How to Coupon Your Way Around the World, with Torok Coupon Hunter

Smart Travel: Upgrade Your Getaways

In this episode of Smart Travel, host Megan Coyle and Sally French welcome Torok Coupon Hunter, a renowned expert in saving money through st

Key takeaways

• Air France and KLM's new tiered award pricing system devalues existing points by offering fewer perks for lower-tier fares, making it crucial to book flights before September 8th to avoid losing benefits like seat selection and lounge access.

Main topics

• Couponing strategies for travel savings
• Air France and KLM's new award tier system

Notable quotes

"If you want to go to Europe sometime, maybe in the next year, maybe you should book it before September 8th."

Conclusion

By leveraging couponing, understanding loyalty program changes, and making smart choices—like staying at

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:04) The Speaker 1 (0:05) city moves fast, but your vibe, that's different. Sharper, smoother, more alive. Speaker 3 (0:15) The new Speaker 1 (0:20) Honda City isn't just made to drive, it's made to feel. The new Honda City, all new vibe. Speaker 5 (0:28) Flying Blue is splitting award tickets into three different tiers now, Speaker 6 (0:32) and it's Speaker 5 (0:33) a Speaker 6 (0:33) big devaluation. Alaska just announced new routes between Seattle and Athens and Paris with a fair sale running right now. Plus, Speaker 5 (0:41) American Airlines is putting seatback screens at every seat once again. Yes, those are the ones they took out. I am so happy they're coming back. Speaker 5 (0:53) Welcome to Smart Travel from NerdWallet, a deep dive into the tips, tools, and tactics to maximize your travel dollars. I'm Megan Coyle. And I'm Sally French. And we're the travel nerds ready to help you plan your Speaker 6 (1:02) next big trip. And we mean it. Today we are talking to Kirstie Turok, the coupon hunter, about how much money you're leaving on the table with your everyday spending that could be directed to your travel funds, plus the couponing aspect of saving money on your travels. But first, both the news and the disclaimer, and that is that we will talk about a few credit card companies that are NerdWallet partners on this show. That does not influence how we discuss them. The benefits, terms, and fees mentioned were accurate at the time of posting. Of course, things can change. Some offers may have expired by the time you're listening. For the latest details, follow the links in the episode description. Speaker 5 (1:33) So the loyalty program of... Air France and KLM, that's Flying Blue, just announced that they are now going to start selling award fairs on their flights in three different tiers. So instead of you just being able to pick, you know, economy, premium economy or business, now it's going to be light, standard or flex fairs within economy, premium economy or business. So it's going from nine tiers, Speaker 6 (1:57) three Speaker 5 (1:57) options to like now nine options Speaker 6 (1:59) of different award pricing. OK, so light is exactly what it sounds like. It is that entry. level pricing. It strips a lot of the things out. Some of those things that you're not going to get if you book that light fare is no changes, no cancellations, no checked baggage, no seat assignment. Even in business class, you're not going to get access to the lounge. Standard pricing does allow you to add a checked bag and changes are available for 70 euros. Still, you get no seat selection. And then in business, a standard fare does receive lounge access. Right. Speaker 5 (2:30) So the standard fares are closest to what you could purchase right now with points if you're just buying like a standard business fare or a standard economy fare. So that light version is more like basic economy or basic business and that's a trend we've been seeing across a lot of different airlines. I want to talk about flex. The reason I love booking things on points and miles is because usually a lot of airlines allow free changes and cancellations. If you book on points, you simply just cancel it and you get all the miles back and then you book something else. But now with these new tiers, only the flex option has that kind of flexibility where you do get the free changes and that you get seat selection. Like I think it's kind of crazy. You might spend thousands and thousands of points for business class and you don't even get to choose whether you're in. the aisle or the window or whatever it is. Which is also just silly because I think sometimes some people prefer the window and some people prefer the aisle. Just let the people choose. Yep. And just to give you an idea of some of the numbers of how much these new fares might cost, we're seeing examples of like 60,000 miles for light fares in business class, and then 75,000 miles for standard fares and 110,000 miles for flex fares. And these are all in business class. So, I mean, these are getting really expensive. They Speaker 6 (3:48) are. The consensus among the NerdWalla travel team is that this is a devaluation because if you look at what prices used to be, Basically, the way this shakes out is now what you're paying for the old price is getting you less stuff now. So for example, previously, you might pay the same price, but you also got the lounge access and you got the changes. So now if you want to have the lounge access and the changes, you're basically paying more than what you used to. Speaker 5 (4:13) And two caveats I want to point out. One is that these new types of fares only apply to flights that are on Air France or KLM. It doesn't apply to partner award pricing. So that would be like a delta. Right. But the key word is yet. We don't know what will happen maybe next year, in the future, that they could extend this to other types of airlines. But for right now, if you're booking with partner airlines of KLM or Air France, then you're still sticking with the same pricing you had before. And then anything you booked before September 8th is safe from these changes. So if you booked a standard fare, then you're still going to have all the perks of a standard fare before. Well, everything was standard. So you're just going to have the same perks you had before. You Speaker 6 (4:58) heard it here on the show. If you want to go to Europe sometime, maybe in the next year, maybe you should book it before September 8th. Speaker 5 (5:04) Okay, moving on. Built and Equinox announced a new partnership. Sally, how excited are you? Because you love Equinox. Speaker 6 (5:11) This does not affect me because some of the listeners out there might know I actually work side hustle at Equinox. So Built announced a partnership, but it does not apply to people who actually work at Equinox. Just a reminder for people who have no idea what Equinox is, this is a very bougie gym. It exists primarily in major cities. And the news here is that Built Cash can be now used towards Equinox personal training, studio Pilates, and spa services. You can use this Built Cash twice a year. And then the amount of Built Cash you can use scales based on your built. tier of status. So blue status gives you $75 to use. Silver status lets you use up to $100. Gold status and platinum status let you use up to $150. The caveat though is that you could only use this on Equinox personal training, Pilates, and spa services, which I will just say outright is not cheap. I don't think you can book any of these things for even less than $75 or $100. So if you're using this built cash, you're going to be paying money out of pocket anyway. Right. Speaker 5 (6:10) And then there are also a bunch of special like welcome offers for this new partnership. So depending on how many times you check in for Equinox, you could possibly get entries into their sweepstakes. You could possibly win a free spa treatment or a training session. And then there are also some special offers if you sign up for Equinox as a completely new member through Built. And you could get things like... a complimentary personal training session and 25 % off your first session at the spa at Equinox. So it seems like there are a lot of things you could possibly stack, you know, you could get these discounts and then use your built cash to get another discount on some of these services. But again, Equinox is not cheap. So I think either way, you'll be paying something out of pocket. And Speaker 6 (6:56) then this is just the insider tip because I work at Equinox and I know what these deals are like. And Equinox... always has initiation offers whether or not you have built. In fact, on their website right now, they actually just say if you join, you get a complimentary personal training session and 25 % off your first session at the spa, which makes the built offer look like it's not actually offering anything new. To me, the only thing that's good about the built offer is instead of a personal training session, you can choose 10,000 built points, which is if I were signing up for Equinox, what I would go for. Instead, I don't want the personal training session. I would take the points. Speaker 5 (7:28) Just as a reminder, you can redeem built points for 1.25 cents in the built travel portal. So 10,000 built points would be like $125 towards travel. But again, you have to compare that with the cost of actually signing up for Equinox. Speaker 6 (7:42) And keep in mind that this does not cover the actual membership dues. So you're on the hook for that. I do think this is a nice way to just have more options to spend your built cash. I know I think Walgreens is a good option, but some people don't have a Walgreens in their city, but maybe they have an Equinox. Although I'm not sure which cities have it. an Equinox, but not a Walgreens. But there you go. We'll have to find Speaker 5 (8:02) that Venn diagram middle, you know what I mean? More Speaker 6 (8:05) options to spend your bill cash. It's always a good thing. I just don't think that this is the most bananas best deal of all time. Speaker 5 (8:11) Right. And if you are looking for a card that'll help you with the actual membership fees for Equinox, can we point you towards the Amex Platinum card, which we can put a link to the story we have about the Amex Platinum benefits in the episode description. That one does have a credit, but again, it won't cover your full membership. But it does Speaker 6 (8:30) cover part of your membership. Part Speaker 5 (8:32) of it. Yeah. Maybe one. And a half months. Yes, that card has statement Speaker 6 (8:36) credits that you can apply to the actual membership. So maybe in some ways you have an Amex Platinum and maybe also have Speaker 5 (8:43) a Speaker 6 (8:43) bill and you can somehow combine it. Good luck to you. All Speaker 5 (8:46) right, moving on. We've got Alaska Airlines adding new international flights. So this time it is nonstop service from Seattle to Athens and Seattle to Paris. Both of these services will start in May 2027 next year, and they're going to run seasonally through basically the whole summer through October. And October is like shoulder season. So this would be a great option for all of our Seattle-based flyers because now you have a really easy, direct way to get to Europe, and especially this very... big tourist destinations. Pretty Speaker 6 (9:16) interesting. I've always felt like Alaska Airlines being more of a regional carrier and then it's expanded and now it's super expanded to be an international carrier with them adding all these routes. What's also interesting about Athens is this is a record in a sense because Alaska will be the first airline to connect Seattle and Athens nonstop. This is also the longest route Alaska has ever flown. Speaker 5 (9:39) And both of these new routes will be on the new Boeing 787-9 airplanes. These are the retrofitted airplanes for international long haul. And they have these really cool business class suites, multi-course dining, and complimentary Starlink Wi-Fi if you get one of the airplanes with that on it. Sally, I don't know if you've been on any airplanes with Starlink Wi-Fi, but it's incredible. Oh my gosh, it's so fast. It's like... Faster than my home Wi-Fi. Work from the plane. Take one less day off for your vacation and just work on that flight over to Europe. Yeah. And we should mention tickets are now on sale. And there is a special sale on main cabin fares if you book by August 26th. So you don't have much time if you're listening literally the day this episode comes out. That's why you got to listen to the show the day it drops. Just a reminder, in addition to Paris and Athens, Alaska also flies to a couple of other international destinations from Seattle, including London, Rome, Reykjavik, Seoul, and Tokyo. Moving right along to another Speaker 6 (10:38) airlines news. This comes from American, and they are putting seat back screens at every seat across its narrowbody fleet. That is around 800 Speaker 5 (10:46) aircraft. And these narrow body airplanes are usually the ones that are used to fly domestically and maybe some short international flights. And I've been struggling with this for the past couple of years. They took out a lot of the seat back screens thinking everyone is just going to bring their own iPad and watch things on their own device. I can't tell you how many people I've seen who are unable to connect to the Wi-Fi and watch any in-flight entertainment. So I'm really glad that they are moving. back in this direction towards seatback screens. Speaker 6 (11:15) We actually had this debate at NerdWallet a few years ago where I said seatback screens are the best and other people were like, oh, we don't need seatback screens. That's wild. Anyone who thinks that, that is the hottest take. But the seatback screens are nice because then you can also have a computer, you can have a movie going on in the background. And then also you're not messing around with making sure your computer or iPad is charged up all the way. And speaking of, these new screens do have USB-C fast charging on them. They also have Bluetooth audio pairing because the one thing that people on our team said they don't like about the seat back screens is the headphones are bad, but you can still bring your own headphones if they're Bluetooth and then pair it and then use really good headphones. Ooh, Speaker 5 (11:52) yes, I will be doing that. Also, these new planes with the seat back screens are going to have, you guessed it, more first class seats and more main cabin extra seats. American Airlines says premium seating on the narrow body planes is going to grow to about 40 % of seats. Right now, it's only 25 % of seats. You can tell all the airlines are sort of moving in this direction of adding more premium seating. And sadly for me, that probably means I'm not going to be getting those first class upgrades if I still have elite status by the time these airplanes come out, because I'm just going to be going to main cabin extra or like premium economy or something. But Speaker 6 (12:29) they're adding more first class seats. So maybe you'll have higher odds of getting a first class upgrade. Why am I not optimistic about this? Oh, no, I think this is good. You have better odds of going from economy to either main cabin, extra, or first class. Speaker 5 (12:41) Also, we should mention that these new airplanes aren't... Coming until 2028. That's when the retrofit starts. So honestly, who knows where we'll be in 2028. Speaker 6 (12:51) Yeah. Okay. Other bad news comes out of Expedia. And if you were looking for a discount on shoulder season, and might I remind you, we have historically said shoulder season, which is typically fall for most destinations, is a good time to find a deal. Our friends over Expedia are telling us it's actually not a good time to find a deal. And this is terrible. Expedia gave us data and they found that in the top 10 U.S. destinations, fall lodging prices are averaging 20 % higher than what they were over the summer. Oh Speaker 5 (13:20) my goodness. No. How am I supposed to go see the leaves? This is awful news. And I actually have a theory about why this is happening. You want to hear it? Yes. It was Speaker 4 (13:29) so hot this summer that I feel like Speaker 5 (13:32) no one wanted to leave their house. Like if you were leaving the air conditioning, you were like, I need to go from air conditioning to air conditioning as soon as possible. I do not need to be like tramping around a national park this summer. Like it was literally dangerous to be outside during some of these heat waves, both in the U.S. and Europe. And so I think a lot of people. have considered pushing their big trips to shoulder seasons when the weather is more bearable. Speaker 6 (13:57) Yes, I agree with that. I actually was on Instagram and I saw some people in both Italy and Greece and they were complaining about how hot it was. When I went to Greece, I went in the end of October into beginning of November and it was perfect. And I was like, what are y'all complaining about? This is your fault that you went in the summer. So you want to go in the fall. I'd pay more to go to Greece in the fall. Speaker 5 (14:15) Talking more about this Expedia data, on the Vrbo side, travel interest for this fall is up 17 % year over year. So it's not just that prices are up. Manned is up as well. Speaker 6 (14:26) Though Expedia did give us some news. They flagged six destinations that actually have cheaper lodging and flights versus the summer. Aspen stands out as a big one, 45 % cheaper this fall versus the summer. Fort Walton Beach is 30 % cheaper. San Diego, 15 % cheaper. Honolulu, around 10 % cheaper. So maybe some options if you want to find quote deals over the fall travel period. Okay. Aspen has trees. Speaker 5 (14:49) Maybe I'll go there. Okay. Let's do it. And last thing, I want to talk about a quick offer from NerdWallet that I think listeners should know about. This one is create a Gondola account, which is a award search tool that lets you book hotels and compare points pricing across different hotel programs. If you create a Gondola account and make your first hotel or car rental reservation, you'll get a $50 signup bonus in Speaker 6 (15:14) Gondola cash. So $50 free dollars right there. There is some key fine print and that is that the reservation has to cost more than $150 before taxes. and fees, and then you don't get the money until after the reservation has been completed. It also applies to any hotel available on Gondola. You Speaker 5 (15:31) can read all about Gondola on the NerdWallet website. We'll put a link to that in the episode description, as well as the link to this offer. The offer expires September 30th, 2026. That Speaker 6 (15:42) sounds like a good deal. But speaking of deals, we have Kirstie Turok, the Turok Coupon Hunter, on with us after this break talking about tons more deals. Stay with us. Speaker 2 (16:02) The Speaker 1 (16:02) city moves fast, but your vibe, that's different. Sharper, smoother, more alive. Speaker 3 (16:13) The new Speaker 1 (16:17) Honda City isn't just made to drive, it's made to feel. The new Honda City, all new vibe. Speaker 6 (16:27) Megan, how do you feel about extreme couponing? Speaker 5 (16:30) I feel like Speaker 6 (16:31) maybe we do Speaker 5 (16:32) this with our travel credit cards that have all these different like $25 statement credits if you do this and $10 if you do that. I mean, am I a couponer just because I have an Amex Platinum? Speaker 6 (16:43) I think we are travel extreme couponers. But what if I told you I brought in someone to the show today who is an extreme couponer not just when it comes to planning travel, but literally every day of her life. I'm talking about gas, buying food at McDonald's. doing grocery shopping, buying toothpaste. Wow, respect. Speaker 5 (17:02) I