Nick Ewen of The Points Guy offers tips for travelers who plan on hitting the road for the upcoming 4th of July holiday, which is expected to have a record number of travelers.
00:00With record-breaking crowds at airports and over 70 million Americans on the move,
00:04for many the 4th of July travel rush has already begun.
00:09All right, here with expert tips ahead of the holidays,
00:12Nick Nguyen, Senior Editorial Director at The Points Guy.
00:18Thanks for joining us here.
00:20Boy, it seems like every holiday we hear about record travel,
00:23not only roadways, but also at the airports.
00:26Now, what's your top tip for anyone flying July 3rd or the 4th?
00:33I think the number one tip anytime you have these busy holiday travel periods is to pack your patience.
00:38Allow plenty of time to get through security, to find your gate, to queue to get food in the airport.
00:45The other thing to keep in mind is if you're flying, leave enough time to get to the airport.
00:50The vast majority of people traveling over 4th of July are going to be on the roads.
00:54So if you're flying, you may think, oh, well, that's not going to impact me.
00:57But if you have an hour drive to the airport on a normal day, it could take 90 minutes or two hours, depending on traffic.
01:03So leave plenty of time if you are taking to the skies this holiday weekend.
01:08Here at the AccuWeather Center, we have what's called the Rayno rule.
01:12I'm rolling my eyes.
01:13I want to see if you agree with me.
01:15The best time to fly is always in the morning.
01:19And my thought is a lot of places, if you can get the first flight out, they usually have the plane there the night before.
01:25And also it gives you time if there's any changes to change your plans.
01:31I would definitely agree with that.
01:33Obviously, work schedules, camp schedules don't always allow people to catch that first flight in the morning.
01:38But it's generally a special, especially around the summer, get those afternoon thunderstorms that typically pop up down here in Florida, in Atlanta, in Charlotte.
01:47So earlier in the day typically tends to be better.
01:50Another tip that I often like to do with my family is if we're taking an early morning flight, we actually may try to get a cheap hotel room near the airport for the night before.
01:59So we can drive up, we don't have to worry about getting up at the crack of dawn, getting all the house closed down.
02:04We'll actually grab a cheap hotel room and then take that early morning flight.
02:08And that way your vacation gets started a little bit earlier.
02:10Yeah, probably less stressful because you said pack your patience.
02:13And it's hard to be patient if your stress level is already very high.
02:15So you kind of walk in and you're a little bit calmer.
02:17All right, we're seeing lower airfare prices this year.
02:20Is it still possible to find last minute travel deals?
02:24Surprisingly, yes.
02:25I can't remember the last time that we were talking about summer travel deals at the end of June.
02:30They are definitely out there.
02:32As a whole, airfare for 4th of July is up a little bit, but there definitely are still deals out there.
02:38So leverage your favorite search engine.
02:40I'm a big fan of Google Flights.
02:42It's a great way to quickly scan all available dates.
02:45If you're flexible with your dates, you don't have to travel over 4th of July.
02:49You can look at a variety of different time windows for your trip.
02:52Another key tip, if you love your points and miles like we do here at the Points Guy, the PointsPath browser extension actually layers on top of Google Flights and allows you to compare mileage rates for many popular airlines.
03:05So another great way to look at potentially using those rewards for summer travel.
03:09All right.
03:09What should travelers do if their flight is delayed or canceled this week?
03:14Well, the first thing to do is try to be as proactive as possible.
03:19Oftentimes, you can actually track the inbound plane for your flight.
03:22So sometimes you can see if it's going to be delayed even before the delay is actually posted.
03:28So if you're scheduled to fly from Florida and your plane is still sitting up in the New York area and it's an hour or two before your departure, your flight's not going to leave on time, even if it's saying that it is.
03:37From there, you want to try to pull out all the stops, maybe send one of your travel party members to the airline lounge, get another one on the phone, another one stand in line at the rebooking desk.
03:48The key is to get ahead of the rush if there is ultimately going to be a delay or a cancellation because capacity is going to be limited for getting rebooked.
03:56So the quicker you can snag that new flight, the better off you're going to be.
04:00And what are the biggest mistakes people make when they are traveling over a holiday weekend and how can they avoid it?
04:08I think one of the biggest things is leaving too short of a connection.
04:12Often airports, even their officially allowed minimum connection times are not really realistic.
04:19So leave a little bit of that additional buffer.
04:22True, hanging out in the airport is not necessarily the most fun, but it's a lot better than missing your flight.
04:27And again, really just allowing plenty of time to get to the airport, to get to your final destination.
04:33The other thing is I would recommend advanced reservations as much as you can, whether it's tours or restaurants, especially in some of those popular destinations.
04:43Things are going to be filling up this summer.
