Smart Travel: Upgrade Your Getaways
Avoid These 5 Costly Travel Mistakes to Save Time, Money, and Stress
Wed, 12 Feb 2025
From booking flights to getting through airport security, NerdWallet’s travel pros share five costly mistakes — and how to avoid them. Is TSA PreCheck or Global Entry worth the cost? How can you use travel credit card perks to save money on trips? Hosts Meghan Coyle and Sally French discuss five common travel mistakes and how to avoid them to help you travel smarter. They begin with tips for getting the most value out of TSA PreCheck and Global Entry. Then, they explain how you can make the most of travel credit card perks, use price alerts effectively, pack strategically, and plan layovers wisely. Along the way, they share insights on avoiding common travel pitfalls and maximizing both time and money while on the go. Best credit cards for TSA PreCheck and Global Entry: https://www.nerdwallet.com/best/credit-cards/tsa-precheck-global-entry Read Sally’s review of the STL Wingtips Lounge at St. Louis Lambert International Airport: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/wingtips-lounge Best credit cards for airport lounge access: https://www.nerdwallet.com/best/credit-cards/airport-lounge-access In their conversation, the Nerds discuss: TSA PreCheck vs Global Entry, travel credit card perks, best ways to use travel rewards, airport security tips, how to skip the TSA line, travel mistakes to avoid, how to pack light, best price tracking tools for flights, travel savings tips, travel hacks, travel rewards programs, Google Flights, Hopper, maximizing credit card benefits, avoiding baggage fees, frequent flyer tips, what not to pack for flights, how to get lounge access, how to use airport lounges, and Southwest Transferable Flight Credits.
Chapter 1: What are the top travel mistakes people make?
Look, you know, it happens. Things are changing all the time in travel. The airport probably looks different from the last time you were there. Your credit card might have added benefits.
Or taken them away. You and I both know that travel credit card benefits change more frequently than we'd like, and many people miss this memo.
Yeah, it's easy to make mistakes when you're traveling if you're not thinking about it all the time.
But luckily that's our job, to think about it all the time. So that's actually the topic of this week's episode, the top five travel mistakes you can avoid.
I can't believe we're finally doing this. Welcome to the first episode of Smart Travel. I'm Megan Coyle.
And I'm Sally French. And if you feel like you don't have anyone to ask about how to make the trip of your dreams happen, we got you. We are NerdWallet's travel experts. We love travel. We don't just do it for work. We do it because we love it and we're excited to share it with you.
Definitely. So I suppose before we dive into the main segment, we should talk a little bit about how we got here. I've been an editor on NerdWallet's travel team for six years now. I also freelance doing some audio stuff. I produce podcasts and do some reporting for my local radio station.
So after all those years of producing radio and podcasts, everyone finally agreed it's time we gave Megan the chance to stand behind the microphone. As for me, I'm glad you're here. As for me, I've spent plenty of time on the mic already. I host NerdWallet's travel YouTube videos.
I also serve as a spokesperson for NerdWallet, which basically just means I get to talk about all the cool travel data that we cover. That's things like our monthly travel price tracker. I go on live TV. I talk about whatever cool analysis we've done here on the NerdWallet travel team.
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Chapter 2: Who are the hosts of this podcast?
No kidding. I have two separate weddings in Italy, one in Mexico and one in Australia. Two in Italy? This is amazing. Why do these people, do they live there?
Are these all destination weddings?
So the ones in Italy and Mexico are, but my friend in Australia actually lives there. Although I guess it's not the city she lives in. So we'll call that one a destination wedding too. And rumor has it you're also having a sort of destination wedding this year.
Okay, kind of. So I am getting married this year. I wouldn't really call it a destination wedding. So my fiance proposed to me in Germany last summer as part of a big European trip, included all sorts of fun things like the Olympics. So we did have the travel component on that end.
Today, we both live in San Francisco, but we're actually both from Southern California, so we're getting married down there. So I guess you could kind of call it a destination for us in the sense that it'll be a semi-long drive down to SoCal, but it's convenient for all of our families.
I do love wedding travel, but I'm sure your family appreciates how close it is. I sure hope so.
And you can guess we'll be talking about my wedding, all your weddings to attend on this show. In fact, we have an amazing honeymoon idea that you're going to have to tune in to a future episode to hear about.
Absolutely. Come back for that. Okay. In a minute, we'll have the top five travel mistakes people are making. So stay with us. On to the topic for this week's episode. The top five travel mistakes people are still making in 2025.
Megan, you're limiting me to five? Only five. Let's try. Okay, okay, okay. So definitely off the top of my head is the biggest one. This is not... having TSA PreCheck or Global Entry. Prices vary based on how you apply, but it's typically around $80 for TSA PreCheck, around $120 for Global Entry, and both are valid for five years. So that comes down to like less than $25 a year for Global Entry.
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