a great online tool for finding flights. What other new travel sites should I check out?

A: We're glad you found Hipmunk (hipmunk.com) helpful. Our new favorite travel site for 2012 (so far) is TripIt (tripit.com).

Legend has it that there was a Golden Age of flying - sometime after the Hindenburg but before the TSA's blue-gloved, um, "secret handshakes" - when air travel was a majestic affair. Men polished their finest Sunday monocles and donned tuxedos before boarding a plane and tucking into a filet mignon beneath a chandelier.

Alas, TripIt does not return us to a time quite that far back, but it does eliminate the indignity of having to shuffle around airports, rental car offices, and hotel lobbies carrying crumpled email printouts and squinting at confirmation numbers scrawled on our hands.

You can sign up for a TripIt account (or sign in using your existing Facebook or Google account), after which the service asks for your email address. Then just forward to plans@tripit.comall your reservation confirmation emails from various airlines, hotels and rental car agencies.

From those, TripIt builds a timeline of your trip, including arrival and departure times, and check-ins and check-outs. The timeline includes details like flight numbers and durations, seat assignments, and hotel room descriptions. TripIt even adds weather reports for your destination and driving directions between the airport and hotel.

Download the TripIt app for your iPhone or Android device and you can access all this information from the road. This eliminates the need to carry around all those scraps of paper on your trip.

Or log on to the TripIt site to see your aggregate travel statistics for the year, like how many trips you made, the number of days you were away from home, and how many miles you flew.

Since this is the era of social networks, TripIt also helps you connect with other travelers by scanning your Gmail or Yahoo! contacts and identifying those with TripIt accounts. It can then alert you when your travel buddies are going to be in the same town at the same time. This is great for scheduling lunches or meet-ups with old colleagues and far-flung road warrior friends.

All this is available for the whopping sum of zero dollars. They make money from a "pro" version imaginatively named TripIt Pro. This paid service sends alerts to your phone when your flight is delayed or cancelled.

TripIt Pro also suggests alternate flights and notifies you when you're eligible for a refund because an airline dropped the price of your flight. They even track your frequent flyer miles, hotel rewards points and similar information for rental car loyalty programs.

TripIt Pro costs $49 per year and is probably a great deal for frequent travelers. For the occasional business trip or family visit around the holidays, we've found the free version to meet our travel needs nicely. Our one complaint is that TripIt does not hesitate to remind us about once per month how much greater life would be if we upgraded to a TripIt Pro account. It's a small price to pay, and we suppose TripIt employees have to eat too.

It's a shame we don't celebrate man's conquest of the birds' domain like we used to, with top hats, fur coats, and cabernets. But in this time of carry-on upcharges, government-mandated grope-a-thons and razor-thin airplane seats, it's good to know that our fellow travelers at TripIt are on our side.

When the PropellerHeads at Data Directions aren't busy with their IT projects, they love to answer questions on business or consumer technology. Email them to questions@askthepropellerheads.com or contact us at Data Directions Inc., 8510 Bell Creek Road, Mechanicsville, VA 23116. Visit our website at www.askthepropellerheads.com.