How To Save On Travel In 2023, According To A Flight Deals Expert

Canceled or delayed flights can wreak havoc on your plans — and your wallet. You might have to pay for meals you didn’t budget for or even get an extra night at a hotel.

While a canceled or delayed flight might not be something you can easily plan for, you can take steps to minimize the risk of it happening to you — or the consequences if it still does.

Here’s what Keyes suggests:

• Book non-stop flights. When you have no layovers to worry about, you’re more likely to avoid serious disruptions. If your non-stop flight is late, you might just need to wait for an extra hour or two. But if you have a connecting flight, the delay might cause you to miss it. “And then all of a sudden, you’re reliant on being rebooked,” Keyes says. “But in some situations, it could be a day or two until the next available flight.”
• Pick early morning flights. According to Keyes, early morning flights have a higher completion rate due to better flying conditions. Plus, airplanes awaiting early flights are parked at the airport overnight, waiting and ready to go.
• Avoid checking a bag. A delay or cancellation can be much easier to deal with if you don’t have checked luggage. “If you show up at your connecting flight and it gets canceled and they need to accommodate you, it’s just much simpler if they don’t have to also try to find your bag in the belly of one plane and switch it to another plane,” Keyes says. On top of that, you’ll avoid becoming an unfortunate hero of the all-too-common story where your bag gets lost or leaves for your destination without you.
• Call the airline’s international office. In case your trip does get interrupted, you’ll want to have it rebooked as soon as possible to prevent further disruptions. Chances are, standing in line at the airport with fellow travelers will take a while, as well as trying to get through to the airline’s customer service in the U.S. “Basically, all airlines have offices all around the world,” Keyes says. “You can call any one of those offices and get through to an agent much quicker, but that agent can help rebook you just the same.”

“You need to have decent credit,” he says. “You need to be able to handle credit responsibly, treating a credit card like a debit card, not spending money you don’t have and paying off your balance every month. [Otherwise] interest is going to far outweigh any benefits you’ll get from points or miles.”

If you haven’t gotten into tracking points and miles yet, Keyes suggests getting one card, earning the welcome bonus and then spending it on free travel. After that, you can decide for yourself if you’ve enjoyed it and if that’s something you want to continue to do.

“If you do one card, open it up, put most of your spending on it, that’s going to get you one free flight every year,” he says. “And for a lot of people, that’s plenty.”