PrivateChief Trips: Every Booking in One Itinerary, with Passport Checks and Packing Lists
Trips is the PrivateChief tool that turns a scatter of booking emails into one family itinerary, and keeps an eye on what still needs doing before anyone leaves. Forward a confirmation or drop it into a chat, and your Chief files it, reads the flights, hotel or car from it, and adds it to the trip once you confirm. The household in this walkthrough, the Ashfords, is invented for the demonstration, and so is every booking you see.
Chapters
- 0:00Every booking, one itinerary
- 0:16The Ashford household and their Chief
- 0:27Before you go: preparation and passport checks
- 0:50Every trip coming up
- 1:02Thanksgiving: flights, rental car and lodge
- 1:17Forward the confirmation and your Chief reads it
- 1:32Add a booking, packing lists and the calendar
- 1:49Private trips and travel documents
- 2:09Past trips, and what Trips never does
What Trips does
- Builds each trip's itinerary from the confirmations you forward or send in chat: flights, hotels, rental cars, trains and other bookings, with times and reference numbers.
- Warns you when a passport expires less than six months after a trip ends, since many countries require six months' validity.
- Reminds you to renew a passport inside the lead time you choose.
- Prompts you to prepare in the week before a trip, and reminds you when a flight's check-in window opens.
- Makes a packing list as a shopping list you can tick off, starting from the one you used last time.
- Puts a trip's bookings on your calendar after showing you the events and waiting for your yes.
- Keeps a trip private to the people going, or shares it with the household.
- Never books, changes or cancels a reservation unless you ask it to.
What the narrator says
0:00Every booking, one itinerary
Every family trip arrives as a scatter of emails. A flight here, a hotel there, and a car rental confirmation sitting in someone else's inbox. Trips gathers them into one itinerary, and keeps an eye on what still needs doing.
0:16The Ashford household and their Chief
This is PrivateChief on a Mac, for the Ashfords, a family invented for this demonstration. Their Chief is called Savannah Brooks.
0:27Before you go: preparation and passport checks
Open Trips, and the first thing you see is what needs attention before anyone leaves. Ella's college visit starts in three days, so it is time to get ready. Michael's passport runs out less than six months after the Lisbon trip ends, which many countries will not accept. And Ella's passport is now inside the renewal window the family chose.
0:50Every trip coming up
Below that is every trip coming up. The college visit has its hotel and the campus tour, each with its time and its reference number.
1:02Thanksgiving: flights, rental car and lodge
Thanksgiving is the whole family. Flights out and back, the rental car, and four nights at the lodge. The itinerary notes when check-in opens for each flight, and Savannah reminds you when that window arrives.
1:17Forward the confirmation and your Chief reads it
None of this is typed in by hand. Forward the confirmation email, or drop it into a chat. Savannah files it in your documents, reads it, and tells you what she found before anything is added to the trip.
1:32Add a booking, packing lists and the calendar
Every trip has three buttons. Add a booking. Packing list, which builds a shopping list you can tick off, starting from the one you used last time. And Put it on my calendar, which shows you the events first and waits for your yes.
1:49Private trips and travel documents
Some trips are private. The anniversary in Lisbon is just for Laura and Michael, so it does not appear for the children. Passports are kept by holder and expiry date. Send Savannah a photo of the photo page, and she keeps watch from then on.
2:09Past trips, and what Trips never does
Past trips stay on file, so last summer's packing list is there to start from next year. Trips keeps the itinerary. It never books, changes or cancels a reservation unless you ask it to. PrivateChief. Find out more at privatechief.com.


