I'm pretty proficient at travel hacking and general travel research. I've spent a long time getting good at this (post forthcoming). This is why when my friend Angus was raving about Pana I didn't bite at first. However, a few months ago I decided to give it a shot. I signed up Lora and myself for a Team account (two members). Lora uses it for work, and I use it for family travel (also some work).

Verdict? It's unbelievable. Let me tell you why.

Pana is an conversational 24/7 assistant in an App. It has a chat iterface that that you use for all your bookings. You create a profile, enter your frequent flyer numbers and credit cards as well as any family members. When you want to book anything, you start a new chat and just start asking for things.

Pana is powered by humans. They respond to all your requests, doing travel research, booking flights, hotels, restaurants, activities. They offer advice, check you in, check on you, and monitor your travel.

For example, here is how a typical trip starts out

Pretty simple. However they can do so much more.

I've gone a bit nuts with the app. Since I started using it I have had Pana arrange 10 trips. They are all neatly laid out in the app

Inside each trip, your plans get neatly presented

I've found that Pana has taken a lot of the headache out of travel planning. Here are some examples of things I've used it for:

Research flight options
Call hotel and make sure we have connecting rooms
Ask for early check-in
Find restaurants near where I am staying for a group of people
Book train tickets
Get me a better seat on the flight
Find me some AirBnB options to book
Call the airline and change my flight due to a schedule change
Let me know how much it will cost to change my flight
Please upgrade my wife to first class (for her birthday) using Miles or Cash
Book me a car for a week with a ski rack and 4x4

Pana is free for 30 days. I recommend you wait till you have some trips to plan and try them out. After that it's $19 month (note, they seem to have different pricing tiers now, but this is what I am paying). As I mentioned, Lora and I are on a "Teams" plan and we each pay $19 a month since she uses her plan for work travel.

Pana is also going to be offering a "free" tier called Crosby which is more like Tripit (just automated - no humans).

If you feel like trying it, use my Invite Code and you'll get $20 off J3LK69

You can get Pana here.

OmarKnows Rating: Recommended