My Top 5 crucial and favorite travel hacks…

I come from a family of avid travelers. While I love to see new places, I really had to work on my travel methods. As I made friends that traveled even more than I did, I learned that everyone had a method or travel hack that they used to do it well (meaning, more often and with more perks than most)… Some depended on miles, credit cards, some on a buddy pass, and some just on strong savings for their trips.

So what would I do and why? I will share my way of thinking. I am not a fan of buddy passes. The good old days of the airline buddy pass are long behind us. You have to pay such large portion of the fee with standby status and a need for very high seniority to get on the flight and could be bumped for any reason. Miles are great, but if your credit is not strong enough for some of these cards, what should you do? What if you want to travel now? How long do I have to save?

Welp, I will tell you, while you will need to have some money you do not need to save for years for your next trip. You can save costs on flights by using some great resources. I will share my favorites for flights here. If there are others that are great, I can add them to another post in this series.

All that being said, this is how I travel:

1. Loyalty programs – I stick with airlines with good loyalty programs. While these are becoming controversial when it comes to benefits, I am loyal to Delta and American. The miles tend to go further and benefit me more.
2. Miles – so yes I do have cards that earn miles. But only one is a credit card. My favorite to use is my debit card. My local bank has a Delta Skymiles debit card that will allow me to earn miles. I use this card for the majority of my purchases, rent, utility payments, dinners, etc. So when I pay rent I earn miles. If your rent was 1,000 per month. You could have enough for a one-way domestic flight in less than a year. For every Delta purchase, you earn 2 miles. I pay a small fee for this benefit. Check with your bank to see if you can do the same. You will see your miles accrue relatively quickly.
3. Miles Usage – I use miles in a smart fashion. I am constantly searching for fares using miles on Delta’s website. Some domestic flights can go for under 20,000 miles round trip. You can also use miles for a one-way trip. Don’t waste miles by spending 30,000 miles when a 16,000-mile flight is offered a few hours earlier.
4. Google Flights – Search Google for discounted flights. Enter your wanted destination ex: Atlanta to Miami Flights. A calendar will come up for you to see what dates have the lowest fares. If you use a private browser, the rates may be less than if your location is available for the airline’s website. I tend to exclude some flights from those results. Any airline that will charge me to select seats or bring more than my purse on the flight is not a deal and will end up costing as much as Delta or American who have loyalty programs.
5. Travel Sites – My favorite site of all time is The Flight Deal. They send exceptional details on flights from the US to locations all over the world. While I am not always able to get the flight they are listing, I can usually find a fare similar to what they detail when using Google Flights. They send an email with flight details every day between 3 and 3:10 pm EST. You can work with your travel agent to help you get the rate they suggest if you can’t book it yourself. Sign up for the newsletter on their website. I list some of their best fares on my IG stories.

While these are not all my travel hacks, these are my biggest. I hope that you will find at least one of them helpful. You will find that they will have you traveling faster than you expected. Next article I will share my lodging hacks! Hope you love it!

Safe and very happy travels to you!!!

xo Danie

PS. I share my weekly travel hacks and can’t miss travel deals in my weekly newsletter. Enter your email address below to stay up to date on my weekly obsessions…

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PPS (lol remember that in school) Did you know you can travel with alcohol miniatures as long as the ounces are lower than the TSA fluid requirements. Here is a link to my favorite Airline cocktail kit…To make your friendly skies, well… more friendly! Enjoy!!!