Stretching Your Dollar: Best Late Summer Vacation Options

<div class="block">Bobby Laurie, co-host of &#39;The Jet Set,&#39; joined Cheddar News to talk about late summer get-aways on the cheap. He provides tips and a unique prospective and as a former flight attendant</div>

Stretching Your Dollar

All right. Well, first we do have some good news. It's August, which means there is still time to plan a summer get away. But in this economy it can be hard to do that on the cheap. That's for sure. I want to bring in Bobby Lori, a travel expert who learned the best ways to travel first hand as a flight attendant Bobby as we near the end of summer. Is it possible to squeeze in a trip before the season ends? Well, hi there, Kristen. Thanks for having me and yes, absolutely. There's still some good deals to be had and you know, as a travel advisor as well. I've seen a recent surge in people booking last minute cruises just like you were just talking about. It really seems to be the go to method for travel this summer because you can unpack once visit a few different countries. Maybe you only need to worry about two flights to get there. And with the way that the airline industry has been lately, that will take a lot of stress off of what should be a relaxing vacation. Ok. So at this point, we are kind of late in the game. Would you recommend an international trip or that people should stay local? Ok. Well, well, Europe is pretty expensive last minute. Now, it was the first destination to book up at the start of the season. And if you couple that with the airline issues and an international trip really could become more of a headache than an enjoyable experience. So keep it local. There's some great places around every neighborhood or within a short road trips, drive that you can explore. But if you really want that international trip, try keeping it on a cruise that departs the US, there's a lot going on behind the scenes right now at the US Airlines, not just their ability to operate their schedules, but a lot of their work groups have contracts that are up for negotiation and it's becoming pretty tense and you just don't want to add that stress to your trip, especially if you're trying to pack it in last minute before the summer ends. Bobby for anyone who needs to fly this summer. What are the cheapest ways to find the best flight? Ok. One of my best tips is to use Google flights. Now, of course, they'll show you the cheapest tickets that are available even if there is 15 connections. But they'll also let you set a fair alert. So if you're planning in advance, you can receive an email. The second, the price drops between your departure and arrival city so you can jump on the cheaper ticket. And I would also say check with the airlines website themselves because if you're doing a web search for the cheapest ticket, you may end up on a website for an agency or a service that adds on extra fees for booking with them. But if you were on the airlines website, you wouldn't have those fees added. Ok. Really good advice. Plus I get you, I guess you probably get some miles right. If you book directly on, on the airline for those who want to travel on the cheap Bobby, what would you recommend to them? Now, I'm thinking that you would probably think that my first tip would be plan ahead, but that actually is only true when it comes to airline tickets because they're very expensive in the seven days prior to departure. However, for everything else, if you can go last minute and you have a means of getting there, it's probably cheaper and you can always find last minute cruise at substantial discounts rather than booking them months or years in advance. And the same can be said for some hotels and resorts as well. They have rooms to fill and they don't make money when they're empty. So the closer you get to departure date, you're going to see them on sale. But that comes with the caveat because if they're almost sold out then and they're seeing that demand, the prices may begin to soar and if they are sold out well, then you don't have a vacation to go to. So I guess the best tip for traveling on the cheap would be to stay flexible. Ok. Stay flexible. I like it. What about planning a winter getaway? I know we're some ways away, but obviously it can help to kind of map things out, especially as the school year gets started. When is the right time to start looking into that? I would start looking into a winter getaway. Now actually go ahead and see what the flight prices are set. Those airfare alerts get an idea so that when the fare drops, you can go ahead and book it at the cheapest price. And with the travel resurgence that we are seeing, we are looking at people making reservations months in advance. So you don't want to get to the point where there's no availability left when you go to plan and it's never too early to look at flights around the holidays because those prices rarely do change. But I would say, you know, based on what we've been seeing lately in the industry, if you are booking flights around the holidays, make sure you're giving yourself a little bit of buffer time. You don't want to fly in the morning of an event or a dinner or a party just in case you, you encounter a delay or a cancellation. And one really good tip always look at the flight after yours, make sure there's at least one, maybe two after yours. So that if yours does cancel, there is a way for you to actually get to your destination that day. You don't have to wait till the next day. These tips have saved me. Let me tell you amid some rough weather last holiday season, Bobby, you are the expert here. A former flight attendant yourself. How can travelers fly more comfortably? Ok. So that's a, that's a really interesting question because I've been on planes for years. I have no problem sleeping on planes. I'm always very comfortable. But I would say first and foremost, you need to really understand the space you're in. So if you are traveling on an ultra low cost carrier, your seat probably doesn't recline. So you might want to bring a pillow, you might not want to bring a personal item. So you have more leg room. It's all about planning ahead for your personal space and your personal comfort. You're also going to want to remember that if you get hungry, bring a snack, if you get thirsty, bring a reusable water bottle, if the airlines are encountering these delays and cancellations, so the catering might not always be 100% perfect and they're not going to take a delay to wait for that stuff either. So if you really are going to need that, take it, but I would say my number one tip for being the most comfortable is just to remember that we're all on that airplane for the, for the same reason, trying to go from point A to point B, we're all dealing with the same stresses that come with travel. So just be aware of that and treat each other around you with common courtesy and the whole travel experience would just be better, you know, it best to Bobby Lori. Thanks so much for the tips.