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Unlocking Travel Deals in 2025 - Travel Tip Tuesday · Travel Mug Podcast

• 0:00
  Meggan: Hey everyone and welcome back to the travel mug podcast.
• 0:02
  Meggan: This is travel tip Tuesday.
• 0:04
  Meggan: I am joined as always by Jenn.
• 0:06
  Meggan: How are you doing here in these early days of 2025?
• 0:11
  Jenn: I am doing pretty well.
• 0:15
  Jenn: We are staying put, mostly.
• 0:17
  Jenn: I think this winter we're home.
• 0:19
  Jenn: So, got lots of house stuff going on.
• 0:23
  Jenn: I've been doing a lot of purging.
• 0:25
  Jenn: So, you know, New Year, get rid of all your stuff.
• 0:28
  Jenn: That's a saying, right?
• 0:29
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 0:29
  Meggan: um, it is now and I love to purge so I totally understand.
• 0:34
  Meggan: Excellent.
• 0:35
  Meggan: I think a little bit of nesting during the winter months makes sense.
• 0:39
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 0:39
  Meggan: Alrighty, so this week, our travel tip is actually inspired by our very own Jenn.
• 0:45
  Jenn: Aw.
• 0:45
  Meggan: I know.
• 0:47
  Meggan: We ended our year last year with a thank you episode, and we actually discussed what our 2025 travel plans are, which for each of us aren't many yet.
• 0:58
  Meggan: What the what?
• 0:59
  Meggan: Um, we're getting on it.
• 1:00
  Meggan: We're getting on it.
• 1:01
  Meggan: We swear.
• 1:01
  Meggan: But one thing Jenn did mention is that her travel plans this year will be partially influenced and inspired by seat sales.
• 1:09
  Meggan: And honestly, besides being a great idea, It got me thinking, in this economy with the cost of living all over the world being so high for most of us, let's try and make 2025 the year of the travel deal.
• 1:22
  Meggan: So, I always think to travel deals back when I used to work in the travel industry, which I know are different from sort of the regular layman person out in the world, but many moons ago, I did work in the travel industry and working in the industry back then, even though they weren't as good as the deals before my time, uh, they did afford, Perks and deals that the general public, of course, didn't have access to, such as flying for 30 Canadian for two people to Las Vegas.
• 1:52
  Meggan: Peter and I did that in 2006, but the deals, of course, even in the travel industry are harder and harder to come by as they have been for years.
• 2:00
  Meggan: So you know when the industry deals aren't what they used to be, what does that mean for the rest of us?
• 2:05
  Jenn: Right?
• 2:06
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 2:06
  Meggan: I know.
• 2:07
  Meggan: So what can the average traveler do to search for travel deals?
• 2:12
  Meggan: So my first thought is that you have to be flexible.
• 2:15
  Meggan: To find a deal, you have to be available when the deal is available.
• 2:19
  Meggan: So being able to be flexible, in my opinion, is a true, like, first must.
• 2:24
  Meggan: My second suggestion is setting up alerts on sites such as Skyscanner, Kayak, and Google Flights.
• 2:31
  Meggan: Just input where and when and set up tracking and be ready like have your bag partially packed, you know.
• 2:39
  Meggan: Um, I would also suggest booking in advance when possible.
• 2:43
  Meggan: So let's say I'm referring in this regard that if you know you want a few weekends away for later in the year.
• 2:49
  Meggan: So not a seat sale required.
• 2:52
  Meggan: Find somewhere with a reasonable cancellation policy and book early.
• 2:56
  Meggan: There are 100 percent for sure deals to be had for early bird bookers.
• 3:01
  Meggan: It's happened to us several times in early bird discount.
• 3:05
  Meggan: So the deals are there to be had.
• 3:07
  Meggan: If you can find a place where you can maybe cancel still a few days in advance in case something comes up.
• 3:13
  Meggan: Book it.
• 3:15
  Meggan: My next suggestion is to search for travel deals such as packaged travel on sites like Travelzoo or Redtag, just to name a few.
• 3:23
  Meggan: There's lots out there.
• 3:24
  Meggan: Last minute deals aren't even what they used to be, uh, but there are still some decent deals to be had.
• 3:30
  Meggan: So why not wake up on a Monday and by Saturday be heading out of town?
• 3:34
  Meggan: I mean
• 3:34
  Jenn: Why not?
• 3:35
  Meggan: Why not?
• 3:36
  Meggan: How amazing does that sound?
• 3:38
  Meggan: One thing I've done as well as you could also find some local travel agents and follow them on Facebook.
• 3:44
  Meggan: I see deals posted all the time and they're not just for tropical destinations.
• 3:50
  Meggan: So it's a really great way to sort of be kept up to date on deals just passively as you Scroll through your Facebook feed.
• 3:57
  Meggan: And then finally, in 2024, we had Danielle from the Thought Card Podcast slash blog on the show, and one of her amazing suggestions was to sign up for newsletters that come straight to your inbox with deals.
• 4:10
  Meggan: We're gonna put a link put in the show notes to her blog on this very topic, and what's easier than signing up once and kind of just forgetting about it and then watching the deals roll in.
• 4:21
  Jenn: I mean, there you go.
• 4:22
  Jenn: Besides the fact that I have thousands of unread emails.
• 4:25
  Jenn: But, you know, it's
• 4:26
  Meggan: Right.
• 4:27
  Meggan: Maybe just a couple.
• 4:27
  Meggan: Maybe just sign up for a couple.
• 4:30
  Meggan: Um, but Jenn, like I said, you know, this idea for this Travel Tip Tuesday partially came from you.
• 4:35
  Meggan: So what inspired you to let the Seat Sales Guide some of your travel in 2025?
• 4:41
  Jenn: Yeah, like Danielle actually when we had her on the pod and we're chatting about it.
• 4:46
  Jenn: I I don't really have like a strong desire to visit a certain place right now, So i'm feeling like pretty open to any idea i'm currently using the google flights explore option.
• 5:00
  Jenn: So if you just put in your, um, the place that you're leaving, why am I blanking on the word your hometown, your departure point, airport, and hit explore, it'll show you, a bunch of different options and sort of, uh, the price ish.
• 5:19
  Jenn: it's just interesting to see.
• 5:21
  Jenn: What's out there?
• 5:22
  Jenn: We're kind of a little bit tracking flight prices to Dublin right now.
• 5:28
  Jenn: We had mostly planned a trip to Ireland in 2020, which obviously did not happen.
• 5:34
  Jenn: Uh, but we're kind of dusting that off and seeing if that's an option.
• 5:38
  Jenn: But uh, yeah, we haven't we haven't pulled the trigger on anything yet.
• 5:42
  Jenn: So we'll see.
• 5:43
  Meggan: Can't wait.
• 5:45
  Meggan: Excellent.
• 5:46
  Meggan: Well, that is it for this week's Travel Tip Tuesday.
• 5:48
  Meggan: If you have any other ideas you will be using to search for travel deals in 2025, we would love to hear from you.
• 5:54
  Meggan: Share the goods.
• 5:55
  Meggan: No gatekeeping.
• 5:57
  Meggan: For travel, um, you can reach us on social media, including Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube at the Travel Mug Podcast and our website TravelMugPodcast.
• 6:06
  Meggan: com.
• 6:07
  Meggan: As always, thank you so much for tuning in, listening, and interacting, and until next time, safe travels, and bye!