7 Ways to Save on Holiday Travel
6 Min Read | Last updated January 19, 2024
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Save money on your next holiday vacation with these travel tips. Find travel discounts and use your travel credit card to save on flights and hotels.
At-A-Glance
- Specialized travel sites and search tools can be especially useful for last-minute holiday travel because they often access flights and rooms not offered by the regular airline and travel websites.
- Look for packages and combination deals that offer better pricing and reduce your stress level for booking things.
- Use travel points credit cards or look for special deals that allow you to combine points or miles with dollars.
Booking holiday travel at the last minute can fray your nerves and dent your finances. Flights may be booked, preferred hotels filled, and rental cars scarce. But putting together your holiday journey doesn’t have to be daunting.
If you’re faced with last-minute holiday travel, these eight tips may help you get to your destination without breaking the bank. In fact, you could consider these strategies year-round.
1. Use Travel Apps and Tools that Find Deep Discounts
Unlock last-minute holiday travel bargains through travel sites and travel apps that specialize in discounts. Some major travel sites may offer special member discounts and deals as well.
And you can use specialized travel search tools to check budget air carriers that aren’t always visible at major travel sites.
2. Consider One-Way Tickets & a Mix-and-Match Approach
Most people limit their holiday travel and other last-minute searches to round trip tickets on one carrier. But round trips aren’t always the cheapest way to fly. In some cases, depending on the flight or route, one-way tickets are the way to go.1 You may also benefit by using two or more airlines for separate one-way tickets and booking connecting flights separately.1
3. Tap Specialists to Enhance Your Holiday Travel Search
Online searches are a game changer for booking planes, trains and automobiles. But humans remain a valuable option, particularly when you’re booking holiday travel at the last moment.2
4. Sign Up for E-mails and Newsletters
E-mail alerts and notifications from your preferred airlines, cruise lines or hotel chains can alert you to bargains. This approach is especially valuable if you’re flexible about travel dates and you can avoid peak days right before and after December 25, New Year’s Day, or another major holiday.
5. Use Credit Card Travel Points or Miles
If you have a travel points credit card, you could consider cashing in a reward for holiday travel at the credit card site instead of directly with the airline. It’s essentially the same process. You can use the same approach to secure a room with a hotel credit card. Another strategy is to check a preferred airline to see if you can use some combination of frequent flyer miles and dollars for a holiday travel ticket.
6. Consider Alternative Transportation
Flights aren’t the only way to go for holiday travel. Especially if you’re going a relatively short distance, trains can offer lower prices for the same trip.3 And your savings will remain if you arrive at a downtown train station rather than a faraway airport that adds a long taxi ride. Likewise, car sharing services can deliver savings over pricey rentals and taxis.4
7. Call Hotels Directly
Individual hotels may often have some discretion with pricing—especially when they’re faced with rooms that won’t be occupied that night. When I needed a hotel room in Christchurch, New Zealand after a change in plans, I first checked online and then called the hotel directly (bypassing the tollfree reservations line). I was able to bargain for over $100 in savings from the published web price. This approach is particularly effective if you belong to the hotel’s loyalty program.
The Takeaway
Last minute holiday travel bookings don’t have to break the bank and leave you frazzled. These seven hacks can help you trim costs and simplify your holiday travel—and at any time of the year, too.
1 “How To Decide If 2 One-Ways Are Better Than A Round-Trip Flight,” Huffington Post
2 “10 holiday air travel tips during COVID-19,” Wichita State University
3 “Train vs. Plane: And the Winner Is ... Well, It Depends,” New York Times
4 “Car Sharing: What You Need To Know,” Kelley Blue Book
Samuel Greengard has traveled to 62 countries and 49 states while writing about business, technology and finance for numerous magazines and websites. He is the author of Virtual Reality (MIT Press, September 2019).
All Credit Intel content is written by freelance authors and commissioned and paid for by American Express.
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