Money Monday: Save Money on Travel

Source: R1 Digital / other

It’s July and we’re in the thick of summertime plans and commitments. Maybe you’ve been invited for a quick getaway, or you’ve decided to work in a change of scenery at the last minute. Our money expert J i ni Thornton is joining us to talk about ways to save money on travel even when you don’t have plenty of time to plan.

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GUMEC:

Will people be reimbursed for the flights that have been cancelled or delays?

J i ni Thornton:

It depends upon the situation here. So if your flight was canceled or delayed and you canceled the second part of your trip or your or you cancelled your trip, you will get reimbursed. If you’re cancelled. Now, if you want to get rebooked, if you want to get rebooked now, it depends upon why your flight is cancelled. If you will get reimbursed or not. So what I mean by that, if it’s controllable like maintenance crew scheduling issues. You will get some sort of compensation that could be a meal or that could be a hotel room if it’s controllable by the airline. If it’s not controllable by the airline, like the situation that we’ve had, what they’re essentially saying is you may not be compensated for your inconvenience, you might not be. So if it were me, you certainly can F ile your own complaint. I’ve done that before and maybe you’ll get miles , but you think about it, this technically is beyond their control. So there’s not going to be a lot of money moving around here right now.

GUMEC:

So what can our listeners do to keep the money in their pockets when making last-minute travel plans?

J i ni Thornton:

Well, it’s really. It’s really about being flexible, you know, right now it’s really about being flexible and knowing when you’re knowing your budget. Of course, that’s first and foremost we got to start with our budget. What can we afford to do easily? Should we be flying? Should we be driving?

And then secondly, Erica is we want to make sure we’re being mindful of the dates. It’s cheapest to fly on Tuesdays and Fridays, it’s cheapest. It’s most expensive to fly on Sundays and Mondays domestically. So if you can be flexible in your travel dates, you can absolutely save some money. Really important that you know that.

GUMEC:

How do we go about saving money when we booking flights and hotels like and maybe it’s not people who travel all the time, but they’re like, OK, I’m going to Jamaica.

J i ni Thornton:

Right. Even now internationally, let’s talk about that Wednesdays and Saturdays are the cheapest days to fly internationally. No question about that. So be very, very mindful of that now. When it comes to hotels, same thing you want to just kind of pay attention be as flexible as you can.  And be open. Obviously we want to stay someplace clean and safe and amazing, but maybe be open to something a little different where you haven’t stayed before.

And then last try this summer travel season, the high season ends at the end of August. If you could wait a little bit post all this fun summer travel time, you might be able to save a little bit more money than to.

GUMEC:

All right, So what about eating out and exploring the town during vacation? You know, some people don’t really know how to do that. And then you go and you just sit in hotel and you really don’t get the full experience O f the city that you’ve gone to.

J i ni Thornton:

Well, you know, Eric, I’m glad you’re asking about that because we spent so much time focused on how we’re going to get there. We can spend a lot of money once we get there. So it’s a couple of things. #1, there’s a great website called City Pass. Again, city pass, it can help you get discounts on the main attractions, amusement parks, aquariums , R estaurants, like all the things that you want to do when you get to a city. So it’s really important that we do that. Another thing that we need to do, Erica, is we need to follow the places that we go on social media because a lot of times they’re offering discounts. So you may be able to get some coupon codes discount codes just by following your favorite attraction. The place that you want to go to on social media and look for those discounts.

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