We’re starting the year off strong with 10 brand new travel tips to save you money, make your trips more efficient, plan and prepare better, maximize holiday time off, and travel more often in 2025!

1. Enroll in loyalty programs for hotels, rental cars, and airlines 
   • Build status and rewards 
   • Keep a spreadsheet with login and account information 
   • Ways to get the next status up
     • Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card put you at Silver Status with Marriott
     • T- Mobile offers upgrades to Hilton Honors Silver
     • Amex platinum card also will increase your status to Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite and Hilton Honors Gold status. 
       
2. Organize your credit card information 
   • Keep a spreadsheet with benefits, perks, fine print, transfer partners and highlight each one that gets you the best deal. 
   • Keep track of how many credit cards you have and when you can qualify for the next sign up bonus. 
     
3. When trading in credit card points for flights, don’t book through a credit card travel portal. That’s basically like booking through a 3rd party, instead transfer your points to the airline directly (does require it to be a transfer partner) for the best deals and savings on business class flights 
   
4. Keep an eye out for points transfer deals
   • Recently Chase Ultimate Rewards had a 30% point bonus when transferring points to Marriott Bonvoy – makes your hotel stays 30% cheaper!
     
5. Invest in hotel credit cards 
   • Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt are top contenders 
   • Sign up bonus offers give you a bulk of points for free stays!
   • Anniversary perks- like 1 free night stay, basically pays for the cards annual fee 
   • Referral links- when someone signs up you’ll get more points yourself 
   • Often have bonus deals that they will email you (i.e. book 1 room before the end of the month and get an extra points) 
     
6. Connect your Lyft/Uber account for extra points 
   • Delta , Hilton honors, Hyatt and Alaska, BILT all have this
   • If you pay with your Chase Sapphire Reserve you get 10x points and Lyft Pink 
   • Marriott Bonvoy card – earn points with Uber rides and UberEats orders by linking accounts, can transfer points to Starbucks
     
7. Research DOT cancellation/delay policies
   • There is a table of domestic airlines and their cancellation/delay policies
   • Alaska is the best domestic airline to fly with and frontier is the worst (they don’t provide hotel accommodation or ground transportation if your flight is cancelled) 
   • You can also find out information regarding lost or delayed baggage. 
     
8. Maximize holiday days + vacation days
   • Typical holidays: New Years, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas 
   • Kim has off between Christmas and New Years
   • If your schedule is flexible, stack days together to work 5-6 in a row then take a vacation 
     
9. If you are taking a cruise look to see if flights are cheaper when booked with the cruise line, some have really good discounts 
   • When we did a Viking River cruise our flights were included at no extra cost. Sometimes we see 50% off or free flights offered with cruises
     
10. Stay up to date with travel restrictions and new rules.
    • Real ID required May 7, 2025.
    • New Visa requirement for Americans visiting Brazil
    • Americans will need a “Visa” for lots of European Union Countries when one was never required before.

2025 Travel Tips – Episode Transcript

0:35

And get ready to embark on a new adventure with us around the globe.

Hello fellow travelers.

Hey, squaddies.

Welcome to this week’s episode of the Travel Squad Podcast and happy New Year to you all.

This week’s episode is full of travel tips to help make this year your best travel year yet.

0:55

In the past year, we have all gotten a lot more strategic and savvy with points, travel, credit cards and hacks to get more bang for our buck out of our travel.

And hasn’t it been invigorating?

It’s been a great year.

Release on travel life, I could tell you that.

1:10

It really is, and this year is going to be even bigger and better than the years before for all of us.

We’re talking free hotel stays, free flights, free experiences on the dime of credit cards using points and hacks.

1:26

I’m really excited to share this episode with you guys because we’ve done a similar tips episode in the past.

We’ve had an entire episode on traveling and saving money and time.

We also have had one about top travel tips to help you travel better, but we’re sharing tips that we really haven’t talked about before because like Kim mentioned, we’re starting to dive more into the points and miles and hacks.

1:52

And so we’re going to share some of the insight with you.

We are going to be sharing that this entire episode is not just about credit card points and hacks.

A lot of the tips have themes around that, but we do have more for you other than that just as well that will come in handy and be tried and true stay with you forever.

2:10

So we’re going to spend a lot of time with the tips, just the tips today.

Tip #1 this is an obvious one, but a lot of people still don’t do it.

And that is enroll in loyalty programs for every hotel, rental car company and airline, and even things like other experiences.

2:29

Expedia even sign up for all those programs.

Yes, this helps you build status and rewards like Kim mentioned, Expedia is one of them.

Every time I take a trip with Expedia or book a hotel with Expedia, you get cash back.

And so then after you’ve taken it, it kind of just stockpiles and then eventually it’s enough for a free hotel.

2:49

There’s something so you can use it to book another amazing trip.

But we have a really good friend, Josh, and he sometimes travels for work.

And he was telling me that sometimes he can pick the actual hotel.

And I’m like, why aren’t you picking the hotel you want?

3:05

Why aren’t you signing up for these reward points and like loyalty memberships?

And he’s always like, wow, that’s a good idea.

But just do it.

You can help earn status and get free night stays.

I recently took a business trip and the company booked the flight through American Airlines.

3:23

I gave them all my information, but they did not use my royalty membership number when they booked it, right?

They didn’t have that information.

American Airlines actually emailed me and said, hey, we saw you took a trip.

You have about a week or whatever to log that trip to your account.

3:39

So even though I didn’t pay for that trip, I got the points associated with it.

That’s actually really nice, and I feel like not every airline is nice enough to do that.

So that was really nice on their part.

But another thing too is we all have the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card, and that card puts you at the next status up.

3:59

So if you’re already into their loyalty program and you’re just at the base status, then this card helps get you to Silver status with Marriott.

Without having to do the stays plus then if you are staying at Marriott, it’s a lot quicker to get to the next status up, which gives you things like discounted hotel rates, early check in or late check out, free room upgrades, etcetera.

4:23

So really, really most people, I mean we mentioned airlines and loyalty programs as part of it here.

Most people do that, although a lot still don’t.

But those rental cars, hotels people let go by the wayside, and you really shouldn’t.

T-Mobile also offers upgrades to Hilton Honors Silver if you do have a cell phone plan with T-Mobile.

4:44

And then if you’re real fancy and you have the Amex Platinum card, your status actually starts at Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite and Hilton Honors Gold status, so you’re even higher up in the status field.

And to keep track of all of this, what I’ve done is I’ve actually made a spreadsheet with the hotel or airline or whatever the loyalty program that that I’m enrolled in with a login and the account information.

5:11

And so I have it all put together.

So then when I do go to the hotel and I make sure that my membership is on file, I can just easily pull it up and look and not have to like login online and spend all of that extra time.

It’s all in one place.

And when you said the account information, you’re more particularly talking about your rewards number for each program so that it’s readily available.

5:32

E-mail and password as well.

I think you should take it up a notch though and add another column for points accrued as of a certain date so you always know how many points you have in each program.

That is next level Kim, have you added it to?

Yours step it up this year, Britt.

I know, I know, I’m so excited.

5:49

Tip #2 that we have for you guys is organize your credit card information on the theme of spreadsheets.

Keep a spreadsheet with the benefits, perks and fine print and who the transfer partners are.

As a good example, I have the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, I have the Amex Gold card, Brittany has the.

6:10

I have the Venture X card, I also have a Southwest Priority card, and I have the Chase Sapphire preferred card.

Now each of these are travel credit card that give you amazing perks.

At least the American Express, I shouldn’t say, is a travel credit card because it’s not more particularly the gold, but you can transfer your points from Amex to travel partners, take your points with them, put it to a said airline.

6:36

So all three of these cards work with some of the same airlines, some different ones.

So we have a spreadsheet that, hey, this is who we could transfer it to.

This card gives us so many points on groceries or gas.

The other ones give you so many points on everything else, etcetera, so that you can really maximize how much points you’re getting based off of which purchase you make where and with what credit card.

7:00

I need to see this spreadsheet and maybe we can even make a templated shareable spreadsheet.

Is it a Google Spreadsheet that you’re using?

It is, yeah.

See, like as a good example, something that I don’t want to ever forget is I always use my Sapphire Reserve because it gave me 3 times points on dining, but now on my Amex Gold card it gives me four times points on dining, four times points at groceries where Brittany’s Venture X is 2 times pretty much on everything.

7:31

Do you have like a column for points or do you have like a dining, grocery, gas column?

We have rows that will tell us how many points we get if we purchase it.

On each category or just general?

7:46

Are you granular?

It is by category, so.

OK, well I’m about to take that from y’all.

Yeah.

That way you know which card to use, so you maximize your point accruing potential.

I know even the Marriott credit card is like 6 times points or it’s 10 times points only up to the 1st 6000 a year on like grocery something something like that’s really hard information to remember to.

8:09

So if you have it in a spreadsheet, you can just reference that and make sure you’re you’re not letting points slip through the cracks.

Absolutely.

It also tells me how much we get for travel credits every year.

For like the Sapphire Reserve card, you get a $300.00 travel credit.

For the Venture X1, you also get a $300.00 travel credit, but you have to use it through the portal.

8:29

So then I have little reminder saying like you need to use it by this time or it renews this date.

So it’s very specific for us so we can help keep track and make sure we’re using all of our perks.

You also have a column on there that says when we applied for it and what our bonus points that we got for the opening if there was a bonus point with it too.

8:48

So it lists that, but more importantly, we list the opening date.

For what reason, in particular Brittany?

So that we know when we can cancel the card and reapply and get the points again.

So most programs are two years, but with the Sapphire cards, it’s a four year wait.

9:06

So then you just have to keep track of that.

So I have it all organized.

I love it.

And this gets us into like the next part of this tip, which is be sure to maximize the 524 rule.

And this only applies to personal credit cards, not business credit cards.

9:23

But you can only apply for five personal credit cards in a 24 month period or you’re likely to get denied.

So it’s very strategic on when to apply or when your partner applies and how you can really strategize and use these points, but it doesn’t apply to business credit cards.

9:42

We have a ton of other resources on our website just like this in our twice monthly newsletter.

We have links in our show notes to all of these resources that we talk about.

We have itineraries on our website, planners, templates, downloads.

Might be adding more soon after this episode.

9:59

So Squatty’s head over to travelsquadpodcast.com to get all of those today.

Tip #3 When you are trading in points from your credit card points to different travel partners, don’t book it through the credit card portal.

10:14

We were just talking about say Capital One.

You have to go through the portal to get that credit.

And on Chase Sapphire Reserve, for example, you want to book through the portal sometimes because you get extra points when you book through the portal.

So there are some benefits here, but there are also some downsides to doing so.

10:32

Right.

So those benefits that you’re talking about, can I just, I want to clarify that’s really if you are booking a trip from scratch and not utilizing your points, you don’t want to book through the portal utilizing your points because you get a better value when you trade your points to that partner airline.

10:48

As a really good example, let’s just say that 100,000 points is worth $1000 because that’s usually the breakdown between all major credit cards on that.

If I have 100,000 points and then I book a flight through said portal of which credit card and I utilize the 100,000 points, I’ll get $1000 off that flight.

11:10

Now if I’m trying to buy a business class flight as a good example, those are anywhere between 3500 plus dollars.

So I could use my 100,000 points, get $1000 off and I’m still paying $2500 for a business class ticket if I wanted because it will discount the cost.

11:27

Whereas if you trade those points, you can get a lot of business class flights with said airlines with their points for 75,000 to 100,000.

So when Brittany and I are going to be going to Thailand here pretty soon at the start of the year, we traded our points from my Chase Sapphire Reserve 200,100 thousand for me, 100,000 for Brittany over to Singapore Airlines reward program and we have our business class flights on a 17 1/2 hour flight.

11:58

I’m not going to be sitting in coach and I am gaming the system here because that point value if I bought Singapore Airline tickets through Chases portal would not be equivalent to the same value.

Yeah, For the both of us, it would have cost close to $9000.

And if we had used just the credit, we would have gotten like $2000 off of that.

12:17

So we would have still paid like $7000.

But since we just transferred our points instead, we got it pretty much for free.

It’s just a good reminder that in most cases, whether it’s an airline or a hotel or whatever, they’re going to give you the best rates when you book direct with them.

12:36

So if you can transfer your points, you’re probably going to be better off with the rates that they give you, the perks that they give you, the extras that they throw in because you booked direct, you didn’t go through a third party.

We recently had dinner with my dad and his girlfriend Stephanie, and they’re actually going to Japan in February.

12:56

And so she was talking about how she was using some of her built up points to book hotels.

And I think I just was like, what, what are you doing that for?

Like don’t do that.

They said book through the portal to get more points but don’t use your points to redeem hotel stays through the portal like.

13:15

Sometimes if you really want to stay somewhere and they’re not a transfer partner, you don’t have any choice.

Yeah, that’s true.

But I was like use it for something better.

Yeah, or if it’s going to be 30,000 points and 30,000 points isn’t going to do you on an airline transfer, then I get it.

13:32

But for the most part, she was talking about using a good portion of all her points to handle the hotels.

I’m like, ah, well, why don’t you guys fly business class to Japan instead with those points?

But.

See, people don’t know.

Another tip we have for you guys is to keep an eye out for point transfer deals.

13:49

So recently Chase Ultimate Rewards had a 30% bonus when transferring to Marriott Bonvoy.

We also saw deals to transfer points to British Airways.

Jamal, do you remember that?

Yeah, it was like 30% very recently.

So if you transferred 1000 points as an example, I’m only doing 1000 for simple math, they were giving you a 30% bonus.

14:10

So you would get 1300 points when you transferred it to British Airways when you only really had 1000 or transferred 1000.

So sometimes they will give you those added extras.

So keep an eye out when they have that because you could get more value for your points that way.

14:25

Of course it’s going to restrict you to flying with that airline because you’re transferring it, but nevertheless still a good deal a lot of the time.

They don’t notify you of these deals.

You’re not getting push notifications, you’re not getting e-mail notifications.

You actually have to log in to something like Chase Ultimate Rewards, go to the transfer partners, attempt to make a transfer, then you’ll see the promotion there.

14:48

So before you book anything, check all your different spaces to see if there could be a deal going that you’re just not aware of yet.

Tip #5 is going to be invest in hotel credit cards.

We kind of alluded to this a little bit earlier when we had mentioned we had the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless credit card, but there are all sorts of other ones.

15:09

Of course, Marriott, there’s a whole string of different credit cards that they offer with different perks, rewards, etcetera.

Again, we just happen to choose the Boundless because we feel like that fit our travel style better and the sign up bonus was great, but Hilton has it, Hyatt has it.

15:24

These are the big names in the the hotel industries, so always check and see what they have going on and it’s worth building points with them through these hotel credit cards.

So in the past Marriott had a bonus to what their standard sign up bonus was.

15:41

So usually if you sign up, you get three nights for free, but they had this extra bonus going on for a little while that instead of three free nights, you would get 5 free nights.

And so Jamal actually signed up for the card when they were having that promotion.

15:57

And so with that five free nights, we got to book two nights at the Saint Regis in Singapore and three nights at a beachfront Marriott resort in Phuket, Thailand.

I can’t wait to use it here in the coming days for that trip to Thailand and Singapore, and it’s going to be so much sweeter staying there knowing that I’m in a really nice place and I didn’t pay a dime for it.

16:17

Actually, I take that back.

I paid the $95 fee for that credit card, but realistically it’s giving me those five free nights for the sign up bonus and I can’t wait to redeem and enjoy that.

And with that credit card, we already have Marriott Silver status.

We need to stay 10 more nights to make it to Gold.

16:34

And these five free nights do count towards night stays for building status.

So then we’ll only have five nights left to get to gold on our own.

And we’re already staying like two nights in a Marriott in South Korea while we’re there, and we’re staying at a Marriott for a wedding.

16:51

So then we’ll really be down to like two nights and then we’ll be hitting gold pretty soon.

Just a hack, too.

We’re talking about the financial side of joining one of the hotel credit cards, but there are a ton of other benefits that just make your travel experience more enjoyable.

More luxurious, if you will.

17:08

Marriott in particular.

I don’t know if you guys have any other hotel credit cards, but Marriott does Automatic early check ins, late checkouts.

You’ll get things like free parking or upgrades, extra smiles at the front desk.

Absolutely, and beyond even the credit card and hacking it that way, I love the Marriott Bonvoy membership because they have a great app.

17:33

And whenever my reservation, that’s the day before, it says, hey, you can go ahead and check in.

You check in a little bit early.

I’ll get a push notification of my phone.

Your room is ready.

Do you want contactless check in?

And it will allow me to use my phone over the key card area.

17:48

I don’t even need a key sometimes I could just go straight in.

You already know what room you’re going to be in.

Very recently, Brittany and I, because of our status with Marriott, got a free room upgrade.

They put us in a little bit of a Annie suite, didn’t even ask for it, they just happened to do it for us.

18:04

That was a surprise.

Walking into the room, I loved it.

And then when you do have hotel credit cards, a lot of them have anniversary perks for keeping the card.

So for example, Marriott has like A1 free night stay every year and it basically pays for the cards annual fee.

So I feel like really getting a lot of deals with this.

18:22

You also get all these bonus points when you book.

Marriott does all these random specials.

They’re doing one at this moment that if you book a stay and it’s at least two nights that you get like 12,000 bonus points.

I did one over the summer where across the summer months, if you stayed two different times, you could get I think 7500 bonus points the first one and like 15,000 bonus points for the second stay, both of which I got.

18:48

All those points add up to free future stays.

And if someone is seeing all of this booking that you’re doing with these cards and they’re interested, you can you can send them your referral link and you’ll get more points when they sign up.

Speaking of points going on to #6 here for you guys, connect your Lyft or Uber accounts to receive extra points.

19:09

What do we mean by that?

Delta Hilton Honors, Alaska Airlines credit card built that’s making a big name for itself here.

People don’t really know about it, but it is coming on to the scene or even with your Chase Sapphire Reserve.

19:24

So if you connect your Lyft and Ubers to these vendors, they will actually give you a point for point value when you take a Lyft or Uber.

So as a good example, you can connect your Lyft with Delta Airlines.

Every dollar that I spent on Lyft now is a point that I’ve received with Delta Airlines on my Chase Sapphire Reserve.

19:47

If I pay for my Lyft ride with my Chase Sapphire Reserve, I get 10 times the point.

So normally that would just be a 1% purchase, maybe three if they counted it actually as a travel, But I get 10 times, so you get extra with that.

You know, I’m talking a lot about the Marriott Bonvoy credit card because it’s the newest one that I have come into the family of and I really, really like it.

20:09

It also can connect to like Uber rides, Uber Eats, so you’re collecting points when you order from there.

The other thing, we’re talking a lot about getting hotels and flights for free, right?

But you still have to eat.

You need your coffee, you need experiences.

20:25

The Marriott card you can connect it with your Starbucks account and you can actually transfer your Marriott points into Starbucks stars and get free food free drinks and use it that.

Way wow lots of different perks so you.

That’s a great way to do it, although I would say that would be a waste of points to take it and put it into Starbucks well.

20:44

Look, if you are already getting a free hotel and a free flight and your only expenses are food, drink, and experiences, those are the things you’re going to have to pay for.

So if you can get those for free too, then your trip is free.

That’s a great perspective to look at it that way.

I just want to say real quick too, for all you squaddies out there, as we’re talking about credit cards, et cetera, all these ones that we’re mentioning by name, we have nobody is sponsoring us on them.

21:10

We just really love these credit cards.

And of course, we’re talking about sign up bonuses, et cetera, which requires sometimes minimum spins.

We really want to advocate to use squaddies to purchase responsibly.

We’re not talking about going out and doing something crazy.

21:26

Credit cards are a great tool to utilize if you can do them responsibly.

So do use credit cards responsibly to get these travel perks and amazing things that come with it.

Step #7 Research Department of Transportation Cancellation and Delay policies.

21:42

US is finally starting to catch on to how airlines keep fucking us over with their delays, and now we’re going to be compensated for it.

Yeah.

There’s actually a table of domestic airlines and their cancellation delays and policies that you can review on the dot website.

22:00

Recently, we had flown Alaska and our flight was cancelled.

And so they did put us in a hotel.

They did give us each a food credit and they did pay for our transportation from the airport to the hotel that we were at as well.

22:18

And then they rebooked us on the flight, which we got points for and all of that.

But not every domestic carrier does this.

By reading this table, I found that Alaska is actually the best domestic airline to fly with, and Frontier is one of the worst.

22:34

They don’t provide accommodations or ground transportation if your flight’s cancelled.

So really take a look at that because you might want to save money.

But then sometimes it’s not worth it if your flight gets cancelled and then you have to pay for a hotel on your own.

And a lot of times airlines will offer you something that’s not within the legal requirement that they are supposed to do.

22:54

And if you take it, I think it’s one of those little Gray areas where, hey, we offered you something, you took it.

And if you don’t really know what you’re eligible for, they’re not going to give you that.

So you should know these rules.

That way, when these certain cancellations happen to you or delays that go beyond a certain amount of hours, you were entitled to a certain amount of compensation, they will give you something.

23:17

Most people will take it without knowing what they’re fully entitled to, so be sure to look into that.

And of course, we mentioned there is a new law coming into place.

It’s kind of going to standardize things, but rules and laws are always changing.

So you can always go to the Department of Transportation website and find all these rules listed on there when you search it.

23:37

I think it’s always worth asking too.

I was inspired actually because I I haven’t been one to ask.

Say your flight was delayed for an hour or so, maybe they’re not required to provide any type of compensation or voucher, but it doesn’t stop you from asking, right?

23:53

You’ve been inconvenienced.

I can’t say that I’ve ever done this, but we were coming back from West Virginia last year and I was supposed to leave before you guys.

And I ended up leaving like 30 minutes after you guys because my flight kept getting delayed and delayed and delayed and delayed.

24:10

And as I was standing in line to board, there was this fabulous lady behind me who was talking about it.

And she was also in the exact same situation.

And she said, I asked the front desk, not the front front desk, but the front desk where you bored.

24:27

She said.

She asked them what are you going to do to make this better for me?

And they gave her a voucher.

Oh wow.

Look at that and knowing these little things and even going ahead and asking like that, that’s amazing.

We were talking about Alaska and you mentioned how at least as it stands now, one of the best in terms of compensating passengers for inconveniences.

24:48

This wouldn’t be anything of a delay of sorts in terms of your flight time, etcetera.

But Alaska Airlines has a baggage rule policy that from time of landing, if your luggage is not on the conveyor belt coming out within 20 minutes from the time you land, they will give you a voucher for $25.00 credit.

25:08

So you can actually use it as a cash value credit with Alaska directly or convert it into points with within their program.

So one of the last times we flew Alaska.

We landed and we set the timer.

And this was the time that we were delayed that Brittany was just mentioning.

25:24

We ended up landing the next day so.

What was the time on it?

I think we were at like 25 minutes so.

And I was aggravated just because of all of the stuff from travelling and you know, you know, Jamal when he gets in his little bit of moods.

I was in one.

So as soon as it hit 21 minutes, I went and I said, hey, look, I’m not trying to be petty.

25:42

I would like my.

Certificate, but I’m going to be.

And then they’re like, OK, no problem.

As soon as your luggage comes out, come back in and I’ll be be sure to give it to you.

And then sure enough, they gave one to me and Brittany and we got 50 bucks just because it took a little bit longer than 20 minutes.

So you’re petty knowing all these different rules.

25:58

Well, granted, that’s not a Department of Transportation rule, but that’s an airline perk thing that they give.

So just it goes all with that theme and tip here.

Just know what you are entitled to.

It sounds like another spreadsheet is in order.

And we talked about delayed flights, cancelled flights, but they’re also rules about lost or delayed luggage and what you’re entitled to if your bag is lost or delayed and what makes it considered delayed versus lost in that time period.

26:26

So be sure to look at all of those rules and check them out because if they do delay your bag for over a certain amount of hours, you can actually purchase things, keep your receipts and then they do and reimburse you for the essentials.

So good to know for sure.

Tip #8 maximize your holiday days with your vacation days.

26:45

Since we are at the beginning of the year, you have the whole year ahead of you to plan for days that you’re automatically going to get PTO.

At a lot of businesses, things like New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, these are all standard holidays for a lot of places.

27:03

So if you pair your travel to overlap with those days, you will need to use less PTO.

Kim, your job and some other jobs, like my dad when he was working my brother’s job, they gave their employees off the time between Christmas and New Year’s.

27:20

So it’s like a built in vacation because you have that amount of time and this past year you used it for a vacation.

Absolutely.

Every year before I had always done absolutely nothing during that week, like watch reality TV, clean my house, that kind of stuff.

27:36

All the fun stuff to decompress from the year.

But this past year I wanted to spend Christmas in Iceland, and that’s exactly what I did.

Didn’t have to, exactly.

And I did not have to request any PTO for it.

And I’ve mentioned this before, I am a nurse, I’m in healthcare.

27:53

I work 312 so I have four days off during a week if I stack them together.

So if I work Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, I can be off Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday from one week and then Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of the next week and then work Thursday, Friday, Saturday without using any PTO.

28:14

I’ve just stacked all of my time off together, although it’s not guaranteed that they have to accommodate that schedule most of the time, especially with where I am and my team.

Most of the time I get that.

So then I can use that for a built in vacation without having to use any PTO. #9 for you guys is going to be for the cruisers in you.

28:36

And I love a good cruise.

Unfortunately, it’s been a while since I’ve been on one.

But if you are taking a cruise, look to see if the flights are cheaper when booked with the cruise line versus you buying the flights direct to get there.

28:52

Because of course, there’s only so many cities in the US where there’s big large cruise ports.

More than likely you’re going to have to fly to one.

And typically in the past, we would just book the cruise, buy our own flights to really make sure we can get in on time, do our things.

But recently, who was it that told us that they booked their flights through the cruise company and it was substantially cheaper to add on the flights versus buying them direct?

29:18

I actually read that tip in the book called Filling My Bucket by Cole Sholem and he did a lot of cruising and he talked about it in this book and he talks about the value you get from booking with a cruise line directly.

And the one experience I have had with that was Jamal and I did take a Viking River cruise for our honeymoon and our flights were actually included with the cruise at no additional cost.

29:47

And sometimes I still get their pamphlets and everything.

So sometimes they offer 50% off or free flights covered with the cruises.

So definitely take a look at that.

And with major cruise lines, they also have savings up to like 30 to 40% as well.

Yes.

30:02

When I said we’ve never booked our flights with a cruise line, I guess it was when it wasn’t included.

Of course with that Viking one, it was included.

But one of the cool things about that, especially if you’re booking with Viking, unless they’ve changed it, it was in Europe.

We need to come back.

30:18

We wanted to go to another country that was close by.

We’re like, hey, we’re already here.

Let me call them and see how much it would cost to basically tell them instead of coming home this day, can you fly us here?

And then from there, we want to fly home and we’re willing to pay whatever supplement cost.

It was figured out.

30:34

But because the flights were included and this is a big company, they work with a lot of the airlines, they were like, Oh no, there’s no additional charge.

So we added on extra flights at no additional charge when booking it through them.

I can’t guarantee that that’s really going to happen, but those are some of the perks that may happen for you when you take part in some of those specials and deals through them.

30:54

So the last tip we have for you, Squatty, is, is to stay up to date with travel restrictions and new rules.

So when the US, they’ve been pushing REAL ID over the last few years and they’ve kept delaying it and delaying it.

But supposedly it’s going to go into effect in May 2025.

31:12

We’ll see if that actually happens or not.

May 7th to be exact.

And like you had just alluded to Brittany, they’ve pushed it back, I think delayed it three Times Now.

Will this be a fourth?

I don’t know.

I really think at some point they’re just going to have to commit, but stay up to date on if it’s really going to happen or if they are going to push it back.

31:30

If it goes through and you don’t have a real ID, sorry to you, you’re not flying.

You need to come to the airport with a passport.

So that is a new regulation coming down the pipe that you should be aware about.

There’s also new visa requirements for Americans visiting Brazil and this is actually supposed to go in effect in 2024.

31:49

Jamal and I actually applied for the Brazil visa.

Jamal got approved immediately.

I had to reapply like 3-4 times because they had a lot of issues with my passport photo and meeting regulations and I I think I had to go redo it and a whole bunch of stuff.

32:04

But anyways, I finally got it approved and then I find out that the requirements being postponed and I actually didn’t need it.

Yeah.

As soon as hers got approved, the news came, hey, we’re postponing this until 2025, April 10th, 2025, we had our Brazil trip in September.

32:23

So at that point in time when we applied, we were still anticipating by September of 2024 you would need it.

So I have some 10 year Brazil visas just sitting that we are not utilizing.

And they were kind of expensive.

They were like $80.00 a person.

So if you’re going to be going to Brazil, just know after April 10th, 2025, you need it again, of course, unless they change it and push it back again.

32:44

So stay up to date.

I would say one last thing that we want to mention here on staying up to date on travel restrictions and new rules, etcetera, is Americans will need a visa for lots of European countries when it was never required before.

33:00

And when I say visa, I’m air quoting.

I know you guys can’t see because they’re trying spin it like it is not a visa.

You just have to do an online application before you go.

It’s going to be 779 per person.

It will allow you up to 90 days within the European Union and some European countries here for you.

33:20

But you do have to do the application ahead of time.

It was supposed to go into effect already.

They pushed it back to 2025 again.

Stay up to date on if they’ll make that change and push back.

That’s one I have to stay up to date on because I’m planning to go to Europe in May, so I will be watching that one.

33:37

There’s a lot of weird nuances.

Some countries require that you have two full blank pages available in your passport, so just do your research on each and every country you’re going to and those weird stipulations that pop up.

Yeah.

And the Europe one in particular, they say it’s going to go into effect mid 2025, but they haven’t even put an official date on that yet.

33:58

So will it even really happen or not?

But it will eventually.

But is it like Real ID going to be postponed a million times TBD?

What was it for South Africa, Jamal?

I think we had to have 5 blank pages in a row.

Something to that effect I It wasn’t South Africa, it was Zimbabwe.

34:13

Zimbabwe, yeah.

So just make sure you have some room in your passport.

When you do get a new passport, ask for one with more pages because it’s no additional cost.

Thanks so much Squatty’s, for tuning into this week’s episode.

Keep the adventures going with us on all the socials at Travel Squad Podcast.

34:29

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34:46

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