WEBVTT - The Cheap Travel Truth w/ Scott Keyes #974 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.599 Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel, I'm Matt. 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:06.320 Today we're talking the cheap travel truth with Scott Kay's. 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:28.280 Yeah, who doesn't wish that they were currently listening to 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:31.680 this episode while lounging on the beach, or like maybe 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:35.360 on a European adventure, maybe even completely off the grid 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:38.239 hiking somewhere. Amazing Joe. It makes me think of like 0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:41.080 the old show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? It's 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:43.199 like Who wants to be a World Traveler, except that 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:45.680 this is something that people actually have a shot at 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:48.640 doing because of who we're talking with. Our guest today 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:51.160 is no stranger to How to Money. Scott Kay's. He's 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:54.480 the founder of Going. It's the travel platform that was 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:58.200 formerly known as Scott's Cheap Flights and over at Going, 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:01.680 Scott is all about helping travelers snag the absolute best 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:04.600 flight deals. They've got over two million subscribers there, which 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:07.000 is just incredible. He was just talking about how busy 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:09.679 he's been. He was just on Good Morning America. And 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:12.680 even though you may not be a subscriber yourself, I 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:14.880 think you're gonna get a lot out of our conversation today, 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:18.320 especially if you are interested in doing a little more traveling. Scott, 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:20.720 thank you for coming back on How to Money. 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:22.200 Ah, so good to be back. 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:24.200 Thanks to the both of you, of course, glad to 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:24.720 have you. Scott. 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:27.119 The question we asked you a couple of years ago 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:29.040 when you were on, and we're gonna ask you again 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:31.160 is what do you like to sporge on? What's your 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:33.520 craft beer equivalent? We know you're smart, you're saving for 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:35.720 your future, but you got sporge on something too, right? 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:36.160 What is it? 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:39.600 I'm gonna throw you a curveball here my personal splurge 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:45.040 credit card fees. I look back and over the past year, 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:49.480 I think I've spent over two thousand dollars in credit 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:52.760 card fees. Now you're probably hearing that, like Scott, what 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:56.360 is wrong with you? But the thing is what that 0:01:56.400 --> 0:01:59.440 two thousand dollars bought me is somewhere between one and 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:02.240 two million frequent flyers. 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:02.680 Wow. 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:06.400 And those frequent flyer miles is how I'm able to 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:08.799 travel with my family of four to you know, we're 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:12.200 going to Japan this summer, going to Montana in a 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:16.160 few weeks. Be able to get these flights for basically 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:19.400 next to nothing using those frequent flyer miles. So for me, 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:22.600 that's a those credit card fees for those sign up 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:25.919 bonuses are well worth it because it lets us travel 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:28.600 in a way that's much more affordable than it would 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:29.200 be otherwise. 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:32.560 The fees are worth. The Squeeze says, as. 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:36.880 Long as you're candling it responsible as I could spend 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:39.200 you know, ten hour us. 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:41.000 That's that's what we spend all the rest of our 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:41.960 episodes doing. 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:46.480 Scott, how much money in flights do you think two 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:49.240 thousand dollars annually in credit card fee saves you? 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:55.080 Oh? Goodness? So, I mean a million points would probably 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:58.760 get us. I mean, if we're flying domestically, let's say 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:01.560 that would get us twenty five thousand points per person. 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:06.000 That'd be one hundred thousand points per family trip, ten flights. 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:09.240 Let's say each one costs usually I don't call it 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:13.120 five hundred dollars, So that'd be saving at least three 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:17.280 or four thousand dollars on flights, probably more because the 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:20.080 more you travel use those for international travel, the higher 0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:22.880 the savings, and frankly, the more you use them for 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:25.640 that front of the plane redemptions if you're ever traveling 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:28.560 in business class or something like that, that's where the real 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:30.560 savings are. You know, I'll let you guys in on 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:33.920 a hidden secret in air travel. Most people who are 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:35.800 traveling at the front of the plane, if they're not 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:39.240 you know, multimillionaires ninety five percent of the time, and 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:42.440 they're not traveling on business, they're using frequent Flyer miles 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:45.880 to sit fairly. And that's how people get access to 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:46.520 those seats. 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:49.000 They're not just they're not just risch, they're just they're savvy. 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:52.760 They're savvy exactly if they're not uber wealthy, they're just 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:55.720 using miles to get up there. That is the secret 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:59.520 kind of access point to those those live flap business 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:02.480 class seat that everybody fawns over on Instagram. 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:04.360 Very cool, all right, got to keep that in mind. 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:08.160 Let's talk about before we go full on into the 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:11.640 travel Scott, can you talk about the relationship between the economy, 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:15.400 just like as a whole and airfare prices, Like does 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:20.440 stock market volatility, does tariff policy? Have you seen that 0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:24.480 impact travel demand and the prices that we pay for travel. 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:26.599 I'm so glad you guys start off on such a 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:28.480 simple soft questions, just. 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:30.920 A really easy I figured about the third time you're 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:32.560 on the show. We can kind of we can go ahead, 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:33.320 load up right. 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:37.440 Seriously, No, it's look, it's a complicated question. And here's what. 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:41.480 Here's from a high level, what happens, uh when there 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:45.920 are economic downturns. Historically you do see travelers pull back 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:49.160 in their spending. You know, people consider travel as largely 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:53.240 a quote unquote discretionary purchase, and so when they're tightening 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:56.159 their belts, you can't always, you know, scrimp on rent 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:59.400 or food, and so you scrimp instead on travel plans. 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:03.200 What is a little bit different I think right now 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:06.800 in this this you know, fears of economic downturn today 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:10.880 versus previous ones, is that over the past few years, 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:13.400 coming out of the pandemic, there's been a huge rush 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:16.960 towards more premium travel, a lot of people spending more 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:19.920 to sit towards the front of the plane, to fly more, 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:24.720 you know, international NonStop, just spending more on travel on 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:29.279 sort of more pampered flights and travel in the first place. 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:32.919 And so what I could foresee happening this time is 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:35.799 a lot of those people who had been sitting purchasing 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:39.599 a premium economy or business class flights tightening their belt 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:44.080 doesn't necessarily mean not vacationing. It just might mean coming 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:48.039 back into economy rather than sitting up towards the front 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:50.200 of the plane. Now, there will be some people who 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:53.359 fly economy today who might be canceling vacations. But you 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:57.960 actually might see basically a level amount, you know, no 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:02.000 real drop off in demand for economy seats going forward, 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:06.040 even if there's an economic downturn, just the compositional shift 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:09.760 of who is purchasing those, So you might see flight 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:14.160 prices actually not get cheap, significantly cheaper the way they 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:17.440 have in previous economic downturns, because there are a lot 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:20.040 of people who are coming up from higher and sort 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:23.960 of downgrading themselves into the back of the plane. That's 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:27.760 my that's my guess coming into this. The good news, 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:29.839 I think there's going to be a lot more availability 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:32.200 for people who do have the money to purchase premium 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:34.960 economy or business class, and certainly for people with those 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:38.600 miles to be able to get more award availability. 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:42.800 How does like the way other countries view us impact 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:44.719 our travel economy? 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:44.960 Right? 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:48.360 Like there have been stories about Canadians reacting to tarists 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:49.960 and they're like, I'm not going to vacation in the 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:52.040 United States, Yeah, boycoty, which makes sense to me, Like, 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:55.160 that's totally understandable. What sort of impact does that have 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:58.719 on airlines and airfare quite. 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:03.560 A bit, you know, by by by some estimates, anywhere 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:07.800 from ten or somewhere around ten percent of the worldwide 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:11.160 economy is based on is travel or travel related, you know, 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:14.080 and that includes everything from hotels and airlines and stuff 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:18.200 to also like restaurants and and things that tourists tend 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:20.880 to engage in. So this is not a small part 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:23.560 of the worldwide economy. It is substantial. And so when 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:27.760 you see a lot of Canadians or Mexicans or Europeans 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:31.000 who otherwise were planning to visit the US to pull 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:34.080 back from that because they just you know, whether negative 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:37.760 sentiment or whatever about the United States, that is that's 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:41.000 something that is very directly felt by a lot of 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:46.119 hotel proprietors, restaurateurs, like different parts of the economy. Now, 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:50.840 we are a large enough country that it doesn't have 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:54.880 quite the same impact that if you know, if we 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:59.520 were a small, largely tourism based economy and you saw 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:03.360 pull back, that would be devastating. But it definitely hurts 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:06.120 at the margin and especially if you're in this situation 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:10.840 where there's already economic anxiety about you know, you see 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:13.360 the stock market down ten to fifteen percent. If then 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:17.560 also sales at your restaurant are are going down, sales 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:20.800 at your hotel are going down, that is, that's that's 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:24.520 not good. So for folks who do work in tours 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:28.400 and related industries, I would be pretty concerned about the 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:33.960 lack of about a significantly fewer international arrivals. I think 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:36.560 for most other folks who are working, it probably is 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:39.960 a little bit orthogonal. It's not necessarily something that they're 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:42.160 going to feel a direct impact in their day to 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:42.840 day life. 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:46.199 Okay, let's take a step back. Let's boom out slightly 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:49.440 from the day by day or maybe week by week 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:53.400 tariff policy and by minute mission. Yes, it just depends 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:55.200 on how blessly you watch it. But let's step back, 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:58.080 zoom out a little bit. Because airfare prices they have 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:01.360 outpaced inflation over the past past few years. Like I'm 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:03.920 thinking about how revenge travel was a thing a couple 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:06.560 of years ago or a few years ago, but like 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:08.480 in a segment with lots of choice and a fair 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:11.160 amount of competition, was it just the fact that we 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:14.319 could not see the airlines respond quickly enough to the 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:18.640 increase in demand do to maybe perhaps the stimulus money, 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:21.600 the excess cash that we saw that folks had on hand. 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:25.440 So airfare is something that is is I call it 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:30.079 the most volatile thing that people purchase. It is it's always, 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:33.839 you know, bopping up and down. It's not like even 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:37.080 something else that changes frequently, like gas prices. You know, 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:39.800 usually that's changing just a little bit here and there, 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:41.560 and you tend to see it. You know, if gas 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:44.960 prices go up from three dollars to call it three thirty, 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:47.719 it's usually going to hit three ten, and then three 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:50.199 twenty and then three thirty, and it's kind of gradually 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:54.360 creeping up. Where's airfare? You know? I talked about this 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:57.760 flight I was watching once from Atlanta to Amsterdam. I 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:00.240 searched it on Monday. It was eight hundred dollar dollars 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:03.280 round trip. Searched it again the next day on Tuesday, 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:07.520 three hundred dollars round trip, searched the flight again on Wednesday, 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:12.040 thirteen hundred dollars round you're talking about the exact same flight, 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:12.400 I mean. 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:15.199 Nothing else as much as the price of eggs. 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:18.839 Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Other than eggs, nothing else quite 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:22.360 behaves the way airfare does. And so that type of 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:26.160 volatility is not sort of accidental to airfare. It's sort 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:29.160 of inherent in the way that it behaves. And there's 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:33.440 really complicated reasons why that's the case, but suffice to 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:39.600 say that kind of topsy turviness is just essential to 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:43.120 what airfare is now. When you look at airfare over 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.680 the past, basically coming out of the pandemic, so let's 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:48.840 say for the past five years, what you saw is, 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:53.559 of course, it crash immediately in March twenty twenty, and 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:58.480 then really in spring and summer of twenty twenty two 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:03.320 really sergeificantly higher than where it was pre pandemic. But 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:06.040 after summer twenty twenty two, and this doesn't get quite 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:11.600 as much eyeballer attention, it actually really came down substantially, 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:16.880 where to the point that airfare today is actually cheaper 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:20.400 than it was in February twenty twenty. It's one percent 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:23.480 lower than it was, and that's without even adjusting for inflation. 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:27.160 So everything economy wide, you know, it's somewhere twenty twenty 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:30.199 five percent more expensive than it was in February twenty 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:35.880 twenty airfare one percent cheaper than it was. It's seventeen 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:38.520 percent cheaper than it's peak in June twenty twenty two, 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:41.959 and if you adjust for overall inflation, it's around it's 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:47.720 around record lows right now. It's kind of this remarkable, 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:51.600 untold story that even as most things in our lives 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:55.600 are getting more and more expensive, airfare is actually getting cheaper. 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:57.959 But I think it's hard to explain. It's hard to 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:02.040 tell because again I go to that volatility. When you're 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:04.800 searching for flights, you might see one that is low, 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:06.920 and then you know, you search it again, it gets high, 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:08.880 and you search it again, it stays in the middle. 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:11.760 It's hard to kind of get a good grasp of 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:14.079 the way we can with gas prices, where every time 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:16.560 we're driving down the road we see what it costs 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:17.840 and it's pretty consistent. 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:21.240 So yeah, one of the things the volatility is this 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:24.000 a case in which folks who aren't paying attention are 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:27.240 essentially subsidizing the folks who are the people you talked 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:28.800 about people sitting at the front of the plane. They're 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:31.160 often not the rich people, they're the savvy people. Is 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:33.240 the people who save the most money on airfare. Are 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:35.240 they the ones who don't just say I got to 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:37.400 go to this place on this date by the ticket. 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:40.640 They're the ones who are doing the research and taking 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:41.320 the extra time. 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:43.360 Yeah, I think it's partly doing the research, but I 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:47.360 think it's also the people who are savvy enough to 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:51.120 pull the trigger when the price is right. So, if 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:53.640 you think of an airplane, you know, two hundred seats 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:56.480 on it, it is very likely that if it has 0:12:56.520 --> 0:12:59.720 two hundred passengers, that they paid two hundred different prices 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:02.680 to there. I mean, you know, slightly exaggery. It's probably 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:05.000 like one hundred or one hundred and twenty five different prices. 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:08.480 But for argument's sake, let's say it's two hundred different prices. 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:12.400 You are having the exact same experience as the person 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:15.240 sitting next to you on that airplane, but one of 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:18.400 you may have paid double to be there than the 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:21.680 other person. And it's obviously our job, Like the whole 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:23.600 reason I started going in the first place was to 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:25.600 make sure that our members are the ones who are 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:28.280 paying half the price of the person sitting next to them. 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:32.000 But the way that folks tend to get that is 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:34.640 again by pulling the trigger when the price is right, 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:38.400 and you never know exactly when it's going to be cheapest. 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:42.359 If you did, you know airline, nobody would ever overpay airlines. 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:46.160 The whole airline pricing model would be broken. And so instead, 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:49.560 what you have to do is kind of have a 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:53.280 sense on when cheap flights are most likely to pop up, 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:55.640 but then when they do, make sure you book it 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:59.200 because you know. I'll give you an example. My wife 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:03.160 is flying out to Boston from Portland on the West 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:09.000 Coast to Boston to visit her nephew, and flights usually 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:11.400 would cost three hundred, three hundred and fifty bucks for 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:14.360 round trip for that route, if you're talking about a 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:17.560 NonStop flight, but a couple about a week or two ago, 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:19.840 you know, I got an alert from the from the 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:24.440 app that hey, flight prices from Portland to Boston just 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:27.640 dropped down to one hundred and seventeen dollars round trip. 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:31.480 So went in just booked it really quick because I knew, hey, look, 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:34.160 this is an amazing price. It's way better than normal, 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:37.960 and it's unlikely to go any lower. Let's just book 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:40.160 this now and lo and behold after you know, a 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:42.360 day after we booked it, it bopped back up to 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:45.320 two hundred and fifty dollars. So the thing about flight 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:47.400 prices is you don't it doesn't have to stay at 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:49.680 one hundred and seventeen. You just have to catch it 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:52.440 when it's at that low price, because when it goes 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:54.520 back up, no big deal. You've already locked in the 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:55.080 low price. 0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:56.000 Can't sit on your hands. 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:57.480 You got to be ready to pounce. You got to 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:01.280 exactly pull that trick exactly. So why we're talking about 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:03.280 just some of the services y'all offer, we got to 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:06.840 talk about mistake fares. And one of your airfare predictions 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:09.520 for this year, for twenty twenty five was that we'd 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:12.480 see something like three to seven of these mistake fares. 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:16.040 How many have popped up so far? And I guess, 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:20.320 like maybe explained to listeners how these things actually come about, 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:22.760 And yeah, maybe what steps we need to be that 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:24.040 we need to take ahead of time to be able 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:25.840 to take advantage of these mistake fairs. 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:29.520 Someone came about fired behind the scenes publishing that mistake fair. 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:32.480 There are definitely times when people have gotten fired at 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:35.480 airlines as a result of mistake fairs. I like to 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:38.040 think it's pretty uncommon, Like to I like to hope 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:42.080 that management is charitable. We all make mistakes in our lives, 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:44.520 and hopefully most of us aren't losing their jobs over that. 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:47.600 But what a mistake fairy is at its core is 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:51.360 when an airline accidentally sells a ticket for ninety ninety 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:54.200 five percent less than it intended to. You know, back 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:57.680 about a decade ago, I personally got a deal from 0:15:57.720 --> 0:16:00.560 New York City to Milan for a one hundred and 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:04.320 thirty dollars round trip. There's a NonStop flight on United, 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:07.440 bags included the whole the works. Uh, And that was 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:10.040 a ticket that they probably meant to sell for thirteen 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:12.320 hundred dollars, but they forgot a zero at the end. 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:15.320 But you know, if you if you just book it happen, 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:18.400 jump on it before they fix the mistake, then you 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:20.920 are the proud owner of the probably the best deal 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.560 you've ever gotten in your life. Those are mistake fairs. 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:25.840 They're the holy grail of the cheap of the cheap 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:28.480 flight world. That's what we're kind of waking up every 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:31.640 morning hoping to find. So, yeah, you're right, I predicted, 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:34.480 you know, yeah, I think it was three to six, 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:37.880 three to seven mistake fares this year which is about 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:40.800 in line with what we've seen over the past few years. 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:43.800 I think my team might you know, I've got it's 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.080 not just me at going, it's we've got a team 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:48.800 of fifty five people. I think some of the flight 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:51.280 experts whose job it is to find in these deals 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:54.600 every day, they're out to embarrass me because they've already 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:57.280 found three mistake fares and it's not even you know, 0:16:57.280 --> 0:16:59.520 we're a quarter of the way through twenty twenty five. 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:03.920 So there was one over to premium economy flight over 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:07.800 to Spain usually cost you know, closer to two thousand dollars. 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:10.160 It was a mistake fair for as little as six 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:13.159 hundred and three dollars round trip. A flight down to 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:17.240 Brazil for two hundred and eighty seven dollars round trip. 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:20.520 I mean, these types of deals are will My favorite 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:23.960 one was in recent memory was one in the middle 0:17:24.000 --> 0:17:28.239 of twenty twenty four flight over to Dublin for one 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:33.400 hundred and fourteen dollars round trip Delta and Air France. 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:36.720 This is not some bomb airline you've never heard of 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:39.600 or anything. These types of deals, you know, they're they're 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:43.680 totally random, they're unpredictable, and they don't tend to last long. 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:46.600 It's the other thing. You've got to book them really, 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:50.280 you know, in a matter of hours usually, And so 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:53.240 that's why finding out about it as early as possible 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:55.679 gives you as much time to decide if you're going 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:56.080 to take. 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:57.800 Advantage just the kind of trip that even if I 0:17:57.840 --> 0:18:01.600 wasn't planning to travel, Scott like you ability to show 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:04.040 a little bit of flexibility. I mean, that's that's certainly 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:04.639 where we're. 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:06.480 A one hundred percent. I mean that one hundred and 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:08.879 thirty dollars Milan flight. I woke up that morning with 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:12.320 zero intention of booking a flight to Italy was the 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:14.679 furthest thing from my mind. But when I stumbled across that, 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:16.800 fer didn't take a whole lot of convinced. 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:18.639 I tell you that, you're like, well, I guess I 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:19.400 got to do that now. 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:22.280 So yeah, exactly, I guess I'm going to Milan. I'm 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:24.520 not a fashionable guy, am I even welcome there? 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:27.720 Like, I'm sure you up your wardrobe while you were 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:29.919 while you were there, white white T shirt and black jeans. 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:31.080 I think you could pull that off. 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:34.679 I definitely splurged on some like, you know, skiing in 0:18:34.720 --> 0:18:37.520 the Alps, went to an ac Milan soccer game, went 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:40.119 hiking in Chinquitara, like some of the took some of 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:43.399 those flight savings and just reallocated it to other parts 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:43.879 of the trip. 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:46.439 That's awesome. I think what you're what you're getting at 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:49.159 too here is flexibility. One flexibility and being able to 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:52.240 just like purchase something really quickly, but also flexibility on 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:54.520 where you're going. Like you you didn't wake up wanting 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:55.960 to go to Milan, but she ended up going there 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:59.320 because the deal was so good. So talk about the 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:02.920 importance of flexibility when we're booking cheap airfare, like when 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:06.679 you fly the airline you fly, and even the destination absolutely. 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:08.520 So look, I think you know, when I'm asked for 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:12.359 the best cheap flights tip, uh that I can offer. 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:16.840 There are two types of trips. The type of trip 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:19.159 where you've got specific dates and place you want to 0:19:19.200 --> 0:19:21.600 go and you're hoping to get the best deal. That's 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:23.960 got a whole different set of recommendations. But when you've 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:26.960 got that uh, you know you're talking about a vacation. Oh, 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:29.520 I'm just hoping to get away, go somewhere with my 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:32.760 significant other and my family, whatever it is. Those are 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:36.879 the types of vacations where flexibility is by far the 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:39.399 most important thing that you can do to get a 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:44.320 cheap flight. So the way that most people and and 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:46.920 and and tell me, Matt and Joel, if this sounds familiar, 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:49.960 the way that most people plan their vacations is a 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:53.120 three step process. They say, step one, you decide where 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:55.919 you want to go, Step two, you decide when you 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:58.919 want to go there, and then step three you look, well, 0:19:59.040 --> 0:20:01.480 what are the flights called? What's what's the airfare look like? 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:02.480 Does that sound familiar? 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:05.520 The only I might swap one in two and I 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:08.359 might say the dates sometimes supersede the destination. 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:11.000 With kids on the school calendar, man, yeah, you're locked in. 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:16.560 That academic calendar is non totally totally, So step one 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:18.960 and two, when and where? Step three what are the 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:23.119 flights cost? Understandable? It's the traditional way of planning a vacation. 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:25.600 But what I like to tell folks is that, look, 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:29.200 if you if cheap flights are a priority, if you're 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:32.600 really hoping to get a good deal, take that same 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:35.240 three step process and flip it on its head. Don't 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:38.600 make cheap don't make the price of airfare the last priority. 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:42.440 Make it the first priority. Step one, what cheap flights 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:45.639 are available from my home airport? Understanding that this is 0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:48.720