Smart Travel: Upgrade Your Getaways
Secrets to Finding Cheap Flights and Avoiding Fees, Straight from Scott’s Cheap Flights
26 Mar 2025
Learn when to book flights, how to spot mistake fares, and ways to use lesser-known tips like booking stopovers and tapping into rideshare rewards. When is the best time to book a cheap flight? Do budget airlines actually save you money after all the fees? Scott Keyes, founder of Going (formerly Scott’s Cheap Flights), joins Smart Travel to talk about how to actually find cheap airfare — including how to time your bookings, when to use points instead of cash, and how to pounce on mistake fares before they disappear. He also busts some of the most persistent airfare myths (spoiler: incognito mode won’t save you money). But first, Sally and Meghan break down the latest travel headlines, including new perks and price hikes for United Airlines credit cards, changes to the Delta-Lyft partnership, and why JSX credits might actually be worth something. They also share the best deals they’ve ever gotten on airfare and how to use free stopover perks. Card benefits, terms and fees can change. For the most up-to-date information about cards mentioned in this episode, read our reviews: United Credit Cards Unveil Major Changes: Higher Fees, More Perks Earn Delta Miles for Uber Rides: New Partnership Replaces Lyft How to Maximize the United Excursionist Perk In their conversation, the Nerds discuss: best time to book flights, airfare myths, flight deals, mistake fares, Goldilocks booking window, how to find cheap flights, budget airlines, Spirit Airlines fees, Frontier Airlines fees, JSX flights, United Airlines credit card, United card benefits, airline card perks, United Club card, Lyft Delta partnership ending, Delta Uber miles, Uber SkyMiles, 24-hour flight cancellation rule, booking flights with points, best points for travel, Air Canada Aeroplan dynamic pricing, Flying Blue Air France, travel stopovers, free stopovers, Icelandair stopover, Turkish Airlines hotel stopover, United excursionist perk, multi-city travel, hidden city ticketing, best rewards credit cards for flights, travel credit card updates 2025, how to avoid flight layovers, booking partner airlines, and reselling airline tickets. In a previous version of this episode, the name of the United Quest card was not mentioned. A line was added for clarity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
Megan, I want to know from you, what is the wildest travel myth you've heard?
Oh, I love the people who swear the cheapest airfares come out on Tuesdays. It's not a Trader Joe's restock, people.
Yes, I totally hear things like that. I think we agree that there is no best day to book airfare as it really depends on so many factors.
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.
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. 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.
So our first topic is credit cards related. So here is our usual spiel. We'll talk about a few credit card companies that are nerd wallet partners in this episode, but that does not influence how we discuss them.
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.
Yeah, so that might be unrealistic to actually hit that $10,000 spending threshold. Don't go out of your way to spend that money if it's something you wouldn't do otherwise. But at least this benefit is maybe better than a poke in the eye.
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