How I Use Worldmate to Organize My Trips

Software changes over time. While Worldmate no longer exists, I am leaving this post to provide current readers with a snapshot of what has gone before. Services build on the success of what has gone before. Worldmate was a great one.

Update January 12, 2017:

I went to Worldmate today, and by all appearances, they are shutting down. Here is the message I saw:

I was not able to see any trip information on the website. As of now, I was able to access my information from the mobile app. I found I could click on each trip and select “Share” from an icon at the bottom of the screen.

Getting your information

The “Share” icon allows a person to send their trip information to someone else via email. So, I emailed the content to myself. Granted, the email does not include all of the details. For example, flight numbers are times are listed. Ticket numbers and prices are not. Hotel names, addresses, and dates are listed. Confirmation numbers and prices are not.

If the missing information is important, remember that all of the information on Worldmate came from emails you forwarded to them. The procedure would be to take what was exported from Worldmate and search your email archive for the remainder of the information.

What to do now

Alternatives to Worldmate have always existed. You can explore the following services:

The newcomer is Google Trips. I wrote a newspaper article on that service. You can read it here. One of the items on my task list now becomes figuring out which service I will be using.

Another option I am considering is putting the bare-bones information (flight number, hotel name/address, rental car confirmation) on my calendar. I would then keep all of the details in Evernote. For those who are familiar with Evernote, you know you can forward emails to Evernote. So, all of the confirmations that I had been sending to Worldmate would go to Evernote instead.

As I have said many times, good things come and good things go. Generally, they are replaced by better things. I have enjoyed Worldmate and look forward to something better.

Before is the post as it was originally posted.

If you travel much at all, you know how keeping up with flights, hotels, and rental car information can be a challenge. What if organizing it all was as simple as forwarding an email? That’s the beauty behind Worldmate.

Sign up for a free account at Worldmate.com.
During the setup process, look for your Worldmate email address. You will find it by going to “My Profile” and then “Manage My Emails.” Highlight and copy that address.
In your Contacts, create a new contact and call it “Worldmate.” Paste the email address you just copied into the email field. This email address will be important later.
Download the Worldmate app to your mobile devices.

Booking a Trip

Whenever you make a reservation for a plane, hotel, or rental car, you get an email confirmation. That confirmation will become the centerpiece for organizing your trips in Worldmate. When you receive one of those confirmation emails, simply forward it to Worldmate. The address you will be using is unique to you. The service matches the confirmation to your account regardless of the device from which you are sending it.

Viewing Your Upcoming Trips

Once you have an account and have forwarded some of those email confirmations, you can view your trips.

Log into your account, either on your computer or mobile device, and you will see a list of your upcoming trips.
Click on a trip, and you will see each part of the trip: your outbound flight(s), rental car pick-up, hotel check-in, hotel checkout, rental car return, and returning flight(s).
Click on any of the items just mentioned, and you will see the related details: confirmation number, contact information, price, etc.

Worldmate is smart enough to take all of the confirmations you throw at it piecemeal and know that the flight to Atlanta connecting to Houston, the hotel reservation in Houston, and the rental car reservation in Houston are all related. Worldmate gives the trip a name: “Trip to Houston,” and assigns a starting and ending date to the trip. The service even recognizes when one or more days of the trip is missing a hotel reservation or rental car and provides a clickable link through which a reservation can be made.

You can view information from past trips as well. So, if you need to know the address of the hotel at which you stayed three months ago, going to the “Previous trips” menu provides that information.

Helpful Updates During Your Trip

Each morning during your trip, you receive notifications on your mobile device related to what you need to know about the day. Flight numbers and departure times, hotel check-in information, and more is provided when you need to know about it.

You may find you do not need to enter the details of your trip into your calendar. Since Worldmate pushes you the details each day, the calendar entry can be minimal. You could get by with “Trip to Houston” as an all-day event spanning the duration of your trip. The calendar would stay clean while Worldmate holds all of the details.

The only caveat when relying solely on Worldmate during your trip is that you must have a reliable Internet connection, either through Wi-Fi or your mobile device’s data plan.

What I have described is free. You can opt for the Gold Membership plan at a cost of $9.95 per year. You get the ability to sync Worldmate with your calendar, flight alerts, and suggestions for alternate flights when a reschedule is needed. Personally, I am able to receive this information through other means, so the free account meets my needs. It provides all the details, neatly organized, and keeps my calendar clean. Very importantly, Worldmate is ridiculously easy to use.

Worldmate is available for Android and iPhone.

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