Now that the travelling industry is getting back to normal and moreover is probably expecting a boost in travel technology development, the new ways of getting a satisfied customer are searched for. We all got so used to having half of our life inside our phone and to trusting apps with a variety of tasks, that’s the most logical way of enhancing our travel experience seems to lie in the direction of app improvement.
Typical travel apps offer us a huge range of features from booking a ticket to finding a travel partner. But the one thing that makes any app even better is when it not only helps you with separate parts of your journey, but guides you through your trip like a pro. And that’s where itinerary planners shine.
As a rule, itinerary planners support travellers by providing them with details about the trip (such as time, location, duration), notify them about any changes on the way, and structure any scattered information. Any itinerary planner uses API to achieve its purposes. Itinerary planning APIs retrieve information from emails, different APIs and other sources. Their aim is to get as complete data about the trip as possible.
There is a bunch of itinerary planning APIs you can try, but I suggest we have a closer look at the three of them: AwardWallet, Traxo and Travefy.
AwardWallet Email Parsing API
As the name suggests, AwardWallet Email Parsing API parses incoming emails for any travel related information. It then organizes the received details and turns it into useable data. Travel categories AwardWallet typically deals with include: Flight Reservations, Hotel Reservations, Car Rental Reservations, Train Reservations, and Expenses. The retrieved information will include flight time, terminal number, layover time, prices and cancellation policies, points redemption info, and much more. If the data received via emails is insufficient, the API addresses other sources to fill the missing parts. There are two ways how API can get access to the emails. The user either forwards emails or lets the API scan the inbox for any travel related letters (which, of course, is more convenient). AwardWallet supports almost all types of known email formats.
Traxo API
Traxo API also parses new and existing emails for fresh or historical data and can be used in travel apps to help building a trip route. Traxo supports 4,000 email formats from airlines, hotels, and car rental agencies. Traxo offers Basic Email Parsing, Integrated Email Parsing, and Folio Email Parsing. While the first one parses the emails and returns the info; the second one additionally integrates the info into existing account; the third one deals with hotel folios, providing the user with hotel purchases details. The travel categories of basic an integrated parsing include: Air, Car, Hotel, Activity, Rail, and Cruise.
Travefy API
Travefy API is different from AwardWallet and Traxo. First, because it’s not an email parsing API, so it can’t provide a user with any type of personal information. But it accumulates the data from a variety of sources and turns it into a pretty itinerary containing both necessary and extra details (such as cultural or historical). Second, the Travefy API requires doing some manual job on users’ part (like entering the flight number), that’s why it’s best used with travel agencies and travel agents.