Avoid these 7 mistakes when booking a vacation

We’re still about a month away from turkeys appearing en masse on supermarket shelves and familiar holiday tunes playing on speakers in stores. However, now is the best time to get serious about this issue. Book resort travel tickets – especially when it comes to flights.

To avoid paying insurance premiums for holiday travel, you should lock in airfare for your holiday as early as possible. According to one seasonal forecast from Google Flights, you should aim to book Thanksgiving flights in early October and Christmas and New Year’s flights in late October.

But the timing of your booking isn’t the only factor to consider as you solidify your year-end travel plans, whether you’re heading home for Thanksgiving or hitting the mountains at the end of December. skiing. The type of ticket you booked, the date of the trip and even credit card you use Finalizing your travel plans can also be an important part of your experience.

One of the most common mistakes is Waiting too long to book airline tickets. Here are seven other mistakes to avoid when booking your 2024 holiday travel.

Mistake 1: Not being flexible with travel plans

Not being flexible with your travel plans prevents you from taking advantage of the lowest possible airfares.

For those of us with in-person, full-time jobs or family members with work or school requirements, flexibility is often easier said than done – especially when it comes to holiday time. Short thanksgiving.

However, anything you can do to expand your search for airline tickets can be helpful.

Let’s say I’m a college student or young professional in Washington, DC who needs to return home to Austin for Thanksgiving.

Based on my schedule, I might feel like I should fly out of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) – the closest airport to Washington – no earlier than 4 p.m. on the Wednesday before the vacation and fly back on Sunday. Japan afterwards.

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With all my search parameters, the cheapest nonstop flight available was a whopping $858 on Southwest Airlines, according to a quick search on Google Flights.

But let’s see what happens if I rearrange my schedule and time and search for all the airports in the Washington area.

This is a $564 round-trip flight – again, southwest – departing from Baltimore/Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport (BWI). It still departed the previous Wednesday, just earlier in the day; it also still returns on Sundays, albeit with connectivity to save you a few hundred dollars.

That’s a 34% savings just by removing a little rigidity from my plan, but you should always exercise caution when deciding to introduce connectivity during a busy travel week.

Any additional flexibility you can find in your plans can be helpful, whether it’s departing on another day or – for extremely flexible travelers – flying from one location to another. Other locations have cheaper ticket prices.

Mistake 2: Flying on the busiest days

In both 2019 and 2023, the Transportation Security Administration set all-time records for passenger throughput at checkpoints.

This summer, those records were toppled multiple times, and 9 of the 10 busiest days ever at TSA checkpoints takes place between Memorial Day and Labor Day weekend.

The same thing happens this Thanksgiving, especially on the Sunday after the holiday, when millions of travelers will head home.

Since airfare prices are determined by supply and demand, you’ll often find the lowest prices on the busiest days around major holidays. So the more you can do to avoid those peak days, the better.

On Thanksgiving, the booking app Hopper suggest Fly on the Monday before the holiday or earlier. To avoid the biggest crowds and highest prices for the return trip, the company suggests one of two options: fly home on Black Friday right after the holiday or on the Monday after Türkiye Day.

Similarly, you can save money by avoiding peak travel days around Christmas. New Year’s Eve is one of the best days to fly this year, Hopper noted.

Another way to save besides extending your trip? Fly to your destination on a major holiday (like Thanksgiving or Christmas). Typically, with so many tourists already at their destination, there will be fewer visitors — and that often leads to lower prices.

Mistake 3: Forgetting to set airfare alerts

Booking or delaying holiday flights early is ideal. However, if your plans aren’t set in stone or you’re not ready to take the leap, the worst thing you can do is forget about booking and just “check back in a few weeks.”

Some websites have services that warn you about air ticket price fluctuations.

Let’s say I’m planning to book a Christmas flight from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Denver International Airport (DEN) and I’m not ready to pay for this $379 round trip on United Airlines. In that case, I would use Google Flights’ “Price Tracker” function.

As soon as I do that, Google Flights will track any fluctuations in my itinerary and send me an email notifying me of any changes.

Mistake 4: Misusing credit cards

Another common mistake travelers can make is using the wrong credit card to book flights, hotels, or other elements of a trip.

There are several factors to consider when deciding which card to use. You might want to use the card that earns the most rewards on airline or hotel purchases, or one that can help you get ahead of the pack with elite status as the year comes to a close.

Perhaps most important, however, is to use the card in your wallet Travel insurance benefits. Many cards will reimburse you for trip cancellations, trip interruptions, or other issues. Using the right card can save you hundreds of dollars if you’re stuck somewhere and faced with an unexpected night in the hotel.

Typically, cards with trip insurance benefits will cover costs even if the flight is canceled, for example, due to weather – something airlines typically don’t cover.

However, there’s one important stipulation: You usually have to book all parts of your trip with that card to qualify for an insurance claim.

On many occasions, we have Hear stories from TPG readers people who have made a trip insurance claim with their card issuer after a trip cancellation and an unexpected hotel night. Only later did they realize that they had booked the flight using a different card and were therefore ineligible for any refund.

Mistake 5: Using too many miles or points

At TPG, we’ll be the first to say it: Use points and miles is a great way to reduce your out-of-pocket travel costs.

However, treating your hard-earned points and miles like currency is important to avoid transferring too much at once.

With many airline and hotel loyalty programs now using less predictability Dynamic prize pricing modelYou could end up paying too many points or miles for an expensive holiday flight if you’re not careful.

Avoiding paying for that Thanksgiving flight may seem so tempting that using all your points for holiday travel will mean nothing is left over for next year’s vacation. This would be especially unfortunate if you’ve been saving up to buy a long-haul business class seat or another redemption that could give you more value for your points.

When in doubt, consult TPG prize vs cash calculatorThis will help you compare prices in dollars and points to decide how to book your tickets.

Mistake 6: Packing more than you need

Packing too much for any trip can be costly, but during the busy and already expensive holiday season, it can put flight costs beyond your budget.

Be cautious when booking basic economy or flights on ultra-low-cost airlines. This can be an attractive way to save some money on the base fare, but it can cost you money to buy a small suitcase even if you don’t plan to check it.

For low-cost airlines, baggage costs for both carry-on and checked baggage at the airport may increase compared to online.

If you’re checking a bag, pay attention to its weight, especially at Christmas, when you may return home with gifts in your luggage. Checking multiple bags or carrying a bag weighing more than 50 pounds may incur significant fees.

That said, this is the right place to travel or airline credit card self-checkout: The right card can often give multiple family members traveling in the same booking free checked bags.

Myth 7: Reservations cannot be canceled or changed

If recent years have taught us anything, it’s the value of “outlining” your travel plans.

That’s especially true around the holidays. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic upended the travel industry and the subsequent rise in omicron variants destroyed the plans of many people three years ago. Then there’s the Southwest Airlines crisis of 2022.

One of the best ways to prepare for any changes that occur in your travel plans – before or during your trip – is to make reservations that you can cancel on short notice. Full refund or full trip credit.

Flight

As for the airlines, the three “legacy” carriers (American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines) will typically give you a full trip credit if you cancel even a non-refundable main cabin ticket. They also don’t charge change fees on regular economy fares.

However, on many airlines, basic economy tickets tend to be a lot more restrictive in terms of changing tickets (usually not allowed unless you pay) and getting refunds (even trip credits). ).

Southwest Airlines will give you, at a minimum, full trip credit on all tickets as long as you cancel at least 10 minutes before departure.

Hotels and car rentals

It’s much more difficult to change your plans when you’ve invested upfront, non-refundable money on hotel reservations and car rentals.

While choosing to “pay now” for hotels and cars can be an attractive way to save some money, be cautious when paying in advance.

In general, most standard hotel and car rental booking services will allow you to cancel without penalty up to a day or two before your trip. This allows you to adapt to any unexpected changes — it also allows you to cancel and rebook your stay if you later find a better price.

By the way, award flights or stays booked with points typically do not have prepaid, non-refundable booking constraints. If something goes wrong, you can usually cancel and get your points or miles back.

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