Travel planning spreadsheet?

[RooFlyer]

Another Excel planner.

Lets you see how the trip will unfold day to day or hour to hour.

 

[JessicaTam]

I start with a spreadsheet with my dates of travel and then populate it as I make bookings. I print it out and take it with me as a quick reference guide.

Pen and paper gets a workout with the options until I book.

 

[straitman]

Oh this raises another question! I've since cancelled the card I used to book all the flights and accommodation. I still have the physical card but it is useless for anything. Am I in trouble?

I don't believe that would be a problem.

They just want to sight the card.

I agree.

If you have the card then it is a non issue. If you don't then it might be an issue but even then you would be unlucky.

 

[cove]

We just use an IPad calendar and tie in the QF, VA, AA and SQ flights. It would be a bit harder if we used more airlines.
Today we booked Perth -Sydney return twice and Perth-London return once. Have several more overseas runs to book for the next 11 months.
Of course I messed one flight up but I phoned and fixed the flight without a real hassle. I hadn't noticed a date roll over flying overnight from London.

 

[cmon0005]

I also use excel for trip planning, and also to capture things like whether I have booked an airport pickup to my hotel.etc.
I don't tend to take it physically just email it to myself as it's more of a pre-departure checklist.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I use www.trello.com as you just create a board for each trip then create a lists eg 'flights to book', 'hotels to book' then 'cards' (tasks) within those lists eg 'book Holiday Inn YVR', 'book Holiday Inn Pittsburgh.'

I've also added a list 'gadgets & gizmos' for stuff like chargers, Go-Pro, spare batteries, USA Garmin. That's more of a packing list though and the app I like for that is Packing List Lite which is free like Trello.

There's a Trello app also so it's easy to work on at work in your lunch break or commuting on the bus or train. You can also add users so if your spouse or travelling companion gets a Trello account and you share it with them they can update or view it also.

I don't use Excel because it looks so unappealing and spreadsheets on the whole just don't excite me.

 

[wandering_fred]

Being a grumpy old man, I use Lotus 1-2-3... :shock:

I have spreadsheets of travel for the last ten years or so with prospective travel in a similar format. If you are going to the trouble of traveling, you should at least credit the flights to the FF programs that will (in the end) produce the best combination of benefits. A few years ago (before simpler and fairer and the transmission of that ailment to other FF programs) it was easy... If it earned in the primary program, there it went.

Happy wandering

Fred

 

[k_sheep]

I'm starting to play with Google Trips now too - it has the potential to take over all my travel apps.

 

[VPS]

I'm starting to play with Google Trips now too - it has the potential to take over all my travel apps.

Be interested in your feedback

 

[k_sheep]

Be interested in your feedback

Haven't had much time to play with it yet (MAJOR exam coming up friday). But it loaded all of my reservations from gmail seamlessly. It's giving me an option to download city information for each. Liking the layout so far. Will see how it goes for functionality soon.

 

[YSSY]

I use TripCase, and manually add meetings etc to the app. For complex itineraries, booking through a travel agent having everything put on the one PNR makes life a little easier also. Interestingly if you have a Qantas booking and add a hire car from your 'Manage Booking' page it automatically adds it to your PNR, also I often find the Qantas hire car rates incredibly competitive.

Beyond that, I also use a spreadsheet with with the columns 'Date, Day, City, Country, Details' and it is about 99.8% accurate back to 1999 with flights, hotels and countries visited. I use it for an overview on forward planning also. This has helped when applying for visas and I'm asked for travel history.

 

[Paddy55]

Being a grumpy old man, I use Lotus 1-2-3... :shock:

Awesome! Didn't know it was still around and could run.
Loved it when it was first released! :shock:

 

[Buzzard]

I just let +1 do all the planning for me and I'll foot the bill.

 

[badseed]

Enjoying Google trips so far also The only issue is that it also creates 'trips' for every forwarded email from my friends / family etc (similar to most here I advise on flights, hotels, seat choices, points redemptions etc). So it looks like I travel pretty much all of the time.

Previously I've used Google Sheets, and even coded my own private HTML / PHP site that hooked into Expertflyer to show me seat maps and availability etc automatically.

 

[Boca68]

Biro and a piece of paper for me

I'm with him!

The very idea of ruining your trip with a spreadsheet or word document is just alien to me.

Although, I do use Tripit, but solely as a reminder tool. not a planning tool.

I'll go back to my chalk and stone easel now....