Save on trip costs during the holidays with travel credit cards

The holidays are an especially hectic time to travel, thanks to uncertain weather conditions and increased passenger volume. In addition, expensive flights and other travel expenses can overload your monthly budget in your quest to visit loved ones.

However, you can arm yourself with the knowledge you need — including how to lower trip costs with travel credit cards — to successfully navigate the scramble of the holiday travel season.

We typically recommend booking flights a few months in advance. This strategy often gives you a nice balance of saving money and giving you peace of mind if certain routes tend to sell out.

Flights usually become more expensive as the departure date approaches due to high ticket demand. Flights on specific days around holidays are especially popular because people want to arrive before the holiday and leave after.

If that’s your plan, consider searching for flights even further out than a few months — potentially up to a year. It doesn’t hurt to check flight prices over time for your preferred days and routes, and using the Google Flights tracking tool or another resource can help automate the process.

You can also book refundable flights or flights with no change fees early. Then, you can adjust or possibly rebook your flights if you find better prices.

For example, Southwest Airlines makes changing or canceling flights easy on any of its fare options. There are no change or cancellation fees with Southwest, so you can cancel and rebook flights if there’s a new Southwest deal or prices go down.

Note: Booking early doesn’t guarantee the best flight prices. In some scenarios, booking at the last minute could net you excellent flight deals. However, it depends on the situation and various factors, including your specific itinerary, the weather, and current ticket demand.

Flying on the actual holidays could save you money since the days before and after tend to be busier. That could include flying on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, or Christmas Day. One of the TSA’s busiest days in 2021, 2022, and 2023 was the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

Using credit card rewards can cover nearly the entire cost of your holiday flights. We recommend using travel rewards to offset trip expenses because you can easily incorporate credit cards into your daily routine.

You don’t have to change your spending habits; simply switch your everyday purchases onto credit cards and make sure you pay off your balance each month (automatic payments are great for this). This approach keeps your spending the same while netting you valuable points and miles.

Here are some of our recommended travel credit cards:

Read our full review of the Chase Sapphire Preferred

Read our full review of the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

Read our full review of the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card

Read our full review of the American Express Gold Card

Many major airlines offer sales during the winter, which conveniently coincides with holiday travel dates. You can typically find these deals by searching online for the name of your preferred airline and “flight deals.”

Note that some discounted flights may require an advanced purchase of at least 21 days. You might also have to complete your bookings within a certain date range.

Check out flight deals from:

• American Airlines

• Delta

• Southwest Airlines

• United

Many credit cards provide different types of built-in coverage when you use your card to pay for travel arrangements, such as flights and hotel stays. These benefits can be handy in place of or in addition to a separate travel insurance plan.

Here are some important types of credit card travel insurance to keep in mind as you research and compare different cards (actual terms and conditions for each benefit can vary by card):

• Baggage delay insurance: Reimburses you for emergency items purchased, such as toiletries and clothing, if your baggage is delayed.

• Lost luggage reimbursement: Reimburses you up to a certain amount to repair or replace baggage that’s been lost, damaged, or stolen on a trip.

• Emergency evacuation and transportation: Covers emergency evacuation and transportation expenses up to a certain amount if you’re injured or ill while traveling and require emergency evacuation.

• Emergency medical and dental: Reimburses you for emergency medical or dental treatment up to a certain amount if you’re sick or accidentally injured while traveling.

• Travel accident insurance: Provides up to a certain amount for accidents while traveling, which could include loss of speech, loss of hearing, loss of sight, and more.

• Trip cancellation and interruption insurance: Reimburse you for eligible travel expenses if your trip is canceled or interrupted for eligible reasons.

• Trip delay reimbursement: Reimburses you up to a certain amount for eligible trip delays.

• Auto rental collision damage waiver: Covers damages caused by theft or collision up to a certain amount for rental cars.

• Purchase protection: Provides up to a certain amount to repair or replace a new purchase (usually within 120 days of purchase) if it’s stolen, damaged, or unrecoverable.

• Extended warranty protection: Extends eligible original warranties by one additional year. This could help protect cell phones, laptops, and other items you might travel with.

• Cell phone protection: Covers damage to or theft of eligible cell phones. You typically have to pay your wireless phone bill with a card that has this benefit to receive this protection.

Note: The specific name of a travel or protection benefit could vary depending on the card or card issuer. For example, one card could have “Lost Luggage Reimbursement” while another has a “Baggage Insurance Plan.” In most cases, they’re simply different names with similar coverage.

The U.S. Department of Transportation provides an overview of your travel rights regarding these subjects:

• Canceled or significantly changed flights: You’re entitled to a refund if your flight is canceled or significantly changed and you don’t accept alternative transportation or travel credits if offered. Significant changes include more than three hours difference for domestic flights and more than six hours for international flights. They also include airport changes, increasing your connections, downgrading your service class, and providing less accessibility with airport or plane changes.

• Significantly delayed baggage return: You’re entitled to a refund of a checked bag fee if you’ve filed a mishandled baggage report and your baggage isn’t delivered within 12 hours of your domestic flight arriving at the gate or 15 to 30 hours of your international flight arriving at the gate, depending on the flight length.

• Extra services not provided: You’re entitled to a refund of any extra services you pay for — including internet, seat selection, and inflight entertainment — if you don’t receive that service.

Airlines are required to automatically issue refunds without passengers having to request them. For credit card payments, refunds must be issued within seven business days of when they’re due and within 20 calendar days for other payment methods.

Refunds must be provided in cash or the original payment method used. Vouchers and travel credits can’t be used as substitutes unless you accept them as alternative compensation. Refunds must be provided in full, including government-imposed taxes and fees and airline fees, minus any transportation already used.

Note: Europe has different air passenger rights that apply if you’re flying within European Union (EU) countries, arriving to the EU from outside the EU on an EU-operated airline, departing from the EU, or departing from the EU to a non-EU country.

TSA rules don’t typically change that often, but it doesn’t hurt to pull up the TSA website and quickly review what you can bring.

The general liquid rule is that carry-on bags can have one quart-sized, resealable bag with 3.4 ounces or smaller containers. Larger containers must go in checked bags.

Portable chargers or power banks with lithium-ion batteries must go in carry-on bags.

There are hundreds of different travel apps that could make sense to add to your phone, but we recommend starting with the essentials, including:

• Airline apps: Use the Delta, Southwest, American, United, and other airline apps to stay up to date on your flights. Remember to turn on notifications for alerts about gate changes, flight cancellations, delays, and other important information.

• Hotel apps: You can manage your stays with the Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott Bonvoy, IHG, and other hotel apps. The Airbnb and VRBO apps make sense if you use those platforms.

• Finance apps: Add your banking apps, such as Chase and Bank of America, to easily manage your finances while away from home.

• Navigation apps: Google Maps is an excellent app for navigating the world. However, you might also want other navigation apps in certain countries where Google Maps isn’t used or is used less. For example, Naver and KakaoMap are better for directions in South Korea.

• Transportation apps: Download rideshare and other apps, including Uber, if you plan to use them on your travels.

• Others: It depends on where you plan to spend the holidays, but translation, activity, and dining apps could make sense. That could include Google Translate, Papago, GuideMichelin, Klook, Yelp, and others.

This typically includes adding your passport number for international travel. If you have one, you also want to include your Known Traveler Number (KTN) to receive TSA PreCheck on your boarding pass (hopefully, to avoid long lines).

Keep in mind that it’s possible not to receive TSA PreCheck access even if you’ve included your KTN. Having a KTN should get you TSA PreCheck most of the time, but not all the time. In some cases, you might have to use the standard security line.

Your PASSID is your KTN if you have Global Entry, NEXUS, or SENTRI. You don’t need to include anything in your flight info to access CLEAR lanes if you have a CLEAR® Plus membership.

Also, remember to add your preferred frequent flier number to earn frequent flier miles.

You don’t want to scramble on the day of your flight to find transportation to the airport, so square your plans away in advance. Whether you’re getting a ride from a friend or family member, taking public transportation, or taking a rideshare, make sure you know what you’re doing and have a backup plan just in case.

Some potential travel benefits and perks to review before a trip include:

• Airport lounge access: If you have credit cards with airport lounge access, check your departing airports to see if you can use any available lounges.

• Inflight and airline benefits: Some credit cards provide free inflight Wi-Fi or free checked bags with certain airlines. Knowing this ahead of time can help you save money on additional services.

• Travel insurance: Check if your preferred credit card offers travel insurance benefits before making travel arrangements. These could include trip delay and interruption insurance, baggage delay reimbursement, rental car coverage, and more.

Travel insurance benefits only kick in if you meet specific requirements. For credit card travel insurance, that typically includes paying for your travel with the credit card that provides insurance benefits. This means you can’t simply have a card with travel insurance, you have to use that card to pay for flights and hotel stays.

Each benefit, such as lost luggage or travel delay reimbursement, also has its own terms and conditions. It’s worth reviewing your available travel insurance benefits before you travel rather than hurrying to see how they work in a frantic situation.

While not always possible, traveling without checked bags can reduce some of your travel risk and overall travel time. For instance, you don’t have to worry about losing a checked bag or waiting at baggage claim.

Of course, you might have to check your carry-on luggage depending on the circumstances, but that’s typically out of your control.

If possible, avoid connections and layovers on your flights. However, it might make sense to include a connection if it works better with your schedule, such as connecting through another city rather than taking a direct red-eye flight.

As an alternative plan, consider a road trip for an airport-free travel experience. This removes the hassle of checking bags and worrying about flight cancellations during a busy time of the year. However, you would still need to book a car rental early for a stress-free trip.

These are the top five busiest travel days from November and December 2023, according to TSA passenger volume data:

1. November 26: 2,908,785 passengers

2. December 22: 2,775,193 passengers

3. November 22: 2,741,610 passengers

4. November 17: 2,692,471 passengers

5. November 12: 2,683,745 passengers

Major airports are open on Christmas and other holidays. According to TSA data, if you’re planning air travel during the holiday season, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Christmas Eve are less busy than many surrounding days.

Travel insurance is often worth it if you have expensive travel plans that are partially or entirely nonrefundable. That could include flights during the holidays when busy airports and unpredictable weather conditions could cause flight delays and cancellations and disrupt normal baggage handling operations.

If you don’t want to pay for an insurance plan, consider using a travel credit card with built-in travel protections to pay for flights and other arrangements.

This article was edited by Rebecca McCracken

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