Meghan Coyle

Hi there, I'm Megan Coyle. And I'm Sally French. Welcome to Smart Travel, where we help you make your travel budget work smarter because who doesn't love more trips for less money?

We're your financially savvy friends who love to travel. Plus, we'll dive into topics like loyalty programs, seasonal booking strategies, and even whether travel insurance is really worth it or just another way to burn your budget.

Spoiler, it involves a lot of chocolate covered raisins.

Your passport will thank you and so will your wallet.

Ben, I'm glad we brought you on the show to bring us these great redemptions. Air Canada really is a transfer partner of a bunch of the major programs, Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One Miles, and then also a program that I know Megan is a huge fan of, but we're not going to go too much in depth today on, is Built Rewards.

Wow, so exclusive.

So where did that salt and pepper shakers come in?

Wow, I had no idea salt and pepper shakers were the thing. I learned something today.

That is a good reminder about the fees. I'm up next. So I have a similar flight one with American Express. I would transfer to Flying Blue. That's the loyalty program of Air France, KLM. They are another common airline partner. They have flights to or from Europe for less than 20,000 miles when you can book it as part of a Flying Blue monthly plan. promo.

Okay, so I'm glad we talked last episode all about transfer partners because there was actually a ton of news about transfer partners last week.

Again, this could be a great trip for you to book for you and a friend to fly around trip to Europe for that 100,000 points.

Yes, yes. But you know, I'm an economy girl. I don't need these first class flights with the salt and pepper shakers.

Oh, I'm so jealous.

Okay, we'll have to try it out. And for American Express cardholders, I do want to shout out Delta here. It can be super expensive to book Delta flights on Delta SkyMiles, but there are some good deals if you can find them, especially internationally or even throughout the US.

So I did see LA to Seattle for just 10,000 round-trip SkyMiles on their SkyMiles deals page or 30,000 round-trip to Detroit. We can link to our article on Delta SkyMiles SkyMiles maximization in the episode notes.

Ben, always here with the good tips. All right, Ben, I like you, but I will say you stole my last one. I wanted to do an Air Canada transfer partner, but instead for Amex, I'll go with transfers to Hawaiian Airlines. So in September 2024, Hawaiian Airlines joined Alaska Airlines. So Hawaiian miles can transfer to the Alaska Airlines mileage plan program.

That means there are now so many sweet spots. Short haul flights on American Airlines for 4,500 miles. Flights to and from Hawaii for 10,000 miles. Those are, of course, as I said, economy class early, but you could also do business class on Japan Airlines for 75,000 miles.

And also we should add those ducks and salt and pepper shakers, depending on the airline.

So yes, easy answer. If you both open up a card in your individual names, you could both receive the sign-up bonus. You just have to make sure you both meet the minimum spending requirements on these cards.

I love when couples play two-player mode. All right, time for hot takeoff time. I think since we have a guest, let's ask Ben for his hot takeoff.

Ooh, here to hate on Southwest. Tell us more.

Especially now that they charge for the bags and all that.

Yeah, really not that much cheaper. I will say the only benefit is if you have that companion pass, at least you can kind of half the price that way. But even still, I actually don't really think Southwest is always that much cheaper.

Womp, this seems to be the trend lately.

That's the best when you get the whole row. As I said, do not fly first class, but if you can just lay down on all three seats, that's better.

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Okay, maybe worth thinking about doing now. In other news, did you see JetBlue added the ability to redeem JetBlue points for Japan Airlines?

I still need to go to Japan, one of the top places that I have not been to.

Okay, good deal. Moving over to our sea-loving listeners.

Yes, this is great news for cruise fans who have Chase cards. Previously, you had to call a number to find cruises available through something called Voyages by Chase. Now, people like me who are afraid of picking up the phone, you can just go to Chase's Travel Portal, see what cruise itineraries are available.

Unfortunately, though, you still have to call their number to actually complete the booking, but this makes it easier to browse and compare prices. When you book one of those cruises as a Chase card member, if it's a Voyages by Chase cruise, you get benefits. It'll be things like specialty dining or free onboard Starbucks. Starbucks, count me in.

Megan, we will make sure your next cruise has a Starbucks onboard so you can get your chai latte.

I will throw in one more thing. Even if you don't have enough Chase Ultimate Rewards points to book a cruise, you can also pay for your cruise on a Chase card to earn points.

I have to say, every time I read about his airline redemptions, I'm like, can you please show me your ways, Ben? That's why I asked him to come on the show. Welcome to Smart Travel, a deep dive into the tips, tools, and tactics to maximize your travel dollars. I'm Megan Coyle. And I'm Sally French.

You know, Megan, I'm thinking this is a sign. Next week, we should definitely just talk about cruises for the entire episode.

Hint, hint, wink, wink. Let's do it.

Yes. So I also wrote about a deal for families going on vacation at Disney World in 2026. Here's a good deal. If you buy a Disney dining plan to go along with your family's stay at a Disney Resort Collection hotel... Kids in your party ages 3 to 9 will all get the dining plan for free.

The Disney Dining Plan is a prepaid meal program at Walt Disney World where you pay up front and then you get a set amount of meal credits that you can redeem throughout your trip. Now, whether or not it's a good deal is actually kind of up for debate. The Disney Quick Service Dining Plan costs about $60 per adult per day. That covers two quick service restaurants plus a snack.

You also get a refillable drink credit. There's another more expensive tier. That's the standard Disney dining plan. That one includes one table service meal in lieu of one of those quick service restaurants. That one costs about $100 per adult per day.

Right. And while Disney food is expensive, it's usually not that expensive. You just end up getting so much food. A lot of people say they can't even eat it all. So what they find is that a lot of people don't actually see huge savings.

Yes. So there are some deals where it's like free dining plan, but you cannot combine it with other discounts. So I would say just do the other discounts for most people. But unlike past deals, this deal is actually good because it is stackable with other discounts. So now you're getting that kids eat free. You can also combine this with other discounts like the hotel room rate.

You know, Megan, I think there are a lot of people who are saving their points for some dream trip that they might never actually take.

It sounds like a high number, but... Actually, 100,000 points is not that wild if you've earned a big signup bonus or you haven't used your points in a year or two.

We've asked our colleague, Benjamin Din, to join us to talk about what to do with six figures worth of credit card points. But first, the news.

I like that we're adding a United flyer in the mix. You probably know Megan is an American Airlines elite. I am a recovering Southwest loyalist.

Right. So Ben, what are your priorities when it comes to redeeming 100,000 points?

You know, it's so funny you say that, especially because you've done so many flights. I expected you to say flights. But honestly, I use points on hotels pretty much for the same reasons that you do. I will say Amex, which Megan assigned me, is not the best with hotel transfers. Hilton and Marriott are only met as hotel transfer partners with Amex. So this is a fun challenge.

Yes, we will talk about a few credit card companies that are NerdWallet partners in this episode, but that does not influence how we discuss them. The benefits, terms, and fees mentioned were accurate at the time of this posting, but things can change. Some offers may have expired by the time you're listening, so for the latest details, follow the links in the episode description. I do.

I am going to throw a fun Amex hotel zinger in my list.

Oh, yes, Ben. I know we brought you on the show for a good reason. They are one of our favorite transfer partners. And Ben, I hope you heard my wedding episode where I said I was booking my wedding hotel on Hyatt Points. That's even rather than using my actual hotel room block.

That would be way more fitting for our show and fitting Megan to have an icebreaker because we have a guest on our show today. And I am guessing he has some good answers to that icebreaker question.

And I'll also pile on to the Hyatt love. One of my best hotel redemptions to date was booking the Ondas Maui at Waialea back when it was just a Category 4. It opened in 2013, which was close to when I went. I think they priced it so low just because no one knew about it. True hidden gem property. I will say the word has gotten out. Now it is a Category 8. I still love it. Oh my gosh. I know.

I still love it. I loved it way more as a Category 4.

And I think the listeners know it, too. Yeah.

Amazing. And 15,000 points means you could stay there for six nights based on our 100K criteria.

Choice is also a transfer partner of American Express. I I could have used that one on my list. So tell me, where could you get the best value for choice points?

My turn. Amex time. So I said I didn't want to talk about hotel transfer partners, but this actually isn't a transfer redemption, just a great hotel redemption. So I'm going to share it anyway. If you have an Amex Platinum, you need to look into the Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts.

These are usually really high-end hotels, but when you book one of these participating hotels through Amex Travel, you get a bunch of other perks. Things like early check-in, late checkout, room upgrades, complimentary breakfast for two. Usually they throw in a $100 resort credit. So if you're counting all those perks, you can get great value for your points.

That cash and points split is really nice. I find a lot of these hotels are so expensive that even the $200 credit you get with that card barely puts a dent in it. But if you can use points, that does help out a lot. I will say one of my favorite redemptions with the fine hotels and resorts collection is over at some of the Universal Studios hotels. You

And I actually wrote an article on NerdWallet about this. We will link to it in the show description. But there are a bunch of Universal-owned hotels that participate. And when you book at a Universal-owned hotel, you get benefits like early admission to the parks. Some of them even give you a free front of the line pass as part of your stay.

Plus, the new Universal Epic Universe Park is opening next month. So I definitely think I will be spending some of my points there myself.

I am, and I'm especially salty that they're adding back an expiration date to Southwest flight credits.

You have to.

You have to ask the people that you know and give them that sort of direction so you get the better recommendations.

Even like the time of year that matters as to like what's open. Maybe a hike won't be open or maybe there's a really cool festival, but your dates just don't line up with it. So give them the dates, give them the budget. I think those are all really good tips.

And then you also want to try to ask people in your life that you know also care about the things you want on vacation. So for example, I know Sally loves her steps. And so when I'm asking Sally for recommendations, I'm like, hey, I'm willing to walk. What... What I do if I want to see at least four neighborhoods in one day in San Francisco. Exactly.

To build on that idea, ask your hotel concierge for a tip. I love that idea of like asking them for a local rec, something they would actually really do.

And then you go to that place and then you ask someone there, like let's say they sent you to a restaurant. Then you ask your waiter there and you're like, okay, where would you go get dessert after this? And have them tell you. Then you go to the dessert place and you say, hey, you know, tomorrow morning I have some time before X. Where should I go for this?

And then use it as like a little game to get to your next destination.

All right, I have another question that I feel like is going to be a hot take. How do you feel about using ChatGPT or any other AI to plan your itinerary?

Yeah, I agree. It's not always right in terms of like times and hours, that kind of thing. But it is a really good starting point. I tell ChatGBT, hey, I love going to bookstores, especially when I'm traveling. So I'll tell ChatGBT, I'm like, hey, I want to see a bunch of different neighborhoods and let me know what good bookstores I need to hit in the city.

And it'll give you a list, which is awesome. The other thing I found about ChatGBT, one, I like that it'll, if you ask it to plan a three-day itinerary, it'll split it up into morning, afternoon, evening types of activities.

So I really like that because it's helpful for figuring out, you know, like the vibe of a place and whether it's better to go there during the day or something you can save for later. I also like that you can ask it, where are places that most tourists miss? Let's talk about some of our favorite free and cheap activities. I love a walking tour. Have you ever done one of those?

Yeah, I just did one in Berlin two years ago, and I learned so much about the history. And then I really didn't need to do any more planning for the rest of the trip because my tour guide gave us her map of recommendations at the end of the tour.

That reminds me actually of a cruise that I did last year and we did something similar walking around the town to save money on the transportation because you pay for the shore excursion through the cruise. Sometimes they'll charge you like a hundred bucks per person just to take you into town and it's a mile walk or something like that.

Speaking of cruises, let's just talk about how to save on some of those things you can do on a cruise. I know you just went on a few.

There are often alternatives if you're willing to try the public transportation if walking isn't an option or even book your own private transportation if the public transportation doesn't work either. You know, there's a lot of options. So I would just say explore them and see where the savings are.

And you might be surprised. Let's segue to food because that's the most important travel activity, obviously. First tip, do not eat near the tourist attractions.

Google Maps is your friend. I will do all this research ahead of time. I'll be like, oh, there's an interesting restaurant here. And you don't really need to put it into your itinerary. So the good thing about having this map ahead of time is you have all these places saved and they're just options that you've already vetted.

And then when you're in the location, you just open your map and you go, oh, there's one just a few blocks away. And that really takes a lot of the stress out of it. All right, let's move on to listener question time. We have another voice memo. Let's play it.

Cody, this is a fantastic question. Thank you for submitting it. First things first, I actually maintain a whole page on NerdWallet right now where we list the best travel credit cards. We'll drop that link in the episode description.

But what I would recommend for Cody is getting a no annual fee cashback card to go along with his Chase Sapphire Preferred. So one option is the Chase Freedom Unlimited. It has a $0 annual fee. And it actually does come with a small signup bonus.

And I just want to point out that the wording of the welcome offer is cashback. So it'll say something like, earn $250 cashback when you spend this much on purchases in the first few months. That's just an example. But you have to check the website to see the current offer. That $250 cashback language, it is actually given to you as Chase Ultimate Rewards points.

So $250 cashback would be 25,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points. And you don't have to redeem them for cashback for that amount. You could actually transfer those points to your Chase Sapphire Preferred.

This episode was produced by Hilary Georgie, Claire Soce helped with fact-checking, and a big thank you to Nick Karisamy for editing our audio.

This week and every week, we hope you're inspired to keep your passport full and your wallet even fuller. Thanks, everyone. We'll see you next time.

Okay, question for you, Sally. Have you ever found yourself at a tourist trap that you regret paying for?

What? No way. You've never been to one of those $5 museums and you're like, this museum has two things in it? Okay.

Okay. Well, just me then, apparently.

Yeah. Don't end up at a random bamboo theme park in China that has a really sketch roller coaster that you do your own breaking. But you know what? I kind of want to find those like off the beaten path type of places to visit. And some of them turn out kind of meh. But with that bamboo theme park, I actually had an amazing meal there looking at all these mountains. Honestly, a lot of bamboo.

Bamboo everything. But it was so sweet. It was like this little family restaurant there. So even if the attraction we went to wasn't the best, the meal there and the experience was something I'll always remember.

Yeah, and we don't want you to be the person that's standing in the middle of some random tourist square, angry, googling food near me, and ending up in the world's saddest tourist trap. You don't make good decisions when you're hangry, so we don't want that to happen to you. Exactly.

And part of that research is figuring out when they actually release the tickets so you can get them from the attraction itself and not having to buy it through a third party. I already made a mistake for my Italy trip, and my sister and I want to see the real David statue by Michelangelo. And I only thought about this maybe two weeks ago, and then...

I went to look up how to see the real statue and the tickets are already sold out the entire week. There are no time slots. There are still ways to get in. You can buy a skip the line ticket through a tour group. Those are expensive though. It was double the price. Yes, exactly. That's the price you pay when you did not look up this information beforehand.

So if there are any of those big ticket items, look up not only how much it costs, but when the tickets are released. And maybe if there are certain days that are cheaper, that might make it easier for you to go.

Again, make sure you do the math and see would you actually save money by doing these big packages?

You're not interested in those last three attractions, then you're already paying part of the price. So you have to consider that. But if that is your way to get in, I mean, do it.

That's true. Another thing I want to point out is if it's a museum that you're trying to get into, some of these museums do have free admission days, sometimes every month. The cadence kind of varies. But for the Louvre, for example, in Paris... After 6 p.m. on the first Friday of every month, everyone gets in for free.

So there's only a few hours left in the museum operating hours, but that's one way to get in if you haven't been able to.

I am so spoiled because I grew up outside of Washington, D.C., and the Smithsonian Museums were free to visit. You didn't need any reservations. That's changed now for a lot of the museums and the zoo, but there are some cities that actually just let everyone in for free, which is

Yeah. I mean, we would just go for the afternoon. Like you don't have to see everything in the museum. Takes the pressure off.

They know everything about what's going on in the city. My other tip actually is to find local publications or even social media accounts that do roundups of free or cheap events at your destination. So for LA, like where I live, that you can search what to do in LA this weekend. And I found tons of free stuff through some of these newsletters or on TikTok.

And there's like local festivals that are free. There are activations for brands. And so I do this trick both while I'm at home just to be a tourist in my own city, but also while I'm traveling.

I've also figured out that you can earn some credit card points if you do end up paying for some of these attractions or tour groups or whatever it is. I booked the skip the line tickets to see the David statue. And I booked that through Get Your Guide. It's a company that aggregates a lot of these types of deals and tours.

And I also earned miles on it because it was part of the American Airlines tour. online shopping portal where they're offering like a mile per dollar that I spent on that. So even though I paid for it, I did get some miles that I'll use on a future flight, hopefully.

We just mentioned some of those lesser known places can be really fun. Usually cost a little bit less. What are your favorite examples in San Francisco, Sally?

In all walks of trying to find what to do on your trip, you need to be more specific about what you want to do. Even if it's just that you want to see a breadth of different things, you want to do the food, you want to do the museums, you want to do the outdoor stuff. If you want to do all of that, you have to let Either your Google search, include that there.

And you're kind of seeing the same thing with mid-tier cards as well. The United Quest card is increasing its annual fee by $100 to $350. But it also added some perks, like a $200 United Travel credit. This is instead of the previous $125 United Flight credit. And this is annually, so... Each year you get that kind of discount on a United flight.

There is also a new 10,000 mile award flight discount. That's every year and 1,000 card bonus PQP each qualification year starting in 2026. PQPs are what you need to earn elite status. Oh, and one fun one I'll add is up to $150 in credits on JSX purchases annually. JSX is a semi-private flight service where you can fly in these small private jets that can usually hold up to 30 people.

Yeah, there's so many myths like that that just need to be busted. I think I know the person who would be perfect to bust some flight bookie myths.

And we're going to talk about JSX later, in fact. Oh, and let's finish out these United card updates. I'll make it quick. The annual fee on the United Club card is also increasing from $525 to $695. Oh, yikes. That's a lot. Yeah, it's sad. The lounge membership fee is going up, too.

So it's slightly cheaper to pay the annual fee on the United Club card if you can get approved for it, even with this higher annual fee. But still, that's a lot of money to spend on a single airline card.

Sally, that was awesome. Lots of great advice in there that you wouldn't necessarily expect.

Mine is don't sleep on stopovers. I think when we think about airfare, we often think about it as just a round trip to one destination and we want to get the lowest price for that. But if you have time, you should think about booking a multi-city itinerary because sometimes it won't cost any extra and it's like you got two destinations for the price of one.

And some airlines or countries actually help you do this. Like I'm thinking Iceland Air, which lets you stay in Iceland for up to seven days before you continue your journey and fly somewhere else, usually in Europe.

Turkish Airlines has another great option where they'll even put you up in a hotel for free for two or three nights, depending on if you flew economy or business class when you stay in Istanbul.

So let's translate that for people. Let's say you want to go to both London and Paris on your European vacation. So you might fly from Chicago to London. And then from London, you'd fly to Paris and then Paris back to Chicago. So with the excursionist perk, the first leg, the one to London, and the last leg, the one from Paris to Chicago, those would be award redemption.

So you would spend as many miles as those flights cost. But the middle segment in between Paris and London actually won't cost any miles. It's zero miles. It's free.

Yeah, we've got some info on the excursionist perk on the NerdWallet website that we will link to in the show notes. Hope you all can take advantage and add another country or destination to an upcoming trip.

Yeah, there are a lot of new benefits, but some of them you have to earn, so they're not automatic. I will point out some of the ones that do seem worthwhile. Up to $150 in credits on rideshare purchases annually if you use Uber or Lyft a lot. Up to $200 in credits on JSX purchases annually and $1,500 card bonus PQP each qualification year starting in 2026.

And besides giving us your feedback, come back for more by following the show on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeartRadio.

This episode was produced by Hilary Georgie and Tess Viglin. Claire Sose helped with fact-checking. And a big thank you to NerdWallet's editors for all their help.

Thanks for listening. We hope you're inspired to keep your wallet even fuller. See you next episode.

Now, this is starting to sound exhausting with all these different credits and you have to spend a certain amount to get them. Some of them are only given to you in certain increments. So it's a lot of work to start keeping track of all of these things. Of course, we would be here forever if we talked about every new benefit on these cards.

So we'll put a link in our show notes to the NerdWallet article about all the changes to the United Cards.

In fact, they replaced Lyft with Uber.

Once the Delta and Uber partnership officially kicks off, SkyMiles members will be able to earn miles for eligible rides and deliveries across the U.S. once they link their Uber and SkyMiles accounts.

You can earn one mile per dollar spent on UberX rides to and from airports and one mile per dollar spent on restaurant and grocery orders of $40 or more via Uber Eats, which is the company's food delivery arm.

Moving right along, booking partner airlines with Air Canada points may cost you more now. The Air Canada Aeroplan loyalty program just switched to dynamic pricing yesterday for a few of their airline partners. Previously, they had this nice little award chart. You remember that? And it made it so predictable to know how many points you would need for an award flight. that's such a bummer.

Oh, I love the people who swear the cheapest airfares come out on Tuesdays. It's not a Trader Joe's restock, people.

Womp womp. I feel like we should have a sound effect for devaluations.

Now let's go back to JSX, that semi-private jet service we mentioned earlier. Why don't we tell people a little more about what it is?

And we're the travel nerds ready to help you plan your next big trip. And today is a special episode because we brought on another travel expert to help you find the deals. Stay tuned for an interview with Scott Keyes, the founder of Going, which is a flight deal service. But first, some news.

That sounds so awesome, like this private jet experience, walking out on the tarmac. But how much is it?

And with some of those credits on the United cards, like the $150 credit, I mean, that $250 credit became a $100 flight to Vegas one way, which isn't too terrible.

Should we go to the Monterey Aquarium, Sally?

Sally, I've been so excited ever since you told me you landed this guest because I've been following him for a long time. Yes, our guest today is Scott Keyes, the founder of the Flight Deals Alert Service, going. I've been on Scott's email list for years, back when it was called Scott's Cheap Flight. Same. I think the best deal I got was that $317 round trip flight from California to Beijing.

Oh my gosh, it was so cheap. It was crazy. And even more recently, I booked a deal to Edinburgh, Scotland, and it was $500 round trip from Washington, D.C. And the dates were perfect because it lined up with my childhood friend's wedding in Scotland. And Scotland's not the most common destination. Like most people fly to London and then either take another short flight or a train.

But I'm always really impressed with the variety of destinations that Scott and his team are able to find deals for. Really cool spots.

And that's the reason Scott started the company in the first place, because he found a killer flight deal back in 2013. I think it was between New York and Milan.

So after that trip, he built this company dedicated to sharing fare alerts, and some of them are just really good deals, like sales or something, and some are mistake fares, like when an airline accidentally forgets to add a digit, and the $1,500 airfare might be listed for $500.

Today, Going has a staff of about 50 people and has served an estimated 2 million travelers. And over that time, Scott has amassed tons of great insights on how they find these deals and how you can find amazing airfare deals too. All right, without further ado, Sally, take it away to your interview with Scott. All right.

Chase just announced a slew of new benefits to the United Airlines co-branded cards. The United Gateway card, which is the $0 annual fee card, now has two free checked bags each year. To be clear, you only get those after you spend $10,000 in a calendar year with your United Gateway card.

And some more bad news. The United Explorer card is going up in price. It will now have a $0 intro fee for the first year, then $150. That's up from the previous annual fee, which also had a $0 intro fee, and then $95 per year.

Of course. And sometimes I can avoid those expenses if I'm staying with family or I'm in a walkable city maybe where you don't need a rental car. But yes, I'll roughly go through and budget the same way I do for flights and hotels.

Yeah, and we have some awesome data too about rental cars, which can help you budget for that. We did a big rental car analysis last summer, and we found out that rental cars tend to cost about 13% more when booked three months in advance versus just seven days in advance. I remember pulling that data.

Yeah, it's good to know that there are some last minute deals you can get and rental cars just happens to be one of them. Let's talk points and miles because this is the part you've been waiting for, Sally.

Totally. And we've seen a few cases of this already happening this year. Marriott raised award prices of some high-end properties at the end of January. If you were just waiting to book one of those Marriotts on points, it's suddenly going to cost thousands of points more per night than you thought.

Totally. And, you know, like let's use my Australia trip this year. This is another one of those weddings I'm going to. So many weddings. Yes. There are a few flight options between Los Angeles where I live and Sydney where the wedding is. And so at the beginning of this year, I'm starting to already figure out like how am I going to collect enough points to be able to pay for this?

maybe an award flight to Australia. And I'm going to keep my options open. You know, maybe I'll fly into Brisbane, which is another city in Australia. It's closer to the wedding, but has less direct flights from here. So maybe I'll do that. Maybe I'll do a little side quest and visit New Zealand, which is like one of my favorite places in the world. I studied abroad there.

So taking the time early in the okay, where am I going to go? How am I going to collect the points to be able to do these flights? That's a big part of travel planning.

Yeah, it's awesome. So then once you've figured out like maybe the routes you want, that's when I would start to do a little bit of research on which airlines have the best award rates going there. Like you just mentioned Europe. There are certain airlines that come to mind that I know the rates to Europe are really cheap.

Well, then I'm glad our main segment today is all about budgeting, at least.

And so once I figure out which airlines have some of the best award rates to that region, then I ask myself, can I book it with miles I already have? And this is also interesting.

And another thing to think about if you're thinking about credit cards, are there any credit card sign-up bonuses that might be able to cover the price of this award flight? So

Once I know what kind of miles or credit card points I might need, then I can watch throughout the year to see if one of those cards that earns that type of reward has a limited time signup offer that's even better than the usual offer.

They also gave you some data on the top 10 destinations where people are going for spring break. Where are they going, Sally?

Yeah, it's like a multi-month strategy, but it really can save you so much money. And if it sounds like a lot of work to you, I got you. I wrote this article on NerdWallet that lists all of the credit card limited time offers available right now. And this stuff changes constantly. So I'm always adding these new deals and making sure everything on that page is up to date.

We'll link to it in the show notes.

And we haven't even talked about those actual benefits on the travel card that also might help you save money on the trip.

So do you usually find a place to use the free night and then make a trip out of it? Or do you have some trips in mind and then you try to find out where you can redeem that free night?

Oh, yeah. I saw your pictures from that. It looks so gorgeous. Yeah. You know, I'm really not a fancy hotel person.

Super nice. And free nights are a really good example of using your credit card perks to help keep the cost down of your trips. Don't you also have the Southwest Companion Pass?

Lots of great Florida representation on there and a little SoCal. Love it.

Yes, and you'll get to take your companion for that price on every flight you take for at least a year because the pass is good for the year you earn it and the entire next calendar year. So again, you only just have to pay the taxes and fees for the companion when they come with you on a flight.

Yes, of course, always. I love when our little bubbles just like end up in the same place. Like this is why I love travel.

And I believe you also have a semi-related hot take. You know, I've been thinking, what do you think of naming this segment Hot Takeoff? I love it. Yes. Okay. Share your hot take of the week.

Oh my God, that is steaming hot. Just tell me why. I'm not going to be convinced, but go ahead.

Yeah, and guys, she's not just carry-on only. She's like backpack only, like only something that goes under the seat in front of hers. Yes.

Yeah. okay I feel that I feel that I'm also pretty short okay and then there's another reason why you like the middle seat right okay so this is that the middle seat is genuinely better than the window because there's only one person you have to bother to get up and use the bathroom okay but That's still one person and it's honestly probably me because I need the aisle.

I hate bothering even one person. Okay. Yes.

Oh gosh, you are literally that person. Okay, I cannot say you've convinced me. Let's just wrap this thing up. Okay, okay.

And since you've already set aside money for travel, you can put any extra into your next trip. And listeners, do you have any questions? Send them to us. Email us at travel at nerdwallet.com or, you know, for extra credit, email us a voice memo. You might even hear your voice on the show.

And if you're not already doing it, you can follow the show on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeart Radio to automatically download new episodes.

And here's our brief disclaimer. We are not financial or investment advisors. This info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes and may not apply to your specific circumstances.

That's not surprising to me at all. Ever since the pandemic ended, cruises have been super, super popular.

Awesome. You'll have to report back. Speaking of checking out new things in travel, last week I went to the new Capital One Lounge opening at the Las Vegas airport. That's right. You also flew to Las Vegas. How was it? It was so great. Vegas is such a popular destination for both vacationers and business travelers.

So it was really smart to put a lounge there where people can sort of recharge after a week or weekend of revelry or work. That's also tiring. And Capital One Venture X cardholders get unlimited access for themselves and two guests to these Capital One lounges.

So it's also much easier to bring companions or your family or your work friends with you there than it is at the nearby American Express Lounge at the Las Vegas Air Board.

Yeah, I'm a little scared, to be honest. The good news is that the Capital One Lounge is pretty big. There's room for about 135 guests. So it's a tad smaller than the Amex one at the Las Vegas airport. But honestly, a lot to like in there. I think the food at Capital One Lounge is the best among the credit card issuer lounges. They serve all these like small plates.

It's sort of like tapas style and it's all you can eat. So you can try a little bit of everything. I had caviar deviled eggs, salmon, avocado toast, short ribs, strawberry pop tarts. Honestly, I had so much I can't even list it all.

Yeah. So this one has that too. They have this like big grab and go section at the front of the lounge and you've got a refrigerator full of sandwiches, bowls, salads. There's pastries out on the counter, drinks. You can make your own snack mix. So they know people are going to take food for their flight and they make it super convenient.

And while you're at it, our colleague Benjamin Dinh also covered another lounge opening last week. He went to the new Chase Sapphire Lounge in Philadelphia. I edited that story and the pictures will also convince you that it's worth a visit. The only caveat being that it's a little far for American Airlines flyers flying into Philly.

And we did it the budget-friendly way. We met up in the free zone at a Disney hotel. Do you want to tell people how much you spent on our little meetup? Yes, that's right.

I know. So I might have to make the trek over there because this Chase Lounge has so many amenities. Like they have this room where you can get free facials. There's a kid's playroom, an arcade, and this one even has a beer garden. So if you're looking for entertainment, this Chase Lounge can keep you entertained for a few hours.

Not to mention you can figure out which cards will get you in there. That's important.

We'll have more details about that on the NerdWallet website, as well as which cards get you more rewards on Uber rides.

Okay, so Sally, it's the beginning of the year-ish, so I feel like we have almost the whole year ahead to plan trips and figure out how to pay for it.

And you'll find out it can be as low maintenance or high maintenance as you want it to be.

Well, definitely not with travel. And honestly, it's not a bad thing to be high maintenance with your money management. If it helps you keep track, do it.

It's kind of like having that piggy bank as a kid where you put coins in a jar to save for a certain toy, except the adult version is just a separate account at your bank.

Sort of. So I really prioritize travel in my life. So for me, it's a non-negotiable. I've always gone home for the holidays, usually both Thanksgiving and Christmas. So, you know, as much as you can try to find a deal for those, the holidays are an expensive time to fly and I've got to save for it. You know, that's actually why I avoid traveling during the holidays.

Yeah, like my family has been doing this turkey trot, which is this race on Thanksgiving Day, for 20 years. So I can't miss it. I need to be there. Actually, you know, I do love a good turkey trot.

Yeah, so whenever I fly home for the holidays, in my mind, I set a budget for that. So it's about $500 round trip going from the West Coast to the East Coast back for Thanksgiving and Christmas. So I'm paying about a thousand bucks for holiday flights every year. Oh man, a thousand dollars. So are you paying cash or are you seeing points at all for this?

Yes, it was so fun. If you are planning any travel this year and you're putting together a travel budget, we've got tips for you. Welcome to Smart Travel, a deep dive into the tips, tools, and tactics to maximize your travel dollars. I'm Sally French. And I'm Megan Coyle. And we are the Travel Nerds, ready to help you plan your next big trip. Today, we're talking about how we budget for trips.

Sometimes, but first, let's stick with the cash. So I like to use the beginning of the year to plan out my trips for the whole year ahead. Since holidays are non-negotiable, right there, I know I need to budget roughly $1,000 for that travel. And if I find a great points deal, I'll book it on points, but I always want to make sure I have the cash just in case I'm not able to find anything.

For sure. And airfares don't go up every year, but this year they did. So it is not unreasonable to expect a bump next year too. And the thing about my budget is I set this budget for holiday travel. And that means like sometimes I have to make accommodations to come in under budget.

Like maybe I'll take a red eye or do a flight with a layover this year if that ends up being cheaper and keeps me within my budget.

So right now I'm thinking about the travel for all those weddings I have to go to this year. And I'm going to kind of estimate a rough budget for those as well.

Oh my gosh, yeah.

So I basically just go on Google Flights or any kind of travel aggregator and start looking at what the average prices are. There's some really great tools on Google Flights, for example, where they have this little graph that's like this price is within the normal or it went up recently in the past few days. So it can give you a really good idea of what the average airfare is.

And then also we've talked about this before, but setting a price alert. So I will set that price alert really early in the year and be able to watch it come through my emails and say, okay, I've seen the prices for the past few months and this is the price I'm comfortable setting for the budget.

Yeah, and you can see all the data behind that on NerdWallet's website. We'll put it in the show notes, but listeners, you can find the article about the best days to book a flight and when to fly.

Okay, so I have a side hustle and it involves podcasting, funny enough. So any income that I make from that, I put that into a separate bank account.

Oh yeah, we've been on the side hustle life for years. And I don't recommend getting a side hustle just to fund your wanderlust, but it's been a great way for me to budget for travel separately. the money from those gigs for me goes straight into this high-yield savings account. So that account also earns a bit of interest.

And I just save all that money and feel very comfortable spending it on travel when I want to.

And just a heads up, in this episode, we'll talk about a few credit card companies that are nerd wallet partners, but that doesn't influence how we discuss them. All right, let's dive in.

Well, a lot of people don't realize that most employers that use direct deposit allow you to direct your income into different bank accounts if you want. So you can go to your payroll team and you can say something like, I want 90% of my income to go into this account and 10% to go into this other account, which could be for travel or any kinds of fun things you're saving for.

Yeah, it's super simple.

Yeah, and if you don't have like an online system, just ask your HR team. They can definitely get this done for you.

Either way, just automate it so you don't have to think about it. For example, if you have a travel credit card, you could set up autopay so that you could pay off that credit card directly from your travel account. It just makes it so much easier to budget correctly when you're not moving money around all the time.

Exactly. These travel rewards are only valuable if you can pay off your credit card every month. But again, we'll talk about it more in another episode.

I think I'm pretty close. I am actually terrified of overspending. So I remember in college, like I had worked in high school and I'd worked two jobs all the way through college, but it was so expensive to pay for all those textbooks and the food and the flights home. It was just like scary to see all of your savings dwindle.

So because of that experience, I definitely overestimate for how much I'll need.

Totally. And if you end up having to pay for something unexpected, like something goes wrong and you have to book a different shuttle or something like that, your travel budget will have room for that if you have extra.

Sally, let's play a game. Tell me if you think the following statement is a truth or myth.

For Amex, I'm hot on transferring to Hawaiian Airlines right now. Aloha. It sounds random, but Hawaiian Airlines transfers one-to-one. This is kind of a special case. If you have Hawaiian Airlines miles, you can transfer them to Alaska Airlines. Alaska acquired Hawaiian last year, and Alaska has some great low-cost redemptions, especially for international award flights on One World Partners.

They're super flexible points. And if I were going to pick an airline to book other airline alliances like the Sky Team Alliance, which has Delta Airlines, I would actually choose Flying Blue, which is the frequent flyer program for Air France and KLM.

That program also had some devaluations earlier this year, but I booked my flights to Geneva, Switzerland to go skiing in the Alps in February this year. And it was just 22,000 points from LA to Geneva. Very nice. Was that part of a Flying Blue promo? Yes, sort of.

So KLM and Air France, their Flying Blue program has these monthly promotions where they have discounted award flights between certain cities around the world and the hubs in France and the Netherlands. So I booked during this month where their flights from LA were in the promo, but actually the lowest cost flights were 15,000 points. But you know, I wanted to get the better itinerary.

So I splurged and I spent 22,000 points to get there. Amazing. What fair class. Just economy, you know, but it works.

So your city might be this month or next month if Air France or KLM flies there. Another great way to save on points when you're transferring is to book during a transfer bonus. So these are usually like a month long or six weeks. And I'll just use March as an example. Last month, there was a 50% transfer bonus to Marriott from Chase Ultimate Rewards.

The Marriott transfer ratio is typically one to one. So with the bonus, if you transferred 100,000 Chase points, you get 150,000 Marriott points in your Marriott account.

We also have guides to the best and worst transfer partners of each of the major banks in the show notes too. So we have a lot of resources for you.

So Sally, do you have any strategies for finding out what the best transfers are?

That's a lot of points. But this transfer bonus is only running through April 30th, 2025. So if you're listening to this episode after that date, check NerdWallet's list of current transfer bonuses for others. We'll link to that in the episode description. That's often where I start when I'm looking to use points for a trip.

Yeah, it was really helpful when we were looking at valuations of all these airline programs. So that was a really good one. The other award search tools I like are points.yeah, Seats.aero, Points.me, and Roam. These all work pretty much like a flight search tool, except that they'll show you the flight prices also in points.

And some of them will tell you which airlines are transfer partners of which banks. These are really helpful if you're trying to book something on points and you have these flexible currencies. And then you mentioned all the work you did on your own valuations. I think we should shamelessly plug ourselves, right, Megan? Yes, totally.

If you haven't heard it enough, we have that list of how much each airline and hotel program's points are worth. We also have articles on the best ways to fly to name your destination. You know, I know I've written tons of articles like that at NerdWallet. Let other people do the work for you when you're trying to figure out how do I fly to Europe on points? Because

people who look at this every day, we see the prices more often and we can help point you to the places that maybe people don't always know about.

And for people in the know, the best ways to redeem your points to fly to a certain place is called a sweet spot. I just love that. Like I always think of ice cream or something.

All right. And one last tip before we move on is some of these awards search deal aggregators send out deal alert emails or notifications. So you talked to the founder of Going. That's right, Scott. Yeah. I think Going does that, right? Yes. Those emails give me lots of ideas. Even if I don't book them, I remember seeing in an email what airline points they mentioned.

So I sort of banked that knowledge for my next trip.

But it's kind of fun to find the flight deals once you get good at it. It is fun. It's like uncovering a magical treasure. Okay.

Let's do it. All right. So one of my friends is a new smart travel listener. And she asked me recently what she should do with her first credit card. It's an Alaska Airlines card because she's from Seattle. Okay. And she used to fly Alaska Airlines a lot. But now she lives in Atlanta and it's not as useful.

She doesn't want to lose that credit history because it's the longest card she has had open, but she doesn't want to pay the annual fee anymore. Does she have any options here?

But unlike some airline cards, Alaska Airline actually doesn't have a no annual fee card. Boo. So that throws a wrench in what I was about to say. Yeah. Well, don't worry. I called the issuer, Bank of America, to find out. And even though they don't list it on their website, they do have cards that you can product switch to. Right. Really? So here's what they said in an email.

Sounds like your friend should do that. So don't cancel the card outright. Just call.

And then you're like, okay, maybe I will do that. Yeah. That's great advice, Sally. And also, if you didn't get the retention offer that you wanted or maybe the product switch that you want isn't available, I would recommend calling back again because sometimes they're able to offer you other options as you're standing with the bank changes, as more time passes and new promos come around.

And over in city land, cardholders with city thank you points can transfer to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club with a 30% bonus. And they have a bit longer to do that. That one ends May 17th, 2025.

So if you don't get it the first time, try again. Always call. So now it's time for our favorite part of the show. Hot takeoffs are hot takes about travel.

Oh my gosh. I love it. What a callback. I feel like you're trolling, but honestly, you can kind of do that. Right? Some cards actually do let you use your points on dining. So for example, some Chase cards let you use your points on Chase dining to order takeout or even book these fancy culinary experiences like one-on-ones with a famous chef.

Yeah, the Amex Gold is one of those. That card has a $325 annual fee, and it offers up to $50 in statement credits twice a year after you pay with the American Express Gold card to dine at U.S. Resi restaurants.

MX Gold also earns four membership rewards points at restaurants worldwide on up to $50,000 per calendar year and four points at U.S. supermarkets on up to $25,000 per calendar year in purchases. I dare you to try and memorize those.

Wait, Dunkin', that's not fancy at all. No. You mean how coolata and munchkins aren't fancy? No, that's your real hot take. See, I was just leading up to it. Okay, tell us about an amazing transfer you made for a dream vacation. Email us at travel at nerdwallet.com or leave us a voice memo. We might play it on the next show.

And also come back for more by following the show on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeartRadio. Yes, do follow so you never miss an episode. This episode was produced by Hillary Georgie and Tess Biglin. Claire Soce helped with fact-checking. And a big thank you to NerdWallet's editors for all their help.

This info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes.

Thanks for listening. We hope you're inspired to keep your passport full and your wallet even fuller. See you next episode.

That means you have two weeks, two weeks, people, to get your real ID if you don't have one already.

This is your reminder to schedule your appointment at the DMV. So once the requirement goes into effect, if you don't have a Real ID, Compliance, State ID, or Driver's License, you might have to bring another approved type of ID to board a domestic flight.

Hopefully you would remember if you spent hours at the DMV getting it. So all right. Another piece of news I heard last week that I'm really excited about. American Airlines is introducing free Wi-Fi on most of its planes starting in January 2026. Yay. Thank goodness because I'm paying like $25 to $35 each flight to use the internet on my American flights. And that is really starting to add up.

And just a reminder, it's free to join the American Airlines A Advantage program. So once this Wi-Fi service launches, it won't cost you anything to join and then connect to the internet.

That's why listeners have us. We're here to give you the shortcuts on which transfer partners are worth booking with to save you some points.

And United is joining the party as well. It previously announced that it's equipping its planes with Starlink Wi-Fi, and the planes that use the internet provider will offer free Wi-Fi for United Mileage Plus members. It's kind of rolling out slowly. The first United Express regional jet with Starlink is on track to launch next month.

And the first bigger jet with Starlink should launch before the end of the year.

But like Delta, United is also going to make a few cuts. They're going to cut back on flights at off-peak times and on lower demand days. Ah, that's too bad because those low demand days are when you can typically find the best deals. Don't take away my 6 a.m. flight on a Tuesday. Just kidding. Take it. I always regret booking that flight later when I'm waking up at 4 a.m. Same.

I wish other airlines would jump on this bandwagon too. First, free Wi-Fi. Next, $40 elite status. Here I come.

If you listened to our episode on best credit cards... Which you totally should. Yeah, I feel like I'm about to drop a spoiler. But if you haven't listened, maybe go back and start there.

And I'm Sally French, and we're the travel nerds ready to help you plan your next big trip. Maybe on points? If you've heard that you should transfer your points for travel redemptions, listen up. It can save you thousands of points, but you have to know which transfer partners you have access to and which ones offer the best rates.

Today, we're unpacking point transfers.

Well...

And it's not as scary as it sounds. It really is very simple. But the tricky part is making sure that transferring points will actually be a better deal for you. And that's why we exist. So let's go over some basics before we get too deep here. Most credit card points are worth about one cent per point as a baseline value.

And that's usually the case if you redeem your points for cash back or cover a travel expense in your credit card issuer's travel portal.

Let's start with the good. The Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Sapphire Reserve have an even higher redemption rate when you redeem your points for travel in the Chase Travel Portal. It's 1.25 cents per point for the Chase Sapphire Preferred and 1.5 cents per point for the Chase Sapphire Reserve.

0.7.

So that is less than one penny per point. If you want to keep it simple and redeem in the travel portal, that's fine. Just know that you're getting about one cent per point with most of these programs. And as Megan said, that's fine. That's fine.

These are hotel or airline companies that partner with your credit card issuer, and you can send your points there for hopefully more value. You can find a list of the transfer partners of every major credit card rewards program on the NerdWallet website and the show notes, of course.

When you move your credit card points to a transfer partner, it's almost like a currency conversion, like how things cost different amounts here than they do in Europe.

Oh yeah, the croissant inflation is terrible. The cool thing is, though, that when you have a credit card with transferable points, there are no fees for converting your points.

Well, it kind of is with the Starbucks rewards program, but I digress. You love your Starbucks.

And a majority of them are one-to-one ratios for a lot of these big credit card rewards programs. So that's good. Keeps the math simple. And as a rule of thumb, you want to avoid transferring your points to a partner that has less than a one-to-one ratio.

For example, Capital One just added JetBlue Airways as a transfer partner, but the ratio is 5 to 3. This means if you transfer 5,000 Capital One miles to JetBlue, you'll only receive 3,000 JetBlue TrueBlue points. Yeah, personally, that's not ideal. In practice, that means you end up needing to transfer a lot more credit card points to be able to book your flight with JetBlue points.

In that case, you might actually save some miles if you just book through the Capital One travel portal.

And the second reason is maybe you need to top off your account. So we just talked about how that JetBlue transfer ratio isn't super advantageous to cardholders. But if you only need a few, let's say like 3,000 JetBlue points because you already have maybe 15,000 JetBlue points from flying and you're just trying to book something that's 18,000, you just need that 3,000 difference.

Like that could be worth it, maybe.

I would say that's when I would recommend it. And buying points usually isn't a good option. That's something that you might see when you're checking out and you don't have enough points. But airlines and hotels sell them for more than they're worth. So it's typically better to just transfer a few thousand points from your credit card than it is to buy them from the airline or hotel.

All right. We've got lots more to say about points transfers. Stay with us. We're back in a moment.

Okay, the best way to use your credit card points is to transfer them to airline or hotel loyalty programs instead of booking travel through your credit card's travel portal.

Yeah, there are so many things that could go wrong if you were to speculatively transfer points. For example, if it's a hotel, like maybe the hotel availability will get booked up and you won't be able to use those points for a stay at the hotel you want. Or maybe you're going on a trip and you transferred all your points to Hilton, but there are no Hilton hotels in that destination.

One thing we'll talk about later in the episode is that there are these special deals called transfer bonuses that can make transferring to a partner even cheaper.

Remember, points can generally only go one way from credit card to the hotel or airline program. It's really hard to move them around once they're at a hotel or airline because they charge more. The transfer ratios aren't as good. You would lose a lot of value that way.

It gives you so much flexibility. And one of the great things about these transfers is that most of them happen instantaneously, like within seconds. Yeah. Oh, magical. Yeah. But keep in mind that things do happen and sometimes you do have to wait a little bit for your points to transfer. So if it's a really special deal, I would recommend putting that flight or hotel stay on hold.

Most airlines and hotels have a way to do this. Usually you just call them or sometimes there's a way to do it online. But make sure you do this if you are afraid that this booking might go away and if you don't see your points in your account within an hour or two.

All right. I want to talk about which transfer partners are good because when I'm looking to book travel, I don't check every airline or every hotel on the list.

And at NerdWallet, we have done so much work to figure out what these valuations of these points are. Like we literally manually look up every single cash price and every single redemption rate for a set of flights and hotel stays. And we look at them every year. There's hundreds of data points and we'll link to the full results in the show notes.

We actually just updated our international airline valuations as well. So those are really helpful. So let's say some of the best transfer partners.

Everyone is talking about inflation these days, but I have the wildest inflation example for you.

Yeah, me too. You know, I always buy the multi pass when I go because I do feel like my time is money. I'm giving up time off of work. I am on this vacation. I already spent a bunch of money on the hotel and the ticket. So I might as well not wait in line. I think that multi-pass sort of fills that sweet spot of not being the $450 Premier Pass, but still allowing me to expedite those lines.

So for the latest details, follow the links in the episode description.

Oh, Megan, people do not know about this. We need to tell them. Oh, yes, yes. This is the number one hack that everyone overlooks.

So rope drop is when you get there before the park opens. It is your prime time to go on everything. So if the park opens at 8, they will open the main entrance gates earlier. And typically, they'll let you go to a certain area. So If you are going to Disneyland in California, typically you can wander around Main Street. If the park opens at 8, then you can be in there at 7.30.

This is a great opportunity to take some photos. Often the shops are open. You can browse around. But you want to get up to those, quote, ropes. Sometimes it's not a literal rope. It's just an employee standing there. But at that time, when they, quote, drop the ropes, you beeline to the top ride you want to go to.

The best time to avoid the lines is during the parade, during the fireworks. And then in general, there are a lot of families who will say, we're going to do the first half of the day or the second half of the day. What happens is kind of in that noontime, everyone has overlapped and everyone is there. So either commit to the morning, commit to the evening, but avoid the afternoon time.

I say do rope drop. Then midday, you're tired, you're hot. Go back to your hotel, lay in the pool or your bed, and then come back in the evening when the lines are shorter and it's cooler.

I am talking to you right now from Orlando. I am here at a media preview for Epic Universe, which is the first new Orlando theme park in more than 25 years and a highly anticipated one of that. They've got a Super Nintendo World, a new Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and a new

Exactly right. Now, speaking of hotel, Disney also has a benefit for its hotel guests. Hotel guests get something called early entry. This is a bonus 30 minutes extra in the morning. So if the park opens at 8, that means hotel guests can start getting on the rides at 7.30. And then the rope drop still sort of applies. So you might be in the park at 7 a.m.

just moseying around ready to beat everyone else who's a hotel guest at the rope drop.

Great tips to save time when ordering food. Let's talk about saving money when ordering food.

There are a lot of really good offers coming up the rest of 2025 and even into 2026, including a really good offer in 2026 where all the kids staying in a Disney-owned hotel room get the dining plan free if the adults in the room have paid for it.

a how to train your dragon land, tune into a future episode of Smart Travel as we're dedicating a full new episode to that. But let it be known that it officially opens tomorrow. That's May 22nd.

I will give you two. One is Trader Sam's. This is not even in the parks. This is at the Disneyland Hotel. And there is also one at Disney's Pollination Resort in Disney World. Super fun to keep art. And then my second one, I think you're going to agree with me, is Oga's Cantina in Star Wars Land.

Because there's so many stores everywhere. You're like, I can't not look at the shops because every time you leave a ride, there's a shop.

So some of my favorite free stuff to do at Disney World that's in Orlando that does not require a ticket is one, joyriding the monorail. Two, joyriding the Skyliner. Three, aimlessly wandering around the hotels. The Disney World hotels are amazing. Especially around Christmas when they've got the gingerbread displays up. So cute. Yes, exactly. My other favorite one is at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Grab a glass of South African wine at the Victoria Falls Lounge. They have animals that you can see from the hotel itself. So you don't even need to pay for an Animal Kingdom ticket. You can just watch the animals at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Your very own free safari.

Good tips. I think it is time now for some hot takeoffs. What do you think, Megan?

Okay, Megan, so here's my hot takeoff, and that is that Disney should go back to the ticket book system. So this is a system that they had way back in the day where you paid for a low price to get into the parks, and then what you got in exchange was this ticket book. So at the time when the parks opened, there were A tickets, B tickets, and C tickets.

The A rides were kind of the ones that no one really cares about. And then the C tickets were the better rides. And then you could just exchange one ticket to go on one ride on each corresponding ride. Now, it did limit how many rides you could go on. Eventually, Disney expanded it out to D and then E tickets. So you've probably heard the term, this is an E ticket attraction.

You hear that in pop culture now. And they phased out these ticket books in 1982. Now, for what it's worth, I never experienced this firsthand. So I could be wrong, but I think the ticket books sounded really nice because then you don't feel pressure to one, have to pay for all the line tickets to expedite the lines, which is something I recently did when I went to Disney.

And it also just gives you time to sort of slow down, enjoy the scenery. You get to just wander around, appreciate the parks, smell the churros. So this actually happened to me. I was at Disney World a few months ago, which is when I started thinking about these hot takes. It was super hot out. It was super crowded. And I was like, you know what? I'm just going to go wander around World Showcase.

Ooh, that would be magic to avoid that. I see you levitating.

That's in Epcot. It was the most beautiful day. It was so nice. I just enjoyed all the amazing art. architecture, which Disney does such a good job at. They had so much live music. It was peaceful. I didn't stress about trying to get on the rides because I didn't go on any rides. And I feel like having this e-ticket book system would kind of bring back that spirit.

Okay. That is our show. If you enjoyed this show, please make sure to follow to get more of them. We are on all of your favorite podcast apps, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio. If you subscribe, you will automatically get new episodes. And if you enjoyed this show, please

And we have to give a brief disclaimer. We are not financial or investment advisors. This info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes. It may not apply to your specific circumstances.

I know. I'm pretty sad about it, especially the fact that they're bringing back expiration dates on flight credits.

They love to do that. And it also does mean, at least on the bright side, holding a Southwest Rapid Rewards credit card can be much more valuable now as those cardholders will receive their first checked bag for free.

Yeah, you know, so I'm low-key cringing saying this, but beginning October 1st, 2025, for flights from the U.S. and Canada, you won't pick a cabin class, no test. You will pick what's called a travel experience.

I know it's true. Okay, so now with these changes, you'll choose from options including basic, classic, and extra. Extra is the new top tier fully refundable option. It has perks like priority boarding and more miles.

It does. Just wait for it. The Exeter gives you seven miles per dollar spent, which is more than the usual five. So that's good news. Heads up, though, you cannot book extra with Delta SkyMiles. And if you're flying basic, you're earning zero miles.

It is pretty tough. You know, and this is part of a trend we're seeing lately where perks are being unbundled. Now, I will say I do not completely hate this trend because the good news is it means lower base airfares. If you're someone who doesn't care about priority boarding or miles, then this can be an opportunity to score a lower airfare.

Speaking of lower airfares, I do have some more good news for you. So as you notice, I track airfare fluctuation super closely every month. And this month was particularly fascinating. So we just got fresh data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics last week. The report dropped in May, but it refers to April prices. Just keep that in mind.

But as it turns out, April airfares are down 8% year over year. That is not something we usually hear. No, I know. And it's very shocking. And I am sympathetic to the many readers I talked to out there who say it feels like travel is more expensive than ever.

You look at these trends like we just talked about with Delta, where they're marketing the chance to, you know, select your own travel experience. And what it really is, is them trying to seduce you with a low fare only to get you to pay more once they have your attention.

I did. Just last week, Disneyland hosted a big media event. It was all about their 70th anniversary, which kicked off on May 16th. Now, technically, Disneyland's 70th anniversary is on July 17th. But you know, Disney loves to extend the birthday as long as possible.

To give some context, I will say Disneyland now consists of two parks versus in 1999, there was just one park. But roughly that same pass I had now today with similar blockout dates costs $1,400. Yikes.

So they have a new nighttime parade, a new daytime parade, a new show on Main Street featuring an actual Walt Disney audio animatronic. And since everyone loves food, there are more than 70 new food items. Did you try any of those foods? Oh, you know, I did, Megan. That is the best part of Disney. I love a good churro. And the color palette for the 70th is all purple.

So probably the most iconic food I ate was the 70th anniversary churro rolled in ube sugar to give it that purple hue.

Okay, what else did you have? The other great thing I ate was the cowboy fries. These were at the Golden Horseshoe. This is one of the few restaurants that was there on opening day in 1955. What was not there on opening day was this wild concoction. Fries, nacho cheese, sautéed ground beef, burger sauce, butter, pickles.

What about animal style fries at In-N-Out? This kind of was giving me that energy, but more protein. It sounds too wet. Too much going on. Okay, so you are making me sound like I am way too obsessive about all the Disney food, all the Disney stuff, which maybe I am. But I need to tell you, Megan, I worked at Disney in high school. Did you know that?

Yeah, I know. I feel like every single high school kid in Orange County worked at Disneyland at some point in their life. The official term, though, is not employee. It's cast member. And then besides working at Disney itself, my first job out of school was covering the theme parks as a beat reporter for the Orange County Register.

And now, Megan, you live near Disneyland, so I see you there all the time.

You are the map. We are the maps. That's what we are today for you listeners. Today, we are going to talk about how to save money at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Now there are many other theme parks around the world and cruises. We are just going to focus on Disneyland and Disney World. That is up next after this.

As people plan their Disney trip, they want to know when is the best time to go. So that's what we'll start by talking about today. Now, Megan, when do you think it's the best time to go?

I love that, Tess. Okay, so on the flip side, I think, well, if Disneyland annual passes were only $245 now for the whole year, that would seem like a steal.

Yes, I think that is sort of the rule of thumb is if kids are out of school, I'm talking summer. Thanksgiving, Christmas, any of those other holidays, that's when it's going to be crowded. So if you can avoid any of those times, that is ideal. Now, it is interesting that you said midweek because yes, you get fewer crowds. You also get lower prices.

Disney rolled this out somewhat recently is that they do the dynamic pricing. And I know some people love and hate dynamic pricing. But what's nice is that if you are going on a day that's busier, you're going to pay more. And if you're going on a day that's less crowded, like a Tuesday, you will pay less. I think that's nice to reward you for shifting your schedule to a less crowded day.

Yes, this is really interesting. The cheapest time to go to Disney World on average is actually September. Their ticket prices average $125. Compare that to July where ticket prices average $157. So basically $32 cheaper per person to go in September versus July.

So Walt Disney World tickets, that's the park in Florida, start now at $119. for an adult for a one-day ticket. So basically, my annual pass is a bargain compared to prices now. Disneyland starts at just over $100 per adult one-day ticket. Again, though, prices are dynamic. So that lower ticket price is going to be on that random Thursday in September.

It's going to be a lot more if you want to go on the day after Christmas like everybody else.

I priced this out. And so on July 5th, that's the Saturday after July 4th, if you get a Park Hopper ticket, which that allows you to go to multiple Disney parks with the Lightning Lane, that gets you into the Expedited Q access, that would come out to $303 per adult.

I'm Sally French.

Yes, they can add up. So undercover tourist is one of my favorite places to buy Disney tickets. In fact, I often buy my tickets from them myself. So for example, I just looked up undercover tourist prices at the Disneyland Resort. A two-day, one park per day ticket would be $320. That's a $10 savings from $330 at the gate.

$10, you times this by your whole family, and that's more money in your churro fund.

And we are the travel nerds ready to help you plan your next big trip.

And you know, that four day, one park per day ticket is $100 per day, which I figure how much money I spend on museum tickets and all of that when I'm otherwise going on a vacation that I actually do not think this is a bad deal.

And I'll throw in one more Disney World ticket offer through September 22nd, 2025. That's a three-day, three-park ticket. And it comes out to starting at $89 per day plus tax. The catch with this is you cannot go to Magic Kingdom. It only works at Disney Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and Disney's Animal Kingdom. But honestly, those are my three favorite parks.

Well, don't get too excited to dive in. First, our disclaimer. And that's that we'll talk about a few credit card companies that are nerd wallet partners in this episode, but that doesn't influence how we discuss them. The benefits, terms, and fees mentioned were accurate at the time of posting, but things can change. Some offers may have expired by the time you're listening.

Yes. So I am a Target red card holder. This is Target's branded credit card. There is no annual fee. And you can buy Disney gift cards at Target. Here's where the red card kicks in. This Target credit card gets you 5% off the purchase price of most items at Target stores. And that includes Disney gift cards. So what I do is ahead of a Disney trip, I buy a bunch of Disney gift cards at Target.

$100 gift card just cost me $95. I can use that to buy tickets. I can also use it to buy anything else that they sell at Disney as long as they accept gift cards. So any of the shops, any of the restaurants, for the most part, this is a great way to save at Disney.

Tess, we are. Okay. So I first got my Disneyland annual pass in 1999. At the time, the deluxe pass was $129. Slightly more expensive today? Ooh. Slightly? Well, adjusted for inflation, $129 in 1999 would be $245 today. Imagine getting an annual pass to Disneyland for $245 today. Tess, you thought Disneyland was crowded now.

So I think we need to address the big one, and that is all of these ways you can pay to skip the line. There are a few ways you can do this. There is a Lightning Lane single pass. This gets you expedited entry into one ride. Then there is a multi-pass. This gets you into up to three rides at a time.

You select an arrival window, and then once you've used up one of those rides, then you can go select another ride. And then there's something called the Premier Pass. This is very limited. It is new. It is somewhat in testing and it's super expensive. So for context, a single ride pass is about $10 to $30 per ride. That multi-pass is about $20 to $30 per park. The Premier Pass, wait for it.

I hope you're sitting down. On the low end for a smaller park like Animal Kingdom is about $130. But I've seen it at the Magic Kingdom for about $450. $450. That's more than the ticket. Yes.

So I think a lot of people are not buying this, but this is something where if you are doing a once in a lifetime trip to Disney, maybe you're coming from an international destination and you're only going to be at Disney World for one day and you want to see it all. Maybe this is worth it because you do not spend any time in line.

Megan, did you know that exactly one month from now, on April 19th, you can visit all the national park sites in the U.S. for free? Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I think it really depends on like the city proximity to the park and then how big the park is. So I had a really good experience when I did that 2020 trip. We stayed in the city of Moab in Utah, which is super cute. It's a pretty short drive to Arches and Canyonlands, which are these amazing parks with red rock landscapes. Highly recommend you visit. We stayed at the Hyatt Place Moab.

I used points from my World of Hyatt credit card. Great experience.

Yes, I love this trend. I get so many pitches in my inbox each day from companies trying to tell me about their glamping resorts.

And the benefit of big-name hotel brands being in on the action is that, as us Points and Miles nerds, you can now book them with hotel points.

Well, you know, when I did that Yellowstone trip with my parents, we actually stayed at Under Canvas Yellowstone.

They were into it as a stretch, so I was into it. My mom kept saying like, it's too cold. It's too cold. And I was like, mom, you are still camping. These are not forest dirty walls.

But you know, I loved it. They have fire pits, they have s'mores that you can use. And then this was so fun. So we did my parents and then me and my fiance. And we booked what was supposed to be a family tent. So there was a main tent and then these little teepee tents for the kids. So my fiance and I shared the kids teepee tent.

That's the dream.

I want to stay in one.

Okay. This is on my bucket list for sure.

Okay, that's interesting because at NerdWallet, we would usually say 100,000 Hilton points are worth about $600. So maybe this is a case where it's better to pay cash for AutoCamp over points.

Yeah, and I should note that points to cash ratio is just one example of one night, especially if you can be flexible with your dates. You might find some dates where points rates are cheap. So just be flexible. Check the Hilton calendar. Now, another note on this is that AutoCamp is a really good way to flex your Hilton Elite status. Megan, I know you have gold status.

Good reminder to book now, lock in lower prices before points rates on most hotels that are affected will go up.

And at AutoCamp, I know you get one bundle of firewood per stay. two eco-friendly waters, and an upgrade if there is space available. I have diamond status, which is why I really need to stay at AutoCamp because they give you all that plus a free s'mores kit.

You know, I'm a sucker for anything s'mores. Okay, so you mentioned Joshua Tree, and that is one of the most popular national parks. Let's talk about what people should know about crowds, especially if they're going to one of these popular parks this year.

So we don't have official parks data for 2024 yet, but we do have 2023 visitor data. There were an estimated 325.5 million national park visits in 2023. That's how many times someone entered a national park, and that figure is up 4% from 2022.

So speaking of crowds, let's talk about navigating and possibly avoiding them. Probably 0% surprising to anyone, but July is the busiest month on average for national parks. In 2023, July saw more than 42 million visits. Compare that with the slowest month, January, which had just 13.6 million visits.

Yeah, so Built announced you can now connect your Built and Lyft rideshare accounts, and then you can redeem your Built points to pay for your Lyft rides. It's always nice to have another way to redeem points in case you're not using them for things like travel at hotels and on airlines.

That sounds kind of dreamy. And of course, seasonality is going to vary across parks. Some parks have their own seasonal variation. I'm talking about something like dry tortugas. Those are most popular during spring break. Something like Joshua Tree peaks between February through April, and then again in November and December.

And then there are some parks that don't require reservations to get in, but you might need a permit for certain activities. I'm thinking about something like Angels Landing in Zion. Again, check nps.gov before going. They list all the parks and their entry rules.

And just a tip, make sure you always bring extra water and food if you're hiking. If you are not someone who hikes regularly, you might not be used to how many calories you're burning.

Okay, this next part of the show, I want you to indulge me. Let's each say one park we want to go to and then one park that we love that we think listeners need to go to. Oh, this is fun. Okay, I think I know mine. Okay, well, I'm going to go first anyway. So my first one is the Grand Canyon.

Yes, I know. I've actually been to the Grand Canyon like twice. But here is a new experience I want to do at the Grand Canyon. And that is hiking to the bottom, staying overnight at this place. It's called Phantom Ranch. It's a series of cabins. They serve you dinner there. You can spend the night. Some people spend two nights. And then you hike back up to the top.

My dad actually did this with a bunch of his high school buddies. And I am so jealous. I need to do the planning to do this myself, of course. Planning is the key word here to get in. It's a lottery system, super competitive. So you do need to be flexible with your dates and actually enter and win that lottery.

Classic. You go on this trip intending to hike into nature and escape the modern world only to get hit with theme park pricing on ice cream.

Okay, fun. As far as the park that listeners need to go to, I would say don't sleep on Canyonlands. Now, this is in Utah. Most people who go to Utah do go to Arches National Park when they're doing that national park trip. But a lot of people skip Canyonlands because it is slightly farther drive, but it is totally worth it.

This park stands out because there are easy short hikes for people who aren't really hikers but want to feel like they are. Mesa Arch is a good one. It takes 30 minutes, just over a half mile. Easy. Yeah, easy. I love it. There are fun, harder hikes. Some of these require even some scrambling, so you really feel like you're a big outdoor adventurer. 10 out of 10, recommend.

All right. Up next, we typically usually would reserve this part for our hot takeoffs, but I wanted to do something different. I want to go for some national parks trivia. What do you think, Megan?

I have four trivia questions for you. I'm going to quiz you. Okay. So I do want to mention for this trivia block, we are only talking about true national parks. I am not talking about something like national monuments or which NPS does oversee. So let's just note for all the answers, we're tailoring this to true national parks. Okay.

If the listeners remember, we actually talked about built last episode when we drafted the best travel credit cards. So if you missed it, go back and listen. We can link to our guide to built rewards as well in the episode description.

So first question, what was the first national park in the United States? Oh, man. Your choices are, I'm going to give you four choices.

Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, or Great Smoky Mountains?

You can keep your job. Yellowstone was the first national park. It was established in 1872.

All right. Number two, which national park got the most visitors in 2023? I'm going to be lazy. I'm going to give you the same exact multiple choices. Again, those are Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, or Great Smoky Mountains. I will note that this straddles Tennessee and North Carolina.

Okay, actually, I was nervous that my giveaway gave it away, but it kind of did. Great Smoky Mountains did have the most visitors in 2023.

Yes, over 13 million. That's actually almost triple what Grand Canyon got.

Yeah. So Grand Canyon was the second most visited. So you get like a half a point. Okay. Followed by Zion and then Yellowstone in spot number four. In case people are interested, Rocky Mountain rounded out the top five. Oh, cool. Okay. I have two more questions for you. Number three, which is the newest national park in the U.S.? I'm going to give you some new options.

New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, that's in West Virginia. Indiana Dunes National Park in Indiana. Pinnacles National Park in California or White Sands National Park in New Mexico.

Fair enough. It wasn't for the Lyft deal, though. Yeah. Okay, so in aviation news, Spirit Airlines is out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Officially, they filed for bankruptcy protection back in November 2024. Court approved the airline's plan for reorganization in February.

Very good guess. You are correct. Yes. That became the 63rd National Park. It became a national park in 2020. Not sure what your family did there, but the internet tells me it's known for whitewater rafting, rock climbing, and that massive bridge, which you can see on West Virginia's state quarter.

I love this.

Okay. Last one. Best one. What is the smallest national park? Options. Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas. Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis, Virgin Islands National Park, or Bryce Canyon National Park.

Too easy, too easy. Yeah, so it's like basically just the arch in the surrounding area. Some people really argue it should just be a national monument instead, but hey, it's got the title.

Yes, of course. I've been a million times. It's so fun.

I mean, you just like go to St. Louis and you just like wander around. You can go up. I've only been inside once because you have to get tickets.

And it's like, it's kind of claustrophobic.

Right, exactly. All right, well, I hope you enjoyed playing my trivia game. And listeners, I want to hear from you. How did you do on the trivia? Tell us about your top national parks trips, anything, how you saved money. Email us at travel at nerdwallet.com or you could even leave a voice memo. This is cool because I'm inclined to play your voice back on the show.

And our little disclaimer, we are not financial or investment advisors. This info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes. It may not apply to your specific circumstances.

Do we actually know what those enhanced travel experiences will be?

Hey, I don't hate Spirit as much as most people do.

So Spirit does live on, but maybe not in the form you remember it. Probably better to just not remember those tiny seats anyway. Yeah.

You know, I was big into the ranger program as a kid, and I definitely collected all the patches.

Today's show topic is all about visiting national parks. We've got the tips on park passes and budget-friendly lodging.

We did reach out to the National Park Service to kind of understand where they are now and where they're headed. So they gave us an email statement, which was pretty generic. Here's what it said. The National Park Service is hiring seasonal workers to continue enhancing the visitor experience as we embrace new opportunities for optimization and innovation in workforce management.

So that's the email from them. And maybe at least that's a reason to be optimistic that parks can handle this summer's crowds.

Definitely. So let's note that, of course, things seem like they're changing day by day. Things may have changed by the time we're talking and you're listening to this right now. Again, it is pretty unclear how these changes might impact national parks long-term.

Okay, but let's dive into the fun part now. So Megan, before we get started, I want to know, how many national parks have you been to?

Ooh, fun. Okay. Well, I would say I'm mostly the same. I do have a friend who's going to all of them. Their goal is to hit every single national park. They did their wedding at Indiana Dunes National Park. Whoa. I know. And what's exciting is we do have National Park Week coming up. That's April 19th through April 27th.

And it's important to note that all national parks are entirely free on April 19th.

That's right. So for 2025, there are seven days where National Park Service sites that usually charge an entrance fee will offer free admission to everyone.

Two of these days in 2025 have already passed. One was January 9th. That was the national day of mourning for former President Jimmy Carter. You live to be 100. I know, it's so wild. And you know what's funny is Jimmy Carter's administration actually oversaw a large increase in the number of national parks. He authorized 15 additional parks under his term. Wow, go Jimmy.

Welcome to Smart Travel, a deep dive into the tips, tools, and tactics to maximize your travel dollars. I'm Megan Coyle. And I'm Sally French. And we're the travel nerds ready to help you plan your next big trip. Which, if you listen to today's episode, might be to a national park. But before national parks, it is time for the news.

We also already passed January 20th. That was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Also, parks are free on that day. There is hope to go entirely free. That's because there are four more free entry days besides April 19th.

Those are June 19th for Juneteenth National Independence Day, August 4th for the anniversary of the Great American Outdoors Act, September 27th, that's the National Public Lands Day, and then finally for 2025, we have November 11th, that's Veterans Day.

Now, I will say, even if you cannot visit on a free day, national parks are still super affordable for many travelers.

Now, I will say if you're entering a park on foot or bike, then sometimes you'll owe a per person fee. But I actually really love this option as well. It's typically not as high as a vehicle price. And we do see people enter national parks on bike, on foot. I'm really into this tour company called Backroads.

Most people bike with Backroads and you can do these long multi-day bike tours through the parks. They're super awesome.

You're definitely not driving a car in Channel Islands. Definitely not. You know, other places like that are Denali. That's a huge national park in Alaska. It is $15 per person. Most of that is not accessible to personal vehicles. To see most of it, you can ride the shuttle. That is included with your admission. Otherwise, you can get around by like hiking or cycling.

You know, I beat the trend. So this is wild. I was doing a vacation to Hawaii and we were at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The entrance fee is $30 per vehicle. And I was like, And we saw this America the Beautiful Pass advertised. And you know what? We knew we had a wedding in Yosemite later that year. Their entrance fee was going to be $35 per vehicle.

So we kind of did the math and we said, you know what? Let's just buy the America the Beautiful Pass and maybe it'll incentivize us to hit another national park. Even if we don't spend it, we'll consider this a donation to the National Park Service. Yeah. COVID hit, and we figured the Yosemite wedding would be canceled. But we took that time to do a big Southwest National Parks road trip.

So we ended up doing what everyone did, doing the outdoor trip. We did Bryce Canyon, Zion, Grand Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands. We got amazing value out of this National Parks pass. We were so glad that we ended up buying it in February when we did that Hawaii National Parks trip.

Oh, absolutely. And then the funniest part is our friend ended up canceling her Yosemite wedding, but three of us were like, let's just go to Yosemite anyway. Oh, that's so sweet. So we still got to go to Yosemite in 2022.

Yeah, so this is a good option. If you don't want to go all out with the America the Beautiful Pass, you don't want to pay the full $80. This is a way to see a certain number of parks for less.

If you live in a certain park-heavy area and you know you're just going to go to those parks this year, or maybe you're doing just a specific Southwest National Parks trip where you hit those parks in one go, you might want to consider this pass, which is cheaper.

Yeah, and so if I didn't have the full America the Beautiful Pass, I could have at least saved some money on my 2020 trip to the Southeast Utah parks with their park pass. That one covers Arches National Park, Canyonlands, Natural Bridges, National Monument, and Hove and Weep National Monument. That one is $55.

Okay, good deal. You can go to the National Parks website. That's nps.gov to find out more about how you can qualify and purchase those things.

Dude, I totally missed that when I was in fourth grade. But if you are a parent or guardian of a fourth grader, or maybe you yourself are in fourth grade—hello, fourth graders— You can go to everykidoutdoors.gov to get that pass.

You know, it's funny you say that, Megan. My stepdad was actually so excited to turn 62. He's a huge outdoors guy. So this is the first thing he did when he turned 62. Oh my gosh. I know. It was so cute. Actually, recently we did a big national parks trip with him. We went to Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. So thank you, Jake.

I know you are listening to this for having already turned 62 and making me a freeloader as well. Yeah.

Yes. So the entrance fee is quite affordable, but lodging can be pricey. So I typically break national park lodging into four options. I would say there's lodging inside the park, hotels outside the park, vacation rentals outside the park, and then my latest favorite trend is glamping.

And you also have to remember that you have to book with Hilton to get this statement credit. So no going through an online travel agency like Expedia. Now, I actually say that's a good thing anyway. We generally recommend booking directly with the hotels so you can earn points and get your elite night qualifying nights.

A sub camping option. I love it. Okay, so let's start by talking about staying inside the park. So many national parks have lodges or hotels right in the park, especially with those parks like Yellowstone where they're huge. This can be a nice way to keep you in the heart of the action.

Yes, I know. We walked right through the Old Faithful Inn when I did that Yellowstone trip with my parents. It is the most perfect location. I love it because you don't need to worry about timing your trip around the eruption because you're just always there.

I mean, amazing balcony seating. It's seriously the best.

Yes, some of these top tier hotels really do book up in advance. So that takes us to our next tip is if you cannot find something inside the park or you just want something more budget friendly, staying just outside the park gates can be a really good choice.

Wow. So at this point, it's the wee hours of the morning. So I'm guessing they either offered a full refund again or to rebook you?

And as far as the timeline goes on this, the deal is expected to close later this year. So we'll let you know when we start seeing some of these new properties available to book with Hyatt points. Until then, check out some of our favorite all-inclusives to book on points on the NerdWallet website. There's actually a ton of options.

Yeah, that's the great myth of last minute airfare deals. They rarely exist. People booking last minute flights typically do so because they're desperate to get somewhere like they have no other way of getting there. So airlines know they can charge a lot. Exactly.

Some people think the airline will refund you for the full price of alternative flights. And if you got a super nice airline representative, maybe, but it hasn't happened to me.

Now, you did get pretty lucky in your situation because United runs so many flights between that route, but not everyone is so lucky. So what do you do if the next available flight isn't for a few days?

So what did you end up doing about food in your overnight hotel stay? Did you end up staying with your cousin?

There's a new credit card offer that could get you a Southwest Airlines companion pass fairly easily. Yes, and we do see this offer once a year, and I'm so glad it's back.

Oh, perfect. You are a master at free stuff, but I was still concerned about what kind of food you were going to be eating on this delay.

I had no idea you could do that. That's amazing. But we should remind people that's not necessarily the norm. While some airlines have made those kinds of commitments to like give you a food voucher if you get delayed, not every single airline has. So there's actually a nice little table on NerdWallet that shows all the major U.S. airlines and worldwide.

what they pledge in the event of delays, like what kind of compensation or voucher. So the big airlines like United, American, Delta, JetBlue, Alaska offer the most, like the meal vouchers and hotel accommodations for an overnight delay, similar to what you got, Sally. The budget airlines like Frontier and Spirit are less generous. Frontier won't even put you up in a hotel overnight.

Well, here, let's just pull it up right now since I'm already on my computer. Okay. I'm browsing this dashboard right now and Alaska, Hawaiian, JetBlue, and Southwest are actually the only ones who have formally pledged to rebook you and give you a credit or travel voucher for cancellations that result in three hours or more of waiting.

So that's like, you know, they'll put you on the next flight and give you money for a future flight.

Oh, so good. I guess the takeaway here is that despite what they've publicly pledged, it is worth it to ask and see if they might give you more. Sometimes they might do it without asking, but everyone should ask just in case.

So for reasons outside the airline's control, like weather delays or cancellations, these commitments don't necessarily apply, unfortunately. Yes.

Okay, so I actually have a tip related to this. I got delayed on a flight last year at Indianapolis when I was flying American. And it was just a short hop to Chicago and then a connecting flight to LA for me. And as soon as they announced the delay, that line began to form at the gate agent's desk. I knew I was going to miss my connecting flight. So I got in line.

And while I was there, I just went on the airline's app.

and it's like here are your other flight options since your flight is delayed and right there in the app I booked a different route nice it was much longer and involved two layovers one in Chicago and one in San Francisco but I was going to make it back to my bed that night oh wait I didn't

know that was in San Francisco you should have crashed with me trust me I would have called you so fast if I got stuck again but I was so determined to make it back so by the time I waited in line got up to the gate agent I let her know like hey I already booked this other flight in the app but I'm just curious like are there any other options that maybe don't involve two layovers like I don't know what she has access to right and she was like oh my gosh that route didn't even come up for me and she

pointed to like these two guys who were also trying to get back to LA on my same delayed flight. And she said that she had to book them a different set of flights. I wouldn't get them back until the next day.

Yes. Okay. So these are some ways that you might have to navigate the rebooking options in the case of a delay or cancellation. But what about traveling smarter, like in a way that might help you avoid this situation altogether?

Let's dive into how to book flights less likely to be delayed or canceled because no one can predict the future, but there are some ways to reduce your odds of an issue.

The companion pass is good through February 28th, 2026. And so this offer to get this companion pass with the signup bonus ends on March 31st this year. So you've got about six weeks to decide if this offer might be right for you, but the sooner the better. So you actually have more time to use the companion pass once you earn it.

Okay, I need to go, but it will also probably take me a layover to get there. So back to our tips, what are the options if I can't avoid a layover?

Of course, we say this and then suddenly something's going to happen in San Diego.

Another good tip to avoid delays and cancellations is to book earlier flights in the day. Flights departing early in the day are less likely to be delayed because that aircraft is usually like already at the airport. You're not waiting for an incoming flight to be able to

start boarding your next one so those first like 6 a.m flights those are a really good bet yes by the time the afternoon rolls around weather and air traffic dominoes start to fall so that's where it gets really complicated in fact more than seven percent of flights last year were delayed simply because the inbound aircraft arrived late and again i just left my bureau of transportation statistics tab up so that's what it says so basically remove that risk by booking an earlier flight

Totally. Another piece of advice I want to mention is to book an airline that has multiple flights out of that connecting airport. It's not always possible. But when I was flying to Europe last year, I was deciding between connecting in Germany or Iceland to go to Rome. And the German airline had flights basically every two to three hours to Rome from the connecting airport.

And the Icelandic airline, I think, only had like one or two flights per day to Rome. So it was like, if you miss your connection, you will be stuck for another day.

That's right. Many travel credit cards offer travel insurance as a benefit when you pay for the trip with your card, but you have to check your card's insurance policy to ensure it covers canceled or delayed flights. Many, but not all, do, so you have to read into it.

And of course, if you're listening to this episode after March 31st, the signup bonus probably changed. So make sure to go to NerdWallet to see the current offer and benefits.

All great tips. I'm sorry you had two canceled flights, but it kind of sounded like a fun adventure in that way too. Not Iceland, but it's something.

And you have $45 worth of Starbucks gift cards now, which is like, you know, two Starbucks stars for every dollar you spend at Starbucks. So you're like, Halfway to a free drink in that rewards program.

Can you tell that I love a loyalty program? Okay, this is my hot take for the week. This is like the part of the show that we do every episode where we share a little spicy opinion at the end. So your spicy opinion is that you love loyalty programs? No, no, no. I mean, I do. But my hot take is that the Starbucks rewards program is an underrated loyalty program for travelers.

I didn't even know you drank Starbucks. I literally only have it when I'm traveling. And I also don't drink coffee. So I always just order a chai latte. It's like an airport pastime because it feels so good to get a hot drink at the airport before a 6 a.m. flight.

Okay. Well, Starbucks partners with Marriott and Delta Airlines. So you can earn points or miles with either of those programs if you link your accounts. We'll put some instructions in the show notes. It's pretty simple. And you won't get a ton of points or miles through your Starbucks purchases. Like it won't get you

a free flight or a free hotel stay, but it is a great way to double dip on earning rewards with your spending. And you know, if you rack up enough Starbucks stars, you might even get a free drink the next time you're at the airport way too early.

As I say, a well-planned trip is less about avoiding bumps and more about being prepared to handle them. So listeners, do you have any questions? Send them to us. Email us at travel at nerdwallet.com. Or, you know, for extra credit, email us a voice memo. You might even hear your voice on the show.

If you're not already doing it, you can follow the show on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeart Radio to automatically download new episodes.

And here's our brief disclaimer. We are not financial or investment advisors. This info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes and may not apply to your specific circumstances.

Today, we're diving into what to do if your flight gets delayed or canceled so you can get to your destination faster and maybe even get compensated for the inconvenience, hopefully.

And the usual way to earn it is actually pretty difficult. You have to fly 100 qualifying one-way flights or earn 135,000 rapid rewards qualifying points each. in a calendar year.

Yeah, you just have to meet the terms of the credit card's intro offer, which I should note includes paying that annual fee.

So the latter, the more expensive one, has more benefits, but we'll link to NerdWallet's roundup of Southwest cards in the show notes so the listeners can dig deeper if they want to find out which Southwest card is right for them.

That's right. The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks prices for all sorts of goods and services across the U.S. and puts out new data every month. And I know that, Sally, you've been tracking that and writing about it for years now.

And remember, the Federal Reserve, which manages the U.S. money supply, usually targets a 2% rate of inflation. So the 4% increase in travel prices is a bit high, but that 2% is more of a long-term goal. So Sally, what did you see when you were looking at it over years and years?

So I'm actually like spending less on flights now.

Okay. But inflation is still bad for the egg eaters among us. Looking at you, Sally.

If you're listening to this episode today, the day it's airing, then this is super timely because the offer just launched yesterday.

And you can use Virgin Points on a ton of different travel options, including flights on Virgin Atlantic or any of their other airline partners, Virgin Hotels, Virgin Cruises. They've also got like tours and activities. I actually just used some Virgin Points to fly their upper class from London to LA. It was so cool. My favorite part was the Virgin Atlantic Lounge at Heathrow Airport.

It feels like you're hanging out in the Incredibles living room.

Okay, next trip together. See you in the Mediterranean on a Virgin cruise. We'll start saving up our points. I guess this bonus will help. Last thing in the news, one of my guilty pleasures, as you know, is watching murder mystery television shows. So you know what I was doing on Sunday. What? Tell us. The HBO show White Lotus is back for season three. It's in Thailand this year.

If you are watching the show also and thinking, wow, it'd be really nice to stay at that hotel that the White Lotus is filmed at. Let me tell you, millions of other people who watch the show might be thinking the same thing. Megan, I'm ashamed to say I've actually never seen this show, but I hear about it so much.

Yes, hop on the bandwagon. The executive vice president and chief commercial officer of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts told the New York Times that demand increased tenfold for the Maui and Sicily properties that were featured in White Lotus season one and two. And so he expects the same thing to happen with the Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui for season three. Let's go.

Welcome to Smart Travel, a deep dive into the tips, tools, and tactics to maximize your travel dollars.

Everyone who likes staying at all-inclusive resorts, there's some good news for you because Hyatt just announced a deal to acquire Playa Hotels and Resorts. This is a brand of luxury all-inclusives with properties in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica.

Unfortunately, no. The Four Seasons doesn't have its own loyalty program, but I did see that White Lotus Hotel on the Amex Travel Portal, and it was 175,000 points for one random night in March. Oof, I am not spending 175,000 points on that. Yeah.

Moral of the story, if you've been wanting to visit this particular property or this destination within Thailand, demand is going to be higher than usual this year. I think if you want to go, you could wait until the crowds sort of die off maybe next year.

Or if you want to save on prices, especially if you want to check out some of these luxury hotels, you might just want to wait until the hype from the show is over.

Coming up, we're talking about what you should do when your travels go awry.

It's one of the most read topics on NerdWallet, probably because when it happens to you, you need answers fast.

Geez, that's terrible luck that it happened to you on the same trip. After all, cancellations are not actually that common.

I'm pulling up the Bureau of Transportation Statistics website right now to look up the rate of canceled U.S. flights. Okay, so we're looking at the year from October 23 to October 2024. Okay, it says about 1% of flights were canceled. Now, delays on the other hand.

I mean, sometimes you don't have a lot of choice, though, like if there aren't a lot of flights to your destination. So you're right. If it's something you absolutely need to get to at a certain time, give yourself plenty of time in case of delays.

Yeah, that's just bad planning. One hour would not have been enough time anyway. Was this person already wearing their wedding outfit on the plane?

Well, it's about 20% of flights in that period from October 2023 to October 2024. That's the latest they've got. So Yeah, it's not uncommon to deal with a delay or cancellation. And if it does happen to you, it can be a very special type of misery. Like a lot of it seems out of your hands, out of the gate agent's hands, out of the flight attendant's hands.

But here are some things you can do to avoid the mess or at least make it a little more bearable.

Exactly. We're here to share our knowledge. So take me back to this moment your first flight was canceled. Set the scene. Where were you and where did your mind go immediately?

Oh, no, that's terrible. Being stuck on the tarmac is worse than being stuck in the terminal. Like you don't know when the next time you'll eat. And that gives me anxiety.

And the World of Hyatt program is really great for all-inclusives, particularly because they have an award chart and they have some really, really reasonable awards prices for stays at these all-inclusives. So now there's going to be a bunch of more options for all-inclusives in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica.

I think people don't realize that if your flight gets canceled or significantly delayed and you don't choose to accept the alternative, like them rebooking you on another flight, airlines are actually required to provide a full refund to your original payment method. So like cold hard cash, it's a federal rule.

Right. So that person you mentioned earlier who probably missed that wedding because of a one hour delay is definitely not going to get that compensation.

Anyway, so the federal government defines a significant delay as one where the departure or arrival time is three hours or more than originally scheduled for domestic flights. It's six hours for international flights.

So if you're traveling and your flight gets canceled, one option is to maybe take the cash refund and find a different way there, maybe on another airline or even booking a rental car and driving there if it's a reasonable driving distance.

I remember you saying this over Slack when this was happening in real time, and I actually had no idea that was the whole backstory. I can't believe they made you board the plane and get off twice.

Just make sure everyone in your group is actually invited to the wedding because awkward. It's so awkward when you message the whole group of college friends trying to book a vacation rental and you find out only half were invited.

Yeah. Okay. Another awkward situation. What about gifts? Like if you're already spending $2,000 to attend a wedding, are you off the hook with getting a gift?

Yeah, I agree. You shouldn't go into debt for this. And for what it's worth, I don't think that this is that much of a hot take. Many etiquette experts agree that when it comes to destination weddings, or really any wedding requiring travel, your presence is the present. If you still want to give something, a card or a thoughtful gesture goes a long way.

So whether you're the one throwing the wedding or just trying to be a good friend with a manageable credit card balance, remember, travel smart, plan ahead, use your points, and don't be afraid to say no if it's not in the budget this year.

So for real, it's hot takeoff time now. Do you have one this week? Okay, I have a second one.

I love it. Thank you. And finally, a listener question. This one comes from someone also named Megan. Great name, Megan.

In fact, that's why Sally's not here. She went to check out this new terminal for herself.

Love this question. And you're absolutely right. Sign-up bonuses are the flashy first date of points and miles. They woo you. They whisk you away on one or two dreamy trips. And then what? You're left wondering if it's all just a fling? Yeah.

I'm loving this like wedding love analogy.

First, you should use cards that actually reward you for your lifestyle. So if you spend a lot on groceries or gas or dining, there's a certain points card for that.

You know I do.

Some dispatches she sent me from the cruise, though. This new terminal is high tech. It's the first cruise terminal in the world to get you through security using all biometrics. You check in online, you drop your bags right from the parking garage, and breeze through security and boarding just by scanning your face at the face scan pods. And you only need to show your passport once.

What I would say is that if you don't travel enough and you want that long-term relationship, don't sleep on the recurring travel benefits that come as annual perks on some of these premium travel credit cards. I'm talking about things like automatic elite status, statement credits, lounge access, or free night certificates.

Yeah, you do have dozens of cards. I can't keep track.

So if you break that down per lounge visit, that's like $19 per visit. I mean, you can barely get an airport coffee and a bagel for that price.

Okay, amazing. That card is not for everyone, but can work for you if you're a frequent traveler, which is definitely you, Sally. And with that, I think that's our show.

This episode was produced by Hilary Georgie and Tess Biglin. Claire Soce helped with fact-checking and a big thank you to Nick Karisamy for editing our audio.

Thanks for listening. We hope you're inspired to keep your passport full and your wallet even fuller. See you next episode.

It's gorgeous. It's like being in a forest. There's so many real trees. Speaking of trees, I love the trees.

Well, they did a great job. And speaking of air travel, we've got some turbulence ahead.

I kind of love the idea, though.

That's according to Delta's earnings report released last week. Consumer and corporate confidence is dipping. In the March quarter, the airline reported $13 billion in adjusted revenue. That's up 3.3% from last year, but that's less growth than the airline previously projected.

Why does she get to have all the fun? I'd like a spinoff called Where's Megan?

Delta says demand for international bookings and tickets in premium cabins are doing all right, but the domestic cabin demand is meh. So what's a smart traveler to do, Megan? Well, if you're planning to fly Delta later this year, book sooner rather than later, especially for fall and holiday travel.

Capacity won't be increasing, so you might want to reserve your seat now before limited availability can push those prices up.

What is it? And last news item today, well, I saved the best for last.

So get this, according to NerdWallet's latest travel price index, lots of travel prices are dropping across the board. Airfares are down 5.2%, hotel prices have dropped 3.7%, and rental cars are down nearly 9% year over year.

And here's another interesting fact. Airfare is actually 12% cheaper than it was 10 years ago. That's not something you usually see in consumer categories.

Flying might still feel pricey, but if you know how to play the game, use points, pack lights, skip seat selection, you can absolutely come out ahead right now. I also recommend frequent flyers look to airline branded credit cards. Some offer benefits like free checked bags if you hold their credit card and that can help keep your prices lower.

Oh, well, it depends if you get married.

Oh, can't knock that plan. Tess, thank you so much for helping us out today. On with the show. Wedding bells are ringing. You, Sally, are the pro here since you're getting married this September. Yes. You're also the most wildly frugal and free food obsessed person I know. So I'm excited to hear how your wedding planning is going and what you have in store for your guests.

Certainly makes me qualified to talk about how to budget and plan travel specifically for weddings. Welcome to Smart Travel, a deep dive into the tips, tools, and tactics to maximize your travel dollars. I'm Megan Coyle.

I remember you're supposed to negotiate things like your Wi-Fi bill, but I never thought about doing this for a wedding dress.

And make sure to refer your partner so you two can get two sign-up bonuses.

Plus a referral bonus.

And those points could go a long way towards a nice hotel for the honeymoon or those business class flights. Let's do a honeymoon episode after your wedding, Sally, because I know you have this really fun idea for that.

Yes, me. Okay, so let's set the stage with some numbers. According to a new NerdWallet survey conducted by the Harris Poll, nearly 1 in 10 Americans, that's 9%, are attending a wedding this summer that requires at least one night away from home.

Which means you might need to start saving now. NerdWallet study also found that guests estimate they'll spend $1,989. That's almost $2,000 on average just for transportation and lodging. That's not including the dress. That's not including the gift. Oh my goodness. That high? I mean, that's four times my wedding dress budget and like 20 times my Costco sheet cake budget.

And here's the thing, 87% of Americans say they'd be willing to travel for a wedding, but 46% say travel costs are one of the biggest factors in deciding whether to go.

The other big reason that people decide to go to weddings is the location. 42% say the wedding destination is a top consideration, which makes total sense. I think that probably goes hand in hand with the travel costs.

Yes, I got so lucky that two different couples that don't know each other decided to do weddings in Tuscany. That's incredible. Ten days apart. So yeah, I'm going to stay there the whole time. It's going to be great. One of them is one of my best friends from college, and she and her fiance knew that her wedding would be mostly like a friend's wedding.

Some of my favorite memories with her and my college friends is traveling together. So this couple chose Italy because we all get to stay together on the same property. Nice. A castle in the countryside. And the cost of her four-day, three-night wedding in Italy was going to cost the same as if she'd had a nicer end wedding in the U.S. Yeah, I've heard that. I thought it was really sweet.

She even linked to some of our NerdWallet resources on points travel on her wedding website. It's so cute.

Welcome to the front of the microphone test, out from behind that virtual production booth.

So Sally, for airfare, NerdWallet recommends booking domestic travel one to three months in advance and international travel two to eight months ahead. With weddings, you probably get to save the date months in advance. So use that lead time to set your price alert and book flights. Exactly. For our wedding, we sent out invitations about nine months early for that reason.

Often though, more important than how many months in advance you book is what day of the week you fly. We got some data from travel booking app Hopper showing that Saturdays are the cheapest day to fly of the week.

The next best thing you can do if you're going to a wedding over the weekend is to extend the trip. So the second cheapest days to fly are Tuesdays and Wednesdays. So if it's the kind of destination that you can make a trip out of it, I'd recommend extending your stay a few days if you can.

Of course, you have to calculate whether your savings on the airfare by flying midweek will be washed out by paying for extra nights of lodging. But if you have free lodging, this might work out.

And then the single most expensive day to fly is Sunday, usually the day after the wedding.

You're such a travel planner, and I think this makes you good at planning parties, too.

All right, let's talk lodging. Sometimes couples offer room blocks at a hotel, meaning they ask the hotel to set aside a group of rooms specifically for wedding guests so guests can book those rooms at a reduced rate. But those don't always guarantee big savings.

Oh, yes. Hyatt is the best ultimate rewards transfer partner, hands down. Nice work.

I did just bring my mic to Sequoia National Park this weekend to check out the new Auto Camp Sequoia location.

My boyfriend and I use that to determine whether we should use Marriott points instead of booking a room with the room block at a wedding hotel. Oh, nice. I have to say, we love the convenience of being able to stay at the wedding hotel and just walk upstairs to your room at the end of the night. But if the cost is too high, the points might make more sense.

For you, Sally, you're not getting married at a hotel and you don't seem too concerned about guests using the hotel room block. So should guests stay at your wedding hotel anyway?

And sometimes it's just easier to stay together. Like I just said, I know my role at weddings since these are my friends usually getting married. I got to be out on the dance floor.

I'm going to be at the hotel bar for the after party. Yes.

I say stay at the cheaper place down the road if you can. For that Marriott hotel we booked on points, we stayed at a cheaper place a little further away, also on points a few days before the wedding. So it just cost us less points. And I thought that was a great alternative.

we'll have to do a follow-up episode to the National Parks one. But first, a bit of news. For our cruisers out there, MSC Cruises just cut the ribbon on the world's largest cruise terminal at Port Miami.

Good reminder to comparison shop even when you're going to weddings. And also consider some of those other expenses you might not think of like parking. So if you're driving to and from the wedding and you need to park overnight at your hotel, how much is that going to cost? Can you carpool or should you just share an Airbnb with a bunch of people?

I know that you, Sally, have worked on a bunch of data for us around the prices of hotels versus vacation rentals.

Poinsettia has another one. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using that one? So that one doesn't do the filtering by the exact seat.

And when you say eight-day range, that's eight days from the dates that you searched? It's looking up live availability? Yeah.

Totally. What are the downsides of this one?

And it's a good start, right? Like you can see the one way certain like open jaw itineraries maybe. So it's a good start for trying to book those more complicated itineraries. Point.me, which is one we already mentioned, is one that you can get for free with certain card issuers. What is the service like if you use it outside of the Build or Amex version of the tool?

That makes sense. And we've got some of those step-by-step guides on the NerdWallet website as well. I want to give a special shout out to PointsPath, which is a tool a little bit unlike the others. This one is a Chrome extension that shows you how many points you would need to book a flight. And it shows up right in your Google Flights search results right next to the cash price.

What are your thoughts on that one?

Some limitations of that one, though, it doesn't have a ton of airlines on it yet, especially some of the international ones. I've also found some inconsistencies with the price that it's showing in Google Chrome in the extension and then price when you actually look it up on that airlines reward search.

Yeah, it sounds like a must that it has to be indoors. It's also giving Adventure Dome in Vegas.

All right, Craig, are there any other tools that you think listeners should know about when they're looking for award flights?

Yeah.

Yep, and it's way more expensive in points if you do find something available. Luckily, there are some search tools that make finding that availability and those lower points prices a lot easier.

But I could have if they were there. And what is the last tool you recommend?

We just mentioned a bunch of different award tools people could use and ways to save. What is kind of the order you use when you are trying to book a trip coming up? Which one do you check first? And what's the process you use?

We've been talking a lot about flights. Is there anything like this for finding hotel award availability?

Before I let you go, Sally's going to kill me for this, but do you have any hot takes on travel?

No way. I'm also a Bilt stan. Tell me why you think it is beating out some of these other transferable currencies that have been around for ages.

And Alaska isn't the only good one. There's also Hyatt. There's Virgin. There's actually a pretty robust list of transfer partners. Thank you so much, Craig, for coming on the show. This was super helpful.

I can't believe you did hot takeoffs without me. We all know Craig is the biggest Built stan, so I decided to save you from the Built love fest.

Yeah, the alerts, like, that's something we can get the robots to do, not something I need to be checking.

That's true. All right, Sally, I did save the listener question segment for you.

Tell us what Manju said.

Oh, okay. This is a fun one because I think a lot of Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders don't even know that they can get into these Air Canada lounges. That perk went into effect in late 2024 that many of Air Canada's U.S. and international lounge locations are available to Chase Sapphire Reserve card members and their authorized users. This is a great reminder.

But not a huge difference. $10 or $20 difference. And we're talking seven years from now. We have no idea. No one should go on a 15-hour flight to save $20. I do agree with that. Yeah. I will say you do see some much bigger savings at some international Disney parks like Tokyo Disneyland.

And then the real hang-up is that they are stingy on guests, like no guests.

To be clear, you can take a guess. You just have to pay for them.

So there are a few workarounds. One is that those Air Canada lounges are available to authorized users of the Chase Sapphire Reserve. So you could theoretically make your kids an authorized user on your card, though you'll have to pay $75 for each authorized user. So that might not be worth it if you're only going to visit one of these Maple Leaf lounges once.

But if you're going to do it a few times a year, that might be worth it.

But hey, it could help them build credit. And this is something I do with my family is I add them as authorized users so they can get the lounge access.

True.

Really?

I love an outdoor deck at an airport lounge. By the way, we should post the link to your SFO Air Canada Lounge review in the episode's description.

This episode was produced by Hilary Georgie, Claire Sosi helped with fact-checking, and a big thank you to Nick Karisamy for editing our audio.

We hope you're inspired to keep your passport full and your wallet even fuller. Thanks everyone. We'll see you next time.

I looked up those May prices and they're just $60 a day in May compared to like $200 for a Disneyland ticket in California. So that would be some real savings.

Oh, yes. I want those little mochis that look like aliens. Yum!

This is the first real competitor to the Southwest Companion Pass program. That one similarly lets... Southwest Rapid Rewards members who earn it designate a companion and take them on flights for just the price of taxes and fees, which is around $11 per domestic trip for an entire calendar year or however long your pass is good for. But usually a year.

That could be a ton of flights that you're getting for basically buy one, get one free.

Frontier is really coming for those Southwest enthusiasts like you, Sally. I know. They are winning me over. Yeah, I was just thinking about that promotion they did last month where they were selling frontier elite status for $40 if you could prove that you were a Southwest member.

You can try to enter the giveaway by going on their website called MarriottBonvoyRoulette.com. You know, Megan, I have a funny story on that.

I know. This is research. I want to know what I can do with a million points. You know what I mean?

I've never won one, so. Okay, and in other Marriott news, I was really excited to see that Marriott announced it plans to acquire the Citizen M brand.

They look so colorful and fun. I was just looking at one for my Italy trip that I'm about to leave on tomorrow. So they also have a really interesting loyalty program. Have you heard about it, Sally? Oh, no. I stayed in one and I didn't even bother signing up. Yeah, that's because you actually pay to be a member. It's not free.

Welcome to Smart Travel, a deep dive into the tips, tools, and tactics to maximize your travel dollars. I'm Sally French. And I'm Megan Coyle.

It's $120 per year and then you get 15% off on all stays. and 15% off on all on-site food and beverages, plus late checkout until 2 p.m.

Probably their next flight. But for real, everyone, don't hold everyone else up at the airport and make sure you've got a Real ID compliant license or a passport or one of the other alternatives. We've got a list that you can find in today's episode description.

Okay, on with the show. I know some of our listeners have probably been hearing our episodes about transferring points and redeeming them, and they've got to be thinking, geez, this is way too much work.

Yeah. Well, one of the strategies that can make this easier for booking flights is using award search tools. You basically use them like you would use any other travel search tool like Google Flights or Expedia. You put in your dates, where you want to go, and it'll tell you how much those flights cost to book in points instead of in cash. Comparison shopping for award flights. This is the way.

Exactly. I invited another one of NerdWallet's travel experts to cover this. Craig Joseph is a writer on our team, and he uses these tools all the time. In fact, he wrote an article about it for NerdWallet.

And we're always roping in our fellow nerds to help us out. Today, I invited travel writer Craig Joseph to talk about what award search tools you need to know and which ones are actually worth paying for.

Craig, welcome to Smart Travel.

I'm so excited to have you join us. You've redeemed literally millions of points for travel. So what would you say your travel style is?

Oh my gosh, me too. I'm always wondering how much everyone else around me paid for their flight. And I'm like, it's my little secret that I didn't pay anything.

Totally. I also love that you took Japan Airlines. That was also my first business class flight on points. So we've got a lot in common there. So how much would you say you think you've saved on travel using points and miles?

Oh, my gosh.

To be able to save that much, do you have to be an expert? Do you have to spend every waking hour looking up flights, finding availability? How much time do you have to put in to be able to get that kind of return?

So that's why we're here today. We're going to talk about some of those tools. For people who aren't familiar with them, what do they look like and how do they work?

But first, we'll talk about a few credit card companies this episode that are nerd wallet partners, and that doesn't influence how we discuss them. The benefits, terms, and fees mentioned were accurate at the time of posting, but things can always change. Some offers may have expired by the time you're listening. For the latest details, follow the links in the episode description.

That's amazing. A huge time saver. But who are these tools really built for? Is it for a casual points traveler who uses their miles once a year? Or who is best for using these types of tools?

Now, we should say right up front that some of these tools cost money. Is it worth it to pay to use these tools?

And there are some that you might already have access to for free. For example, Point.me is available to Amex cardholders. So you can find out which Amex transfer partners have some availability. And Bilt cardholders also have the same thing. You just have to go through the Bilt app to see what the flight options are.

As a reminder, you can find a list of transfer partners of all the major credit card rewards programs on NerdWallet. We'll put a link in the episode description. And Craig, you wrote an article about some of these tools. What are things people should look for, be aware of as they are looking at these tools and deciding whether they should pay for them?

We always recommend setting those alerts so that way you don't have to check it yourself every single day. All right. Stay with us. We're back in a moment. All right, so let's go through some of your favorite tools. I think let's start with seats.arrow. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using that one?

It'll be built on Yaz Island, which already has some big attractions, SeaWorld, Ferrari World, and Warner Brothers World. Disney CEO Bob Iger said in an interview that it takes up to two years to design a park and then five years to build. So we're looking at potentially seven years or more for this Disney park to open, and they're not committing to any type of opening date yet.

I think people don't know how much sports crossover there is with this show. You know, Megan, surprisingly, there is a lot of overlap between travel and NerdWallet's bread and butter, which is credit cards with sports.

Now those travelers get either one or two free checked bags depending on their fare class or status. And I have to say, I rarely check bags, but even I'm bummed about this news because I'm just worried it'll slow down boarding as people try to stuff their roller bags that they otherwise would have just checked, but instead they're stuffing them in the overhead bins.

There is a list of eligible subscription services on Amex's website. Again, this can be huge savings of up to $240 for a year. As you know, I'm a Baby Yoda fan who needs my Disney Plus.

Yes. And I will say many of the credits are kind of a hassle to use. One that I'm thinking of is like the Saks Fifth Avenue credit. I'm not a Saks shopper.

That's exactly right. Basically, I just go in at June and December and filter by items under $50. And it's like a pair of socks. I'm like, thank you for this pair of socks. That was $50.

I was low-key hoping you would pick this one.

And I love those Capital One lounges. I just went to one in Dallas. And I hate to say it, but I actually thought it was better than the Centurion Lounge. Oh, I agree. Yeah. Okay, cool.

Yeah, I love this, especially if you're traveling with friends. Where would our families be without us?

Okay, so I have one more draft pick, I think. Yeah. Okay, I'm going to go with a hotel credit card then. So I will say right now I'm debating between the Hyatt credit card or the Hilton Aspire credit card. I actually do hold both. But you can only pick one. I guess overall, I'm going to pick the Hyatt credit card simply because I think it's easier to justify the annual fee, which is $95.

That's versus $550 on the Hilton Aspire card. Okay. I will say what I love about the Hilton Aspire card just to justify the annual fee is one automatic diamond elite status, but even more valuable is that annual free night reward. You can redeem them for one standard accommodation at properties in the Hilton portfolio.

Okay, well, so I was actually talking to a friend this week and she holds this card purely for the free night certificate. She was actually asking me about going to the Conrad Punto de Mita where I had just stayed using my free night certificate. Room rates can easily top $1,000 per night. And she was like, I just want to go.

So basically, I feel like I'm able to stay here for half the price because you just consider $550 for the annual fee. She considers that alone to be worth it.

Yeah, so with the Hilton card, you can just use it on a standard room reward at pretty much any property in the Hilton portfolio. There are a few exceptions, like some all-inclusives. The problem with theirs is it has to be a standard room night reward and often standard rooms book up and there's only premium room availability. So there is a downfall there.

I will say with Hyatt, almost just like a bigger of a downfall, you can only use it at category one through four hotels. So if you're staying at a category five or higher, you cannot use it there. But I feel like I'm traveling so much for like weddings, sports meets, things like that, that there's always a category four or lower hotel that I can use right there.

Totally. I'm like, the annual fee is $95, and there's no way anyone's finding a hotel room for less than $95 in this economy. So I almost feel like this benefit alone is enough to justify that credit card.

Interesting.

And then also the checked bags. So this is good to justify if you are someone who checks bags, though I will say I don't ever check bags. So I'm not totally sure I can justify the annual fee on a card like this.

Well, you know I love myself as companion pass.

Yeah, I know. Delta, Alaska have various offers like that. So check NardWallet or the show notes to find those. Okay, Megan, this was a fun idea. I like the draft style.

And that's not the only bummer for Southwest. So now Southwest flight credits will expire within one year for all fares, except once again, Basic just gets that low class status. Their flight credits will expire within six months from the ticketing date. Again, this is so rough. Southwest has always stood out to me because its flight credits had no expiration date. So I find this so frustrating.

This one comes from a coworker. Okay, so she doesn't want to say her name yet because she hasn't told the rest of her coworkers, but she is expecting. So yay, congrats to you. She's pregnant and she wants to take a little baby moon. I love the idea of a baby moon. Same. So here's what she sent me. I'm expecting in June. I've been trying to take a short trip in mid-March.

I was wondering if you have any fave places to stay in Southern Florida or Scottsdale. I'm mostly trying to get out of the terrible freezing East Coast weather and lay by a pool. So I'm open to places, but I'm curious what you think.

Yeah, I went on the Explore tool on Google Flights to figure out where she should go.

Yeah, so what's cool about the Explore tool is I punched in her home airport on the East Coast, and then I punched in June as the recommended month she wants to go. And from there, it populates deals to all sorts of cities. And what I actually found is there's a $300 round-trip flight to Miami on American Airlines.

Can she cover it? Well, so that's what I asked her. My next follow-up question was, what sorts of points do you already have? Can we get you there for free? She did tell me she has 37,000 chase points, and then she has 126,000 Capital One miles.

Totally. So I was like, great, you have your flight booked, go to Miami. It's a shorter flight anyway for you on the East Coast. Then I started looking at hotels. So I found some really great options. The Hyatt Regency in Miami is 15,000 points. Chase is one of their best transfer partners is World of Hyatt.