How booking import works
Booking import turns the confirmations you already have into a reviewed itinerary. It works as a guest, so you can import a booking before you create an account. Planning without an account has its own page.
- Add your files. Choose PDFs, saved emails (.eml files), or Apple Wallet passes, paste text, or drop files onto the import screen in the web app.
- TripNova reads them on your device. It looks for flights and stays and shows where each detail it finds came from.
- You review. Switch off anything you do not want, edit any detail, and fix anything that is flagged.
- You save. Create a new trip from the bookings, or add them to a trip you already have.
What you can import
TripNova imports flights and stays. A stay can be a hotel, an apartment, a rental, or any other lodging, including Airbnb bookings. On every platform you can add:
- PDF files, such as an e-ticket or a booking confirmation
- Emails saved as .eml files
- Apple Wallet passes (.pkpass), such as a boarding pass
- Text you paste in
- In the web app, files you drag and drop onto the import screen
The iOS and Android apps also read photos and screenshots (JPEG, PNG, HEIC, and WebP) and scanned PDFs, using text recognition on the device, and they decode the barcodes on boarding passes. Photos are chosen with the system photo picker, so TripNova does not need access to your photo library. On Android you can also share files and text to TripNova from other apps, and on iOS you can open files in TripNova from Files, Mail, or a share sheet. The iOS and Android apps are coming soon to the App Store and Google Play.
Start from the Trips screen, or from inside a trip to add the bookings to that trip.
What TripNova reads from a booking
Flights. A flight needs its flight number and departure date. When they are printed, TripNova also reads the departure and arrival times, the airports with their names and terminals, the arrival day, seats, a labelled booking reference, and the airline.
Stays. A stay needs a check-in date. It can also carry the check-out date, the number of nights, the check-in and check-out times in the property’s local time, the property’s name and address, and one booking reference.
Boarding passes. In the iOS and Android apps, TripNova decodes the barcode on a boarding pass and takes the booking reference, route, flight number, seat, and day of travel from it.
Some booking emails also embed machine-readable reservation details. TripNova reads those on your device as well and keeps only the itinerary fields.
What TripNova does not extract
Import is conservative about personal details. It does not extract or keep:
- Passenger names and guest names, including the name stored in a boarding-pass barcode
- Ticket numbers, PINs, and member or loyalty numbers
- Room types
- Prices and payment details
- Host or guest contact details
Read on your device, reviewed by you
TripNova reads each file you add, on your device. The file is not uploaded to be read, there is no password prompt, and no remote content is fetched from your emails. Because the reading is local, import works offline in the apps. In the browser it can work offline once TripNova has been opened online on that device. The privacy policy covers how import handles your files.
Nothing is added to a trip until you save. The review lists every flight and stay in date order. Each one has an include switch and an Edit sheet, and every value is marked as read, inferred, missing, or conflicting, with the line it came from. Anything the recognizer was unsure of is flagged so you can check it. Problems that would make a bad booking, such as a flight without its flight number or departure date, or a stay without a check-in date or property name, block saving until you fix them.
A new trip or an existing one
Import can create a new trip from your bookings. Its name starts from the destination of your flights, or as New trip when only stays are included, and its dates cover every flight and stay you include. Save it as a draft if you are not ready. Or add the bookings to a trip you already have. If they would extend the trip’s dates or move its start earlier, TripNova asks you to approve the exact new dates first, and your existing flights are never changed.
Duplicates are caught
If you import the same booking twice, TripNova notices. A flight with the same flight number and departure date as one already in the trip is left out and marked “Already in this trip” unless you choose Import anyway. A stay with the same booking reference and dates is treated the same way. When a saved stay has the same reference but different dates, TripNova offers to update that stay instead of adding a second one. A booking that already appears in another of your trips is flagged, with an option to add it there instead.
Keep the original, or not
Each PDF, email, or photo you import is kept in the trip’s Documents by default, so the confirmation travels with the itinerary. Switch it off in the review for any file you would rather not keep. Pasted text is never kept, and wallet passes are read but not kept. Kept files count toward the trip’s attachment limit, and they sync like the rest of the trip when it is in an account.
Languages and limits
TripNova reads dates and labels in English, and also in Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. Text recognition for photos and scans on Android covers Latin-script text.
One import holds up to 10 sources. Each file can be up to 10 MB, with 40 MB in total, pasted text can be up to 200,000 characters, and TripNova reads the first 30 pages of a PDF. Text recognition covers the first 10 pages of a source, and identical files are counted once.
What cannot be imported
- Outlook .msg files. Save the email as an .eml file instead.
- Password-protected PDFs and encrypted emails. TripNova reports them and does not ask for a password.
- Photos, scans, and image-only PDFs in the web app. They can only be read in the iOS and Android apps.
- Other kinds of reservations. Import covers flights and stays. Trains, buses, airport transfers, car rentals, and activity tickets are not imported.
- Your inbox. You choose each file yourself. TripNova does not connect to your email account or accept forwarded messages.
Each file gets its own result, such as no bookings found, no readable text, password-protected, unsupported, or too large, so one unreadable file does not stop the rest.
Weighing TripNova against a service that builds itineraries from forwarded confirmation emails? See how it compares as a TripIt alternative.
