NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast - Travel-Hack the Holidays

Episode Date: November 12, 2018

Want to make holiday travel a little less hectic? Dayana and Sean get the scoop from NerdWallet’s travel-hacking expert, Joe Cortez, to give you the insider tips to do just that. Learn how to cut lines, make the most of your Priority Pass and more.

Hello, and welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast, where we answer your real-world money questions in 15 minutes or less. I'm your host, Sean Piles, and joining me is my co-host, Dayana Yochum. So we get a lot of questions about travel rewards cards, which ones offer the best sign-up bonuses, which ones make it easy to earn points and miles. So today's topic is about how to make the most of those rewards during a busy travel season, like the one we're coming into right now. Oh boy. Yeah. Holiday travel is consistently the worst from the cost of flights to the hassle of crowds and layovers and cancellations, it just goes on and on, and I try to avoid it at all costs.

I actually typically travel before or after the holidays just to avoid this whole mess. But that's not an option for everyone. Fortunately, we have just the guy who can help those of us who are traveling on the holidays. It's our in-house travel hacking expert, Joe Cortez. We're going to talk with Joe about how you can cut in line, get the flights you want, and rake in the perks to help you escape having to deal with the Hawaii poloi. Let's give him a call. Oh wait, one quick thing before we dive into our convo with Joe, an editorial and advertiser disclosure. We're going to talk about specific credit cards and

their perks in this episode. NerdWallet has partnerships with some credit card issuers, but these partners had no influence on our discussion. We maintain editorial integrity in our content, meaning that what you're about to hear is just our nerdy opinion. And note that card perks may change over time, so check your terms and conditions for current details. All right, now that we're through that, let's carry on with the show. Hey, Joe. Welcome to the show. Thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me. Looking forward to talking about travel. Sure thing. Well, let's dive into the questions, and let's start with the big one here. How can we use our travel credit card points to get the cheapest flight

without a 13-hour layover in Denver. Or Atlanta, or Chicago, or the various other layover airports we've all become familiar with. Or Dallas, or Los Angeles, or San Francisco, or Salt Lake City. All fine airports, mind you, but I understand. You don't want to have that long layover if you don't have to. The short answer is, do your homework before you book a flight. In some situations, your airline miles will be just enough to get you to where you want to go. But in some situations, cashback may be a better option because you get to control when you fly, where you fly, and how much you actually want to spend out of pocket on your trip. And so by cashback, you mean basically use your own cashback card and then divert, use that cash to buy your ticket.

Is that what you're saying? Okay. Yes, absolutely. Use the cashback on your cashback card to pay for the cost of the ticket unless airline miles work for you. So what do you need to do before you transfer any miles from any flexible points programs you have? Go to your airline programs,

count up your airline miles that you may already be earning and see where it aligns. Does a flight align in your budget with the miles that you have to fly to where you want to go? If it doesn't, start looking at the cash back you've earned on cash back credit cards. Got it. And do tricks like booking on a Tuesday apply when you're using your reward points? Not necessarily. Generally speaking, when you're using your reward points,

you want to book super early or super last minute because airlines will open up their award space at the very beginning when they announce a flight, when they've got it going, because they want to know how many they can control the inventory at that point. Or they open it up at the very end because it's unprofitable for them to fly an empty airplane. So they want to get as many bodies as they can, and that's when they'll open up the most award space. When you're looking for these flights, when you're looking for these holiday getaways, book super early or book super late. Even though you may pay closing costs for booking super late, which can add $80 or more to your ticket, it's still better than paying $400 or $500 to go cross-country. Yep. Yep. So it's still a deal.

All right, Joe, one of the major headaches of holiday travel, well, two, are cancellations and crowds. How could my credit card help me deal, you know, besides using it to open a tab at the bar? This actually happened to me, believe it or not, on one of my most recent trips. I was stuck at the airport because weather delayed one of my flights, and I would have completely missed my connecting flight to get home back to Charlotte. So my options are, number one, either take the next flight or two, try to get another flight and get the airline to refund me for the money I've already spent because they can't accommodate me. Now, if I'd booked this

trip with a card that offered travel insurance benefits, I would have been room for the night or meals, or yes, even possibly that libation that went with your meal to make the whole layover experience a little easier to go. So you do have options. And by understanding the fine print of your credit card with the travel insurance, that's one very, very easy way you can get a little extra help during your delay. Well, what if my wait is six hours? That's still a long time to be sitting at an airport terminal waiting and waiting for my flight to come or not come. Can't these cards get us into airport lounges as well? Well, I've got some very good news for you. You don't have to go through a velvet rope and show a bouncer three forms of ID to get into an airport lounge.

That's the good news for you. With many credit cards, many premium credit cards like the J. Sapphire Reserve or the Platinum card from American Express, one of the better cards for this benefit because you get access to the Centurion lounges, whether you're coming or going from the airport. You get access to several other lounges through Priority Pass, and you also get access to Delta Sky Club lounges when you're flying on Delta flights. So, you know, even though it does come with a high price tag, if you fly often and want to get away from the craziness of the terminal, that might be your best bet to get away, get a free libation, have somewhere quiet to sit and recharge before you board your next flight. I want to travel like the fancy people. They get to go into those private rooms.

And wow, that sounds pretty good to me. All right. So we've made our flight plans. Then we discover that every place in town is already booked up. What are our options? Besides, you know, sleeping in a rental car or on Sean's floor with his cat and his dog and his gecko. Having done one of those two things, I can tell you it's not pleasant. My cat is very friendly.

To prevent you from doing one of those two things, there are a couple things you can do in order to make sure you always have room no matter what. Number one, there's several apps that I always have on my phone. One of them is Hotel Tonight. They specialize in last minute hotel rooms. So even if you don't think you can get a room in town, try opening up that app and see what's available. Many times you can get, you know, one or two nights very, very quickly, though it may come at a premium. That being said, your other option is through your credit cards, you may already have access to concierge service who can help you find the best hotels, the best rooms available for you in your budget. So if you're not sure what's available to you, or you're not seeing anything

that works in several of these different apps, call the concierge number on the back of your credit card and see what they can do to help you. In many situations, they're more than willing to help you with those last minute accommodations and make sure you're not stuck out in the rain somewhere. All right. Good to know. Okay, Joe. So there's really only one last holiday travel headache I'm wondering about, and that is children. Is there a card perk that can help me keep the unruly ones at bay when I'm going through the airport? So I think one of my favorite perks for families is Priority Pass. It comes with several of the cards we've mentioned here. It also comes with other cards we haven't mentioned here. On NerdWallet, you can find a whole list of cards of Priority Pass and all the benefits Priority Pass

has to offer you. But I think my favorite one for families in particular, outside of lounge access, are the restaurant discounts it gives. So for instance, many restaurants partner with Priority Pass to give you discounts just in case the lounge is full, not accepting Priority Pass members. So all you do is you show up to the restaurant, show your Priority Pass, say you'd like to use your benefit, and immediately you get a credit for food and beverage there. One of the easiest ways to placate little ones, let them have a snack, let them relax a little bit, sit down, and enjoy some fries and a cheeseburger. Nothing wrong with that. You can do that on the cheap with priority pass. Another thing to consider as well, a lot of the lounges that I mentioned with those premium cards now offer kids rooms and family play

areas inside the lounge. So it's not to disturb other passengers. So wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I just was traveling with the fancy people. So I didn't have to have your kids. You can still travel with the fancy people. Please travel with the fancy people, so I didn't have to have your kids calling all over me. You can still travel with the fancy people. Please travel with the fancy people. In your situation, I recommend the Centurion Lounge because they are very, very fancy, and I think you'll find a lot of fancy people in there. But do they let their kids play in there?

No, I'm just joking. But you were saying that these have separate play areas for kids. Yes, a lot of the lounges now do have separate play areas for kids and families so that you're not disturbing everyone in the lounge. Plus, it also comes with the free snacks, free beverages, so that you can let your kids get a little bit of that energy before they board their next flight, especially if it's going to be a long, long flight. Yeah. So I'm going to get a drink and a pair of headphones and hope someone keeps their kids away from me. Well, this is some excellent advice.

Thank you so much, Joe. I have learned a lot. Well, thank you for having me. It's been certainly my pleasure. Yeah, we'll meet you at the airport lounge. First drinks on me. All right. I won't say no.

Thanks, Joe. I may actually enjoy traveling this holiday season. What about you, Sean? Have we changed your mind? I think I'm going to stay at home with my cat and my dog and my gecko and my boyfriend. But I hope you enjoy your VIP access to the airport lounge. I will. Thank you very much.

And that's it for today. You can get more on this at nerdwallet.com slash podcast. Do you have a money question of your own? You can text us or call us at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD. Or you can email us at podcast at nerdwallet.com. And finally, a brief disclaimer courtesy of the NerdWallet legal team. Your questions are answered by knowledgeable and talented finance writers,

but we are not financial or investment advisors. This nerdy info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes. And with that said, keep it nerdy.