Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin - 5 Ways To Save on Holiday Travel

Episode Date: December 8, 2023

An estimated 160 million Americans are planning to travel for the holidays. If you're one of them, here are five ways you can save on one of the busiest— and most expensive— travel times of the year.  Want to start investing, but don't know where to begin? Go to moneyassistant.com and meet Magnifi, your AI money assistant, designed to help you make a plan for your financial goals. Want one-on-one money coaching from Nicole? Book a meeting with her here: intro.co/moneynewsnetwork 

Money rehabbers, you get it. When you're trying to have it all, you end up doing a lot of juggling. You have to balance your work, your friends, and everything in between. So when it comes to your finances, the last thing you need is more juggling. That's where Bank of America steps in. With Bank of America, you can manage your banking, borrowing, and even investing all in one place. Their digital tools bring everything together under one roof, giving you a clear view of your finances whenever you need it. Plus, with Bank of America's wealth of expert guidance available at any time, you can feel confident that your

money is working as hard as you do. So why overcomplicate your money? Keep it simple with Bank of America, your one-stop shop for everything you need today and the goals you're working toward tomorrow. To get started, visit bofa.com slash newprosmedia. That's b-o-f-a dot com slash n-e-w pros p-r-o-s media. bfa.com slash newprosmedia. I'm Nicole Lappin, the only financial expert you don't need a it's time for some money rehab. An estimated 160 million Americans are planning on traveling for the holidays, and I'm assuming that you are maybe one of them. If you are, here are five ways you can save on one of the busiest and most expensive travel times of the year. Number one, expensive travel times of the year. Number one, know what to ask for if your flight is delayed or canceled. I can't even tell you how much this tip can change the game when you travel. Here's what I want you to do right now, like this very second. Google airline customer service

dashboard. I'll wait. I'll also link it in the episode description. What you'll see is a list of all the major airlines and what commitments they've made to the Department of Transportation in terms of compensation for delays and cancellations. You need to have this cheat sheet handy when you travel because the airlines won't always volunteer this information. I can personally vouch for this being a major life hack. Earlier this year, I had a red eye from New York to LA and my flight was delayed 10 hours, aka I'd have to sleep in the airport. And all the airline offered me was a $15 meal voucher. But I sprinted to the customer service desk and literally pulled up the airline customer

service dashboard and found that the airline was actually obligated to give me the meal voucher plus a hotel voucher plus a voucher for transportation to the hotel. I know that travel issues can come with a whole slew of mental and emotional costs, but at least it doesn't have to also include financial ones. least it doesn't have to also include financial ones. Number two, get to your destination one ticket at a time and save. If you're planning on flying, before you add a round-trip flight to your cart, do a little cost comparison with one-way ticket prices. Sometimes it's cheaper to fly outbound and return on two different airlines than round-trip on the same airline. Just remember that if you're

flying internationally and you'll have two one-way flights, you probably won't be able to check in for your flight online because flying one way into a foreign country is often flagged by immigration in most places. It's really no biggie so long as you do have a return flight, but be sure to leave some extra time to check in at the airport. Number three, benefit from last-minute price drops. If you're flying Delta, there's a secret way to take advantage of last-minute deals. It takes a couple of steps, but it is totally worth it. First, go to Google Flights and then find the exact flight you're already booked on. Then toggle to track prices so that if the price for your flight goes down,

you'll get a notification. If the price does drop, then head to Delta's website or app and go to the itinerary for your flight that you're already booked on and then hit the modify flight button. After that, you'll be prompted to search for a new flight that you want to change to. And here's the trick. Find the exact flight you're already booked on. There you'll see the option to book the flight, but instead of seeing a new price tag, you'll have the option to select an e-credit for the difference in fare from what you paid and the current price for your flight. Number four, schedule your ride in advance. If you're planning on taking an Uber or a Lyft to the airport, you can schedule the ride

in advance on the app up to 30 days before the trip. When you schedule the ride, you'll lock in the price right then and there, which is often cheaper than if you request a ride right when you need it, especially when there's such high demand for rides over the holidays and surge pricing. Plus, day of, you can always check in and see what the rate is. And if it's lower than what you reserved, you can always cancel the trip and you can order a car just the normal on the flyway. It's basically just insurance for a lower rate. Number five, ship the trip. If you're bringing gifts with you when you travel, consider shipping your gifts to your final destination ahead of time. The price of shipping a big old box is often less than checking an extra bag. Plus, TSA is totally allowed to do a thorough inspection of

all of your belongings, which means that they can and will unwrap any presents you have perfectly packaged in your bag. So let's skip that mess and stress, right? For today's tip, you can take straight to the bank. If you've been using a credit card with awesome travel perks all year round, now is the time to use those reward points. I see people all the time have this hoarder mentality when it comes to points. They save up their points for some special trip like a just-married or just-divorced vacation. But credit cards can change the value of their points at any time, and so the value of your points can drop overnight. That's why you should use your points when you need them. That's what they're there for. Money Rehab is a production

of Money News Network. I'm your host, Nicole Lappin. Money Rehab's executive producer is Morgan Lavoie. Our researcher is Emily Holmes. Do you need some money rehab? And let's be honest, we all do. So email us your money questions, moneyrehab at moneynewsnetwork.com to potentially have your questions answered on the show or even have a one-on-one intervention with me. And follow us on Instagram at moneynews and TikTok at moneynewsnetwork for exclusive video content. And lastly, thank you. No, seriously, thank you.

Thank you for listening and for investing in yourself, which is the most important investment you can make.