'Let the deal decide': Travel tips for spring break savings

Fri, Mar 15, 2024, 11:00 AM

Spring travel has reached an all-time high, with travel volume nearly 6% higher than 2023's previous record. In light of this surge, The Points Guy founder Brian Kelly joins Yahoo Finance Live to share his tips for affordable spring break travel.

Kelly's primary advice is to "use your points," especially for last-minute bookings. Many airlines are offering last-minute deals for travelers, with some rewards reaching up to 50% off.

Kelly highlights that domestic fares have declined, a trend that he notes is now extending to international travel. Despite inflation's persistent challenges, he notes that airline fares "have evened out," which he describes as "good news for consumers" seeking to stretch their travel budgets.

Additionally, Kelly recommends utilizing Google's travel benefits to uncover the best deals, advising travelers to "let the deal decide where you go."

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Editor's note: This article was written by Angel Smith

Video Transcript

[AUDIO LOGO]

RACHELLE AKUFFO: Well, we're nearly halfway through what the TSA is calling the busiest time for spring break travel. That's between the March 7 and March 25. Now they're seeing travel volumes nearly 6% higher than previous records from 2023. Now Thursday saw over 2.56 million travelers screened alone, beating 2023's number of 2.48 million.

Let's bring in Brian Kelly, The Points Guy founder, to discuss how Americans are traveling during spring break amid high inflation. Always good to see you here, Brian. So, in terms of the smart ways that people should be paying for spring break travel, what are your top tips?

BRIAN KELLY: Well, of course, I'm the Points Guy, so I'm going to tell you to use your points. Even if you're a last-minute booker, there are a lot of really good deals out there. American Airlines had a deal this week. 5,000 miles to some destinations.

I just booked flights to London. Virgin Atlantic yesterday announced, for the next six days, 50% off award flight bookings to London, even in their fancy upper class, which can be a great deal. So, bottom line, if you've got points, use them, especially last minute. People don't realize that the airlines will open up those really low saver level awards if they have any open seats. So, always look to use points.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: Yeah, certainly. Asking for a friend here on that last-minute spring break travel planning there. So great to know that there are still some deals available. I also want to ask about the volume of travel that's expected this spring break travel season. Is that surprising given what we've seen with inflation?

BRIAN KELLY: It's interesting. You know, inflation is still rising, but I just reviewed some Kayak data that they actually have domestic fares down 3% year-over-year. And actually, it was down 8% for April, which I found shocking. But Americans are spending more in total on spring break because the share of international has gone up.

The airlines all beefed up their Caribbean and Latin American operations. So the share of domestic spring break trips is now going to international. And AAA has international bookings up 20% this year.

So, Americans are traveling further away and spending more. And airfares have not continued to skyrocket like they were the last couple of years. They've kind of petered out, which is good news for consumers.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: So Brian, let's talk about some of these destinations. So, domestically, I mean, when you think of spring break, obviously, you're going to think of Florida, Miami. Making it very clear, they're not here for the spring break nonsense. Unfortunately, Fort Lauderdale really bearing the brunt of a lot of that. So talk about the spring break destinations and the sort of costs that we're seeing involved.

BRIAN KELLY: Yeah. So, I mean, it's the typical destinations. The Orlando, Phoenix, and Vegas are all really high. And what I would recommend to people, Google. If you're open to going somewhere in spring break last minute, there's a feature on Google Flights which everyone needs to know about.

So when you go to google.com/flights, you click the Explore tab. And what you can actually do is put in your home city, and then you can just type in a region, like Caribbean, and certain dates or if you want to go for a week during a certain month. And what it'll do is it'll pull up a map where you can look at all the destinations and flight prices.

And my biggest tip to save money is let the deal decide where you go. So if you see super cheap fares to a Caribbean island you've never been, try it out and save all that money. Instead of spending it on airfare, spend it on experiences.

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