Smart Money Podcast — Book Smarter: Holiday Travel Tips for Stress-Free Trips

Welcome to NerdWallet’s Smart Money podcast, where we answer your real-world money questions. In this episode:

Get insider tips for stress-free holiday travel, from booking strategies to maximizing credit card points and more.

What’s the best way to avoid stress when traveling during the holidays? Is it better to book with points when you’re traveling for the holidays? Hosts Sean Pyles and Meghan Coyle discuss the challenges of holiday travel and share effective booking strategies to help you understand how to navigate the busiest travel days with ease and efficiency. Travel Nerd Sally French joins them to discuss common holiday travel hurdles, including the benefits of early morning flights, the advantages of extending holiday trips to avoid peak travel days, and strategies for using travel points and rewards effectively during the holidays. They also explore the perks of lounge access, the efficiency of TSA PreCheck, and clever ways to use travel points during peak seasons.

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NerdWallet stories related to this episode:

16 Best Travel Credit Cards of September 2024

The Best Days to Book a Flight and When to Fly

TSA PreCheck vs. Global Entry: Which Is Better?

Have a money question? Text or call us at 901-730-6373. Or you can email us at [email protected]. To hear previous episodes, go to the podcast homepage.

Episode transcript

This transcript was generated from podcast audio by an AI tool.

Sean Pyles:

Tell me if this sounds familiar. Walking a mile from the parking lot, forgetting a piece of luggage in the car, long lines to check in and tag your bags, even longer lines to get through security, and then a freak snowstorm hits the airport and your flight is canceled. Welcome to holiday travel, where Murphy's law seems to rule. Well, friends, this is one law that we are hoping to help you break.

Sally French:

Book that first flight out if possible. The reason being is that the number one cause of delay is actually the incoming aircraft was late. If you're booking that first flight out, then that incoming aircraft is probably already going to be there because it landed from the night before, it's just been parked there.

Sean Pyles:

Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast. I'm Sean Pyles.

Meghan Coyle:

And I'm Meghan Coyle.

Sean Pyles:

And this episode kicks off our Nerdy Deep Dive into holiday travel, the most wonderful and exasperating time of the year. Happy Thanksgiving, Meghan, in September, but hey, why not? Pumpkin spice lattes are out and that means Thanksgiving is what, next week?

Meghan Coyle:

Oh, Sean, just think about all the fun times you're going to have with friends and family. Who cares if it takes you 22 hours to get from Portland to, I don't know, Seattle.

Sean Pyles:

22 if you're lucky. Honestly, it's gotten to the point where I avoid traveling during the holidays at all costs if I can. Don't get me wrong, I love my families, but that's not the only time of year I can see them. And you know what? They do sell turkeys outside of late November, cranberries too. The whole thing has just gotten to be a bit much, so we find other ways and times to celebrate, at least if it means getting on a plane.

Meghan Coyle:

I'm so with you, Sean, but yet I still wouldn't miss the holidays with my family. A lot of people do travel for these special once-a-year gatherings, so we are here to help you make it as easy and as smooth as possible, even if the fates conspire against you and your well-laid plans.

Sean Pyles:

So, Meghan, what prompted you to bring the series to us?

Meghan Coyle:

I'm reporting and editing stories on travel all year, but I feel the holidays are a time when, one, all the normal advice to save money goes out the window, and two, a lot of people are traveling when they don't normally. I mean, stress levels are going to be high for both frequent travelers who might be getting frustrated with the novices and the infrequent travelers who might be surprised at some of the changes that have happened this year, like increased bag fees.

Sean Pyles:

Oh, add that all up, and I imagine there are a lot of listeners out there looking for help navigating this expensive and stressful time of year. Well, Meghan, I'm looking forward to hearing all of the advice that you and our other travel Nerds have to make holiday travel a little bit easier to manage and, dare I say, maybe even enjoyable.

Meghan Coyle:

Yep, we're coming to the rescue of all the folks out there who are dreading making those holiday travel plans. And over the course of the series, we'll have all kinds of tips and tricks for finding decent airfares, figuring out the best ways to deal with the cost of luggage, how to use credit card points to their maximum benefit, and oh, so much more.

Sean Pyles:

We want to hear what you think too, listeners. To share your ideas and experiences around holiday travel with us, the good, the bad, and the insanity, leave us a voicemail or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-N-E-R-D. Or email a voice memo to [email protected]. So, Meghan, where do we start today?

Meghan Coyle:

Well, today we've got our fellow Nerd, Sally French, joining us to talk about the outlook for this year's holiday travel season, how bad it might get, or could we get lucky? All kinds of tips and advice on the way.

Sean Pyles:

That's coming up in a moment. Stay with us.

Meghan Coyle:

Welcome back to Smart Money, Sally.

Sally French:

Thanks again for having me. It's always a joy to be here.

Meghan Coyle:

Are you going anywhere for the holidays?

Sally French:

I follow my perfect holiday tradition, which is to not go anywhere. I stay at home and do the staycation thing. Holiday travel entails so much chaos, so what my family does is sort of a belated thing. We're getting together in February, which is far out from any potential holiday chaos. In fact, the last time my mom did try to fly in to visit me, she got caught up in that giant Southwest meltdown, so I say just avoid it all and not travel.

Meghan Coyle:

Oh no, that's terrible, the one time you try to have your mom come for Thanksgiving and her plans were foiled. I'm so sorry, Sally.

Sally French:

It was tough to see, but most people do travel for the holidays and that's what we're here to talk about. But before we dive in, I want to know, what are you doing, Meghan?

Meghan Coyle:

I am actually the opposite of you and I fly for the holidays every year. I'm from the East Coast right outside of Washington, DC. I've been going back every year because my family has some traditions that I would hate to miss. For example, we do a turkey trot, one of those races, on Thanksgiving.

Sally French:

You’ve got to do that.

Meghan Coyle:

Oh yeah, we've been doing ours for 20 years. I can't miss it now. You know what I mean?

Sally French:

And is it worth fighting the airport crowds to do the turkey trot?

Meghan Coyle:

I think it's so worth it. Knocking on wood, but I've never had a huge meltdown or disaster happen during my holiday travels. And I try to be very smart about booking it in a way that gives me a lot of time and a way to avoid a lot of crowds. So far so good.

Sally French:

Okay, so one, let's knock on wood, and then two, I want to know your secrets because every time I travel for the holidays, I do get stuck in chaos. So you tell me how you manage to avoid it.

Meghan Coyle:

My biggest tip is just trying to extend the holiday as much as possible. It makes it a little bit easier because I really love spending time with my family, especially my sisters. I'll often stay for Thanksgiving for a week or 10 days and then might add on another little trip after the holidays. I love that sweet spot in between Thanksgiving and Christmas when a lot of people aren't flying because they're about to fly for the holidays. Traveling the first week in December is incredible.

Sally French:

That is such a good tip. And at NerdWallet, I've actually done a lot of research around the best and worst days to fly. And it's so great that you say you just completely extend the holidays because in some ways, it sounds like you're not really even traveling during the holidays, you're traveling in the weeks after, which is such a smart move. By almost all metrics, the Sunday after Thanksgiving is pretty much the worst day of not just the holiday season but the entire year to fly.

In fact, in most of the past few years, the exception being 2020 because we all know what happened in 2020, the Sunday after Thanksgiving is the busiest day to fly of the entire year. Of course, busiest day can also equate to most expensive, also equates to most stressful, I would like to say. And that's based on TSA passenger data. We see similar trends traveling up close around Christmas as well. I think your idea of traveling actually as far away from the holidays as possible is really smart.

Meghan Coyle:

And there's another trick too, which is you either fly really, really far away from the holiday or you fly on the holiday itself. Can you tell me about what you've seen in terms of how many people are at the airport on Thanksgiving or on Christmas?

Sally French:

NerdWallet looked at the seven days before and after both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Both Christmas Day itself and Thanksgiving Day itself were one of the lowest days of the year, but then also of that period, for sure, the lightest day to travel. So especially if you're in a situation where you're trying to get to Thanksgiving dinner, can you fly out early that morning? And in fact, morning flights, I know they're brutal, no one wants to wake up early, but morning flights are less likely to be canceled, so just hop on the plane that day and you'll get to your Thanksgiving dinner in time.

Meghan Coyle:

Sally, you've looked at all of this data. How busy are you expecting this holiday season to be really?

Sally French:

Truly, it's supposed to be busy. We've seen so many record-breaking crowds already in 2024, which is just a sign that if a lot of people were traveling for the summer, that also means a lot of people are going to travel for the holidays. It's just a sign that people are back and ready to travel. Earlier this summer, the US airports set all sorts of new passenger highs. On July 7th, which was the Sunday after the 4th of July holiday, we saw a new all-time record of passengers screened at the airport on a single day. In fact, not only did we see a record, but we saw a new big milestone crossed, more than 3 million people passed through TSA checkpoints on that day alone. And that's not all. There's been all sorts of other records.

We saw about a dozen other days in 2024 that had already outpaced any other record-setting days before this year, so expect it to be big. The other reason why I have a feeling that it's going to be big is that in general, holiday travel just is busier than summer travel. A lot of it is because it's just consolidated down to one day. Thanksgiving is the same day every year versus you could take your summer vacation any week in July or August. Prior to 2024, the busiest day for US airports was November 26th, 2023. That was, you guessed it, the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We saw 2.9 million travelers go through security checkpoints. I really feel like we're once again going to cross that 3 million threshold for the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2024.

Meghan Coyle:

Oh boy, I'm getting nervous about all this already. Maybe I need to rethink my plans.

Sally French:

As long as you travel for that turkey trot not on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, I'm optimistic for you, Meghan.

Meghan Coyle:

Okay, good. So for other people like me who are just getting a little nervous thinking about this data, when should they start looking to book? How urgent is it to book these holiday flights early?

Sally French:

It's such a good point. It's not just about not booking on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, but it's about booking those flights at the right time. Sometimes booking way too early means that you're paying a much higher price because airlines take advantage of those eager beavers. One thing though to note is that we've seen increasingly more airlines become flexible in terms of change and cancellation policies. Typically, you do have to pay a higher price point to make it a fully refundable flight, but we see increasingly more airlines do this thing.

You can book a flight and if you see the price drop, there are no longer change fees, so you can just change to that other flight at no additional cost. Typically, they give you the fare difference in the form of some sort of flight credit. And these flight credits do seem to have some drawbacks like they typically have a one or two-year expiration date. So just pay attention to that. But if you know you're flying home for the holidays and you're flying on an airline that you otherwise fly during the year, it can be smart to just book now and then rebook again if the prices drop.

Of course, if you do this strategy, make sure that your airline actually lets you do this. Make sure that you can get travel credits. One of the best ones is Southwest. They let you book now, you get a travel credit for the fare difference if prices drop. What I love about Southwest in particular is that their fare credits do not expire.

Meghan Coyle:

And I just want to make sure everyone is clear that you don't automatically get a credit if the Southwest flight price drops. You do have to cancel it and then you'll get the fare credit and then you'll have to rebook it. Is that right?

Sally French:

Yes, great point. I'm glad you pointed that out. It's not automatic. So you do have to continuously monitor. The good news is that there are so many tools that actually make it really easy to monitor. So this is a practice I do for holiday travel or travel anytime during the year is I use Google Flights. I'll book a flight, let's say it's on Southwest, which is actually newly on Google Flights, good news.

I'll book a flight that I know I'm comfortable paying for, it's maybe a flight I need to take, but I'll still go on Google Flights, I'll enter in that exact flight route, and then I'll sign up for alerts. If that flight fare drops, then Google Flights actually alerts me and then I can go into Southwest and rebook literally the same flight and get that fare credit.

Meghan Coyle:

I do this all the time. What I'm hearing is, while you might want to start looking for holiday flights, you might not find the exact cheapest price right now, but if you give yourself some flexibility and buy the type of fare that is refundable, then you might be able to, one, lock in the flight you want and possibly rebook it if it ends up getting cheaper.

Sally French:

I really think that's the best strategy.

Meghan Coyle:

So what can we expect in terms of airline reliability this year? Have we had any major meltdowns and are there airlines that people should avoid or should look at trying to fly during the holidays?

Sally French:

Oh, have we had any major meltdowns? Well, we, I think, all remember the recent Delta major meltdown that was sort of tied to the major CrowdStrike outage, which affected not just airlines but all sorts of businesses. What's funny though is that Delta actually ranks very well in terms of airline reliability. A lot of these issues will strike any airline. At the top of the show, we talked about how my mom got caught up in the Southwest meltdown, but they're actually this year one of the top three most reliable airlines.

Last 4th of July I got caught up in the United meltdown. They're also one of the top three most reliable airlines. So what's really tricky is that it seems like no airline is immune to having some sort of wild meltdown. That said, there is generally good news. In the first four months of 2024, 78.86% of aircraft in the US arrived on time. That's about a 2% increase from the same period in 2023. So you're looking at basically a three-quarters percent chance that your aircraft is going to arrive on time. Of course, it doesn't feel great when you're impacted by this major meltdown.

Meghan Coyle:

We also can't talk about airline reliability without talking about Boeing. Their 737 MAX 8 planes have been plagued with issues. So I'm curious, for people who haven't flown a lot, maybe they only fly for the holidays, should they still be worried about this airplane and what are some things they can do to check what type of plane they're on?

Sally French:

One of the things I do want to preface this with is to remind people that flying is among the safest ways to travel. It's safer than driving. But I do know, especially if you're a first-time traveler or you just don't travel very often, even people who do travel often do have anxiety about getting on airplanes. If you're not someone who wants to get on a 737 MAX 8 aircraft, there is an easy way to find out what your aircraft is actually going to be.

I mentioned earlier Google Flights. It's a great tool for tracking flight prices, also a great tool for finding out what your aircraft is. When you're searching for a flight and you use a travel search engine like Google Flights, most of those, Google Flights being one of them, will actually show the exact airplane model listed for each flight segment. If you're not someone who wants to get on a MAX 8, just don't book that flight.

Meghan Coyle:

Besides checking the types of planes, what are some things people can do to avoid some of the risks of getting caught in a meltdown or in a spiral of delays and cancellations? What are some things you can do at the booking stage that could help?

Sally French:

We sort of talked about some of these, but I think it's really, really worth spelling out because you can avoid a lot of flight issues by just booking smarter. My number one tip is to book that first flight out. I know it is so brutal waking up at 4:00 AM when you think you're going on vacation, that's not the most relaxing thing to do, but book that first flight out if possible. The reason being is that the number one cause of delay is actually the incoming aircraft was late. If you're booking that first flight out, then that incoming aircraft is probably already going to be there because it landed from the night before, it's just been parked there.

I was just on a flight that they said was delayed because they didn't have enough cleaners to clean it. So if you're that first early morning flight, you know it's already going to be clean. We also talked about avoiding layovers. This is just simply to avoid that domino effect because your first flight might be delayed. Even if your second flight is on time, that first flight is delayed and you miss it, then you miss that second flight. The best way to avoid that is just to avoid that layover. Of course, I do know that layovers are inevitable, which is why I always recommend leaving enough time between layovers. I know it's so brutal to be on a trip and you find that half your day is just spent in an airport waiting for your next flight, but it's so much better than having to actually miss that flight entirely.

I will say this is where lounge access comes in pretty clutch. I was actually just in Europe and I had a layover in London Heathrow. I was going from Paris back home to the U.S., and London Heathrow Airport is brutal. Their security lines are long. You have to take buses between terminals. It takes so long to get around. I had a seven-hour layover, which also felt brutal. I ended up having about four hours in the lounge when all was said and done, which maybe was a little bit too long, but it was actually super relaxing to be able to take a shower there and eat some food. So go ahead and try to pursue that lounge access. It makes those long layovers not too bad.

Meghan Coyle:

Lounges are a great way to deal with the crowds at the airport, whether you have a layover or not. Sometimes you can go to the lounge even before you take off. What are some other things you can do to kind of speed up your time at the airport?

Sally French:

If you travel often, definitely apply for TSA PreCheck. There is a fee to apply for TSA PreCheck, but if you travel enough, you can split that fee across all of your flights. Not only do you typically get in a faster line, but you don't have to take out your laptop, you don't have to take off your shoes. And I find as soon as I take off my laptop, my bag has just exploded everywhere and all my cords and everything is gone. So I love that seamlessness of being able to send my bag through without taking everything out.

Meghan Coyle:

I'm chatting with Sam next week about how to save on flights and hotels without using points like your credit card points or your airline miles. But let's talk about travel rewards for a second. Is using points for holiday flights or hotel stays a good idea?

Sally French:

Yes, and so many of us have built up point balances. And I talk to so many people who almost tout how many points they have. They'll say, "I have a million points. Isn't this so great?" And I say, "No, you should spend down your points." And holiday travel is one of the best times to spend down points, especially if you are booking with a program that has a fixed award chart. What I mean by that is that all points programs operate differently. Some sort of tie their points rates to cash prices. So if cash prices are high, points rates are high. But some keep it simple and they'll just have an award chart where they'll just say, "This room is always X points."

Or sometimes they'll break it out into maybe three tiers, like an off-peak, standard, and a peak. And of course, you can expect holiday travel to almost always be in that peak season. What's crazy about holiday travel is it can be almost this peak, peak price. If you're booking a room on the absolute most expensive day, and I'm talking about a room in Times Square on New Year's Eve, that is the most expensive day that you can go out of almost the entire year, if you can book that rate through an awards chart, even if it's a peak price, you know you're getting a deal booking on points.

Meghan Coyle:

Yeah, I actually was able to find one of these peak, peak deals that you're talking about for the holidays, so I'm super jazzed about it. I'm flying from Washington, DC, to Wilmington, North Carolina, to go visit my dad. I think it's a one-hour flight. It is something so short. And tell me why the prices around Thanksgiving were like $250 or $300 for a one-way one-hour flight. But I was able to get a great points deal where it's less than 10,000 points. I think it's 6,000 points or something for a $250 flight. So I'm really excited about that.

Sally French:

Wow. Amazing find and that's why you work at NerdWallet, Meghan.

Meghan Coyle:

That's right. Sally French, our travel guru, thanks so much for your help today and early happy holidays.

Sally French:

Happy holidays to you.

Meghan Coyle:

Sean, it sounds like it's going to be another super busy record-setting travel season, but around this time, I always think about that ending scene in Love Actually. It's a montage of all these people reuniting with their families and friends at the airport. And Hugh Grant says, "If you look for it, love actually is all around." So I try to keep that in mind that everyone traveling for the holidays are traveling for love, even if that means it makes everything a little slower.

Sean Pyles:

That is very sweet. And this is the time where I admit I've never seen Love Actually, but maybe this holiday season I will finally watch it.

Meghan Coyle:

You have to.

Sean Pyles:

But I have to say, I am glad that you've had good luck with your holiday travels, although I am personally very grateful that I don't have to travel much around the holidays. My mom recently moved from Florida to the Portland area, which makes spending the holidays together much easier, and that is certainly something that I'm grateful for. That said, if I ever do have to travel around the holidays, I'll probably take a page out of your book and extend the trip so I can avoid the worst of the crowds.

Meghan Coyle:

That's a good call. There definitely are ways to make all of this travel planning less painful and more fun, and we'll have more advice on that as we go along in this series.

Sean Pyles:

All right. Well, Meghan, tell us what's coming up in episode two.

Meghan Coyle:

Next week, we're talking with our nerdy colleague Sam Kemmis, and he's going to tell us all about how to save money on holiday travel without using points, like where to look for airfare and hotel deals and the very best times to travel around those special days.

Sam Kemmis:

Because changing and canceling flights for most airlines is a lot easier now than it used to be and there aren't as many change and cancellation fees, that actually is a pretty good strategy.

Meghan Coyle:

For now, that's all we have for this episode. Do you have a money question of your own? Turn to the Nerds and call or text us at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-N-E-R-D. You can also email us at [email protected]. And remember, you can follow the show on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeartRadio to automatically download new episodes.

Sean Pyles:

This episode was produced by Tess Vigeland. I helped with editing. Claire Tsosie helped with fact-checking. And a big thank you to NerdWallet's editors for all their help.

Meghan Coyle:

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

Sean Pyles: