✈️ 3 ways to avoid overspending on your holiday bookings

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Good morning ☀️ from Booked It On Points: A curated collection of travel tips and personal stories by me, Allie→ because you’re meant to experience meaningful travel no matter life’s constraints 👊🏽

Let’s dive in.

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📉 A business class seat on a transatlantic flight to Europe is ALWAYS more than 40k points, except right now. This deal is delicious and should be thoroughly considered. The actual flight is for 57k points but with the current Chase 30% transfer bonus going on for Avios flights, you only need to transfer 40k points. Points + miles, you can be confusing, but I still love you.

Picture it → Arrive to Ibiza via business class 😎. Head to the club to do a line of…dancing 🕺.

✈︎ Points + Miles

TOP STORY: Avoid these top 3 mistakes when booking holiday travel

It’s that time of year. Holiday travel planning has commenced and it’s about time those flights are good and booked. According to Google, the cheapest time to book for Thanksgiving is 45 days before departure and flights for Christmas are cheapest 58 days before departure.

That means, if you haven’t done-so already, book for Thanksgiving ASAP and Christmas/ New Years travel before the end of this month. There are major predications that holiday travel will be nuts this season and prices will spike as the time approaches.

A couple mistakes to AVOID→

• Using the wrong credit card: Make sure you’re using your travel card that carries travel insurance with it. Numerous cards will reimburse you for covered trip cancellations, trip interruptions or other issues.

  • Check out this card and this card for a ton of coverage for trip delays/interruptions

  •  This one which has luggage covered as well as travel accident insurance

• Using too many points + miles: You know my feelings for points + miles redemptions: it’s a valuable redemption if it afforded you a trip. Just be weary of holiday pricing.

  More dynamic pricing models over the holiday could mean you may spend all your points, which would leave you without anything in the new year!

• Too tight on the layover: The general rule I follow for layover time is 60 minutes for domestic and 90 minutes for international. Don’t forget, holiday travel is CRAZY, I would opt for flights with generous layover times to account for delays and crowds.

My top advice→ Be as flexible as you possibly can in where, when and how you travel. If you have to leave at 5 p.m. on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, you may be in for some sticker shock.

✈︎ Life Beyond The Grind

A life update: What about the kids?

Life in the new year will look vastly different than anything we’ve experienced before. As many know, we’ve quit our jobs and are making major moves to change our way of life.

We’ve made the decision to enroll our kids in a world schooling opportunity called The Boundless Life. I could go on and on about my feelings about the traditional western education system, but I’ll spare you my soap box and just say that the curriculum and approach to learning with The Boundless Life is very different.

Leaving our family and friends for this is incredibly difficult. We truly believe this experience we’re seeking is an incredible way to raise our children in this world and it aligns with our sense of creating the life we want to live, not simply living in a system because that’s all we know and what we’re taught.

We’ve officially started the onboarding process which includes e-documents, zoom calls and 1:1 interactions so that the local Boundless team can get to know our family thoroughly before our arrival. It feels like we’re on the precipice of something truly extraordinary. I’m grateful.

As for the work I’m doing on the home front→ we’ll be renting out our home to cover our mortgage while we’re away, figuring out health insurance abroad, and how to not over pack as a family of 4 moving into a small European apartment.

✈︎ Travel News

Book a cruise with…Southwest ?

Southwest Airlines has expanded its offerings to include cruise bookings, allowing customers to earn 2x Rapid Rewards points on every cruise purchase. The new feature gives access to a variety of major cruise lines, including Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian. Travelers can now book their cruises seamlessly through Southwest's website while benefiting from exclusive deals and added rewards. This move aligns with Southwest's aim to provide more comprehensive travel options to its customers.

Disney lovers, I’m sorry

Disneyland is raising ticket prices again, with some ticket categories seeing a substantial increase. The price hikes include both single-day and multi-day passes, along with add-ons like the Genie+ service, which allows visitors to skip lines. The changes are part of broader efforts to manage park capacity and improve guest experience. While this may help reduce overcrowding, many visitors feel the rising costs make Disneyland increasingly inaccessible to the average family.

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If you’ve made it this far, my sincerest thank you. I wish you well on the rest of your day!

Allie