For the past year, I’ve been using TripIt to keep up with trip details such as flights, confirmation numbers for rental cars and hotels and meeting schedules.

Here’s how it works. I forward confirmation e-mails to Tripit and it neatly arranges the information for viewing online. You can let friends view your itineraries and also see if any traveling friends will be close by during your trip.

I can edit my itinerary to include meetings and other details. Then, I can export the information and bring it into my Outlook calendar. In my experience, Tripit does an excellent job of grabbing the information from confirmation e-mails, and that saves a lot of time compared to entering the information manually.

Tripit also offers free apps for the iPhone, Android phones and the BlackBerry platform for viewing the information on mobile devices. I also print out a hard copy and keep it with my boarding passes and other travel documents.

TripIt will even print out maps for getting from the airport to the hotel and to meetings, though I depend on my GPS for directions.

One improvement I’d suggest is using actual weather forecasts for where I’m traveling instead of historical averages. Historical data tells me nothing about actual conditions on the ground. And with all the weather providers available, it seems that would be an easy addition.

The basic version is free. TripIt also offers a pro version, for $69 a year, that will monitor your itinerary and send information about flight delays, cancellations and gate changes, and will also suggest alternate flights. There’s a 30-day free trial available for TripIt Pro.

I’m using the free version of TripIt and depend on flight alerts from the airlines for notifications of any changes.

For my travels, TripIt performs better than another travel app, Tripcase. I can’t get Tripcase to look up itineraries using a reservation number with flights booked directly on American Airlines’ website. Tripcase is adding the ability to get the information from confirmation e-mails, but that part is still in beta.

After using it for dozens of journeys, I can recommend TripIt for keeping up with the many details that go into trip planning. A few improvements, such as real weather information, would make it even better.