Trip Budget Planner
Price a trip honestly before you commit, from flights to the suite. Enter travelers, nights, and costs; the planner computes an itemized budget with every formula shown, through contingency and grand total.
Tools
The tools here do arithmetic, not recommendations. Premium trips carry premium numbers: suite rates, high-fee cards, long itineraries. These tools put those numbers in front of you before you commit. You supply the inputs, the tool shows the computed result for each option, and what to do with the numbers is your call.
Packing Checklist Builder
Enter trip length, climate, and trip type. The builder generates a categorized checklist with quantities computed from your nights; checkmarks save in your browser.
Airline Credit Card Picker
Premium airline cards carry high annual fees. Enter your spending by category and a preferred airline; the tool computes points earned, earn value, benefit estimates, annual fee, welcome bonus, and net value for each card.
Sites we actually use
Each of these does one part of the trip better than anyone else. We use them ourselves. None of them pay us, and none of these are affiliate links — they are here because they are right.
In the air
- Flighty Flight tracking that knows about the delay before the airline announces it.
- Flightradar24 Live aircraft tracking. Confirm the actual tail you will fly — an equipment swap undoes a carefully chosen seat.
- FlightAware Flight status and aircraft history, useful when a route has a habit of substituting equipment.
- ExpertFlyer Seat maps, award availability, and alerts when the seat you want opens up. The power user’s tool.
- Seatlink Current seat-quality detail, and the maintained alternative to SeatGuru.
Lounges & cabins
- FlyerTalk The unsponsored brain trust on premium cabins, lounges, and status. Dense, and authoritative.
- LoungeReview Honest lounge detail without the credit-card affiliate spin.
- LoungeBuddy Which lounges you can actually get into, and what a day pass costs.
Overland, and before you go
- Seat 61 The definitive independent guide to luxury rail, ferries, and overland routes. Trust-first, and a legend.
- Rome2Rio Every way between two points, including the routes booking sites never show you.
- IATA Travel Centre The authoritative source for passport, visa, and entry requirements. Check here rather than guess.