With summer coming around, we thought we would remind everyone of some of the fun savings that we have found over the traveling years. While 2019 garnered over 20 round-trip flights, we know that is nothing compared to many of you road warriors, but we still like to offer our savings ideas and welcome any comments from you guys.
Our absolute favorite travel app is TripIt … This app has paid for itself 10 times over at least in the past few years, and with total confidence (making sure the cell phone has a good battery charge) all of the information for your trip is in this app, making for complete paperless travels. One thing we recommend later in the airfare is one-way trips, for most airlines so that if there is a change necessary, it’s easy to spot it and make the adjustment. TripIt make sure that those flights are on the appropriate days as it adds it to your trip calendar and you can easily see if your day is off or on the wrong day. For fellow app holders, you can share your trip making for an easy way to follow friends and family with precise travel accuracy!
While not a huge user myself, Points can also be tracked by Tripit and a favorite relatively new feature (in only certain Geographic areas) the app will monitor your location, traffic to the airport, and the lines at the airport check in….
“You need to go now to make your flight!” is the text you will receive if you are cutting it close … Whew… This is also handy if your meeting is running long … Showing this text makes for an easier exit !
Short term stays a.k.a. Airbnb and VRBO
Key items to watch, the cancellation policy. These policies can vary dramatically and in most instances, we find a very friendly late cancellation policy with full refunds. If you do a little searching before reserving your stay. Be sure and read the fine print there are wind down periods where you start losing your deposit and your money and in some instances, there is a no refund policy, in which it forced into that consider the cancellation insurance that is usually offered if this is.
Broadly we find that there are more Airbnb locations than VRBO (6.2 million Airbnb versus 2.2 million VRBO), but in certain geographic areas this is not true at all. We also find that while you get what you pay for it seems in our experience that VRBO is a more price conscious choice. If we had to estimate our stays, it would probably be about 60-40 Airbnb to VRBO when using a short-term rental platform such as these.
In many very populated areas, its worth checking and frequently a better deal to go with a local website -These are direct competitors of the above, but of good quality and gaining popularity!
Grrrrr….. This post is getting too long for your allocated time to read…. So this has become Part 1!
In Part 2, Flights, Points and Credit Cards …
Have a Good “Travel Tips” Day!
John A. Kvale CFA, CFP
AI Content Authenticity. All of the following text content has been completed by myself and has not been edited or created by AI. Occasionally we do use AI for images and will note when appropriate.
Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
