Smart Travel: Upgrade Your Getaways
How to Plan Smarter and Save More on Summer Travel
Wed, 02 Apr 2025
Learn how to get the most out of your summer travel including when to book your flights and how to stack rewards. When is the cheapest time to book flights for summer travel? How can you stack rewards points to level up your trips? Meghan Coyle and Sally French take a deep dive into the strategies you can use to optimize your travel budget this summer, including tips on when to book flights, ways to combine rewards perks for a better (and cheaper!) trip, and how to plan if your summer travels involve a trip to a theme park. But first, Meghan and Sally discuss a new way to get Lyft credits, Southwest’s rollout of dynamic pricing, and the partnership between Marriott and MGM. Then, they talk about some of the most popular summer travel destinations, when to expect the biggest crowds during your summer vacations, what’s coming up at theme parks such as Universal and Disney, and why using standby to fly might be a good option. Resources discussed in this episode: 2025 Summer Travel Report Chase Sapphire Reserve Adds Monthly Lyft Credit, Slashes Points Earning Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse LAX Review Credit Cards With Elite Car Rental Perks Cheapest European Cities to Fly to in 2025 The Cheapest Time To Visit Walt Disney World The Busiest Days to Fly Around Memorial Day The Best Days to Fly Around the Fourth of July Universal Epic Universe: How to Plan Your Trip for the Opening In their conversation, the Nerds discuss: summer travel 2025, best time to book summer travel, summer vacation planning, cheap summer flights, travel tips 2025, travel hacks, Smart Travel podcast, budget travel, vacation planning tips, summer getaway ideas, travel credit cards, best travel rewards cards, credit card points, credit card rewards, how to use travel points, points and miles tips, credit card perks, Amex Platinum travel benefits, travel rewards, Hilton Aspire card, American Express Centurion Lounge access, airport lounge credit cards, stacking travel rewards, top summer destinations 2025, where to travel summer 2025, Italy travel 2025, Rome summer travel, Europe travel deals, Japan summer travel, San Juan, Puerto Rico travel, Maui travel tips, best islands to visit 2025, theme park vacations, Universal Epic Universe 2025, Disney World summer deals, Disneyland 70th anniversary, best time to book flights, when to book international travel, domestic vs international flights, cheapest days to fly, Expedia 2025 air travel hacks, price alerts for flights, summer travel booking tips, how to find travel deals, avoiding travel debt, how to save on travel, Universal Orlando new theme park, Epic Universe opening date, Harry Potter theme park, Super Nintendo World, Disney World dining plan 2025, Disney kids ticket deals, best theme parks summer 2025, family travel tips, budget-friendly family vacations, airline elite status perks, American Airlines standby policy, Delta Medallion status match, hotel status matching, MGM and Marriott rewards, travel loyalty programs, Southwest Rapid Rewards, best airline loyalty programs.
Chapter 1: When should you start planning for summer travel?
This year has been flying by.
Believe it or not, it's already time to start planning summer travel if you want to find some of the best deals.
I need to get going on that. I'm flying to Northern Virginia to see my family dogs and go to my friend's birthday. I hear they even made matching shirts for the birthday.
Amazing. You are part of 44% of Americans who say they plan to take a summer vacation requiring a flight or hotel stay this year. We are going to dig into that data and share some tips for your summer travels. The matching shirts are optional though. Welcome to Smart Travel, a deep dive into the tips, tools, and tactics to maximize your travel dollars. I'm Megan Coyle. And I'm Sally French.
And we're the travel nerds ready to help you plan your next big trip. Which could be this summer. We found lots of fun data, so you'll know when and where the crowds will be. Where there are crowds, there are high prices. So hopefully by the end of this, you'll know how to avoid both.
But first, the news and our usual disclaimer. We'll talk about a few credit card companies that are NerdWallet partners in this episode, but that doesn't influence how we discuss them.
Megan, there is this bank adding Lyft credits to one of their cards. As it turns out, we are no longer allowed to say their name on this podcast, but to help you listeners out, their name rhymes with face. Or space. Or trace. Or at least we can keep doing this. Anyway, this unnamed bank is adding Lyft credits to one of their most popular travel credit cards.
Again, I cannot say the name of this specific card out loud on this podcast. I know, I'm sorry. But if you've been listening to this, you know what card I'm talking about. It's the one with the super high annual fee. It has good statement credits, but the bad news is they are slashing the card's earning rates on Lyft. I wrote an article which actually does have the cards named in it.
We will link to that in the show description. And we can print the names of the cards in the article, just not say them on the podcast. So again, check out that link in the show description.
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Chapter 2: What are the latest travel credit card updates?
Because of this, we typically say Sunday is the most expensive day to fly, but that's not really the case Memorial Day weekend because people sort of treat that Monday like the Sunday and they actually fly out the Monday. So do keep that in mind when you're planning Memorial Day weekend travel. Even people fly out on the Thursday before.
So understand that weekend kind of is a deviation from the standard weekday crowds.
Similar advice for if you're doing a road trip, those same days are usually pretty crowded as well.
Yes, if you're trying to beat traffic, same rules apply. Now, NerdWallet looks at the best and worst days to fly of some of these major holidays. Visit nerdwallet.com. We'll put our link in the show description so you can see the best and worst days to fly on specific holiday weekends.
And let's talk about 4th of July this year. This one is really tricky because 4th of July moves around on the day of the week it is. This year, 4th of July falls on a Friday. And many people will have that Friday off. So you can expect Thursday evening to be very busy at the airports and on the roads.
And Sunday, July 6th, when people are returning from this long weekend, that would also be another busy time.
Yes, so many travelers, myself included, are going to make 4th of July a long weekend this year. I'm flying out on Thursday. I'm returning on Monday. I'm going with some friends to San Antonio because they have a great 4th of July celebration that I want to see. Oh, fun. Yeah, I know. I'm so excited. But let's talk about other trends we're seeing and where people are going this summer.
So if we're talking international travel, I think Europe is going to continue to be a huge draw this year. It is pretty much every year. But I saw some interesting data from Sirium, an aviation analytics company. They looked at how many seats airlines are adding on routes to European countries. And it's a good clue to where airlines think the demand will be.
Do you want to guess what the most popular country in Europe is for the summer?
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Chapter 3: How is Southwest's new pricing affecting travelers?
Five stars and a nice comment are definitely welcome, but we take feedback of all times. We do have thick skin.
This episode was produced by Hilary Georgie and Tess Viglin. Claire Soce helped with fact-checking. And a big thank you to Nicholas Karisamy for editing our audio.
And here's our brief disclaimer. We are not financial or investment advisors. This info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes and may not apply to your specific circumstances.
Thanks for listening. We hope you're inspired to keep your passport full and your wallet even fuller. See you next episode.