New Consumer Protections Could Save You Hundreds on Your Next Flight

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Megan, one of your best qualities is that you are not much of a complainer when it comes to travel.

I am not.

I'm so grateful to have the opportunities to travel.

So I keep reminding myself that when I have like a really long tarmac delay.

As for me, even though I'm not much of a complainer, it's more because I'm optimistic.

So like when something's bad, I'm like, okay, well, at least this makes for a good story.

And now it's just funny.

But as it turns out, many people out there are big complainers about air travel.

And today we'll hear what they can do about it.

Welcome to Smart Travel, a deep dive into the tips, tools, and tactics to maximize your travel dollars.

I'm Sally French.

And I'm Megan Coyle.

And we're the travel nerds ready to help you plan your next big trip.

Today, we've got an expert on air travelers' biggest concerns.

Today's show has some mentions of credit card companies that are nerd wallet partners, but that doesn't influence how we discuss them.

The benefits, terms, and fees mentioned were accurate at the time of posting, but 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.

First up, World of Hyatt is expanding again, and this time with a very stylish brand.

Starting this week, participating bunkhouse hotels are joining the World of Hyatt program in phases.

Now, if you're not familiar with Bunkhouse, their properties tend to have artsy vibes and are the kind of hit place you'd go for live music by the pool or local food and drinks.

The rollout started July 16th with the Hotel St.

Cecilia in Austin.

Other properties joining soon include the Hotel St.

Augustine, Hotel San Jose, Carpenter Motel, and Austin Motel, all in Texas, and the Oceanfront Hotel San Cristobal in Baja, California, sir.

Good chance for World of Hyatt members to earn and redeem points at some unique properties that aren't just a cookie-cutter hotel.

Lots of big hotel brands are partnering with with these boutique brands.

Yeah, you know, I've noticed that.

And I do think this is nice for travelers who want the benefits of a big hotel, big brand, big loyalty program so that they can still earn their points, but still get that unique vibe.

Now, NerdWallet has a comprehensive guide to World of Hyatt brands that you can find a link to in today's episode description.

There you can see more than two dozen brands where you can earn and redeem World of Hyatt points.

Moving on to lounge news, airport lounges are trying to combat overcrowding by giving people what they want.

The free food.

Yes, I love free food.

Yes, I know you do.

So you'll love the two grab-and-go food stands that are now part of two major lounge networks.

Amex is debuting a new airport lounge concept called Sidecar by the Centurion Lounge.

They're calling it a speakeasy inspired space focused on small bites and fast service for travelers who are just passing through and don't have time for that full lounge experience.

I am very intrigued by this.

We do not have a ton of details yet, but I imagine this will be much smaller in terms of square footage than its traditional lounges.

If this Vegas lounge concept is a success, I could see Amex rolling with it in smaller airports, maybe where they don't have enough space to build a full lounge.

That would be very nice.

And then here's also where things get interesting.

So whereas traditional Amex lounges let you in three hours before your flight, with this one, eligible card members can access Sidecar only within 90 minutes before their flight.

Now, the first one of these will open at Las Vegas airport in 2026.

American Airlines also announced they're going to try something similar.

They're opening a new grab-and-go lounge concept called Provisions by Admirals Club at the airport in Charlotte, North Carolina later this summer.

Same access policy as the other American Airlines lounge locations.

You'd had to have had an Admirables Club.

Did I say Admirables?

Admirals Club membership, the City AA Advantage executive credit card, or One World Elite status, or you can pay $79 or 7,900 American miles.

But I have to say, I don't think that's worth it for a grab and go location.

I'm curious about these grab and go locations, though, because I love the grab and go food at the Capital One lounges.

So I think this is a good way to give lounge members or card holders some of those benefits without needing to develop a whole new lounge space.

That takes forever.

And Built is back in the news.

Second week in a row.

Built Rewards is the rewards program that lets members earn points on rent and the Built MasterCard.

We just talked about the new suite of cards they're launching next year.

And now they are launching a new hotel booking platform.

It's called Home Away From Home.

You can book a stay at quote unquote iconic hotels through this new platform and you'll get benefits like room upgrades upon arrival, daily breakfast for two, early check-in, late checkout, plus a $100 food and beverage credit.

Now, Megan, you're my resident Built fan.

Are you going to use this?

You know, I don't qualify right now.

Ouch.

It's only available to platinum and gold elite status members in the Built program, but that's probably for the best.

I already spend plenty on luxury hotels through the MX Fine Hotels and Resorts program.

I don't need to add this one to the list.

It's funny.

I was going to say, it feels to me like when you were saying all those built benefits, you basically just described MX Fine Hotels and Resorts.

There's also Chase's version called The Edit.

These all are offering similar type perks.

Yeah, Build's version is just another one we can add to this list.

And you know what they say?

If everybody is special, then nobody is special.

How am I supposed to get my space available room upgrade when I'm competing with the people from Chase and Amex and all the other people who supposedly can get upgrades?

Well, Megan, I wish you the best.

So where is your next trip using what I guess is your FHR credit earned through your platinum card?

I'm using my Amex Find Hotels and Resorts credit in Ireland for a trip with my dad later this year.

I'm very excited because the property looks like a castle and we're going to use the property credit on dinner inside of an old Orient Express train car that's there.

Whoa, that sounds fun.

Take me with you.

Yeah.

And final bit of news for today.

Complaints lodged against U.S.

airlines hit another record in 2024 with travelers sounding off about problems, including canceled flights, lost baggage, and stalled refunds.

Any idea which airline was the worst?

Oh, Megan, I know.

And this should not come as a surprise.

Of the 10 largest airlines, that honor or dishonor, shall we say, goes to Frontier, which had the most complaints per 100,000 passengers.

Frontier, not Spirit?

Okay, well, I mean, obviously, Spirit was the second worst, but I have to say, Frontier's complaint level was considerably worse.

Ouch.

Okay.

What were the best airlines then?

Southwest and Alaska had the fewest complaints.

That's all according to a U.S.

Public Interest Research Group's Education Fund analysis of Department of Transportation data.

And you actually got to talk to someone from that group to dig into this data a little bit.

Yes, today's guest is Teresa Murray.

She works as a consumer watchdog within that group.

Teresa, your organization recently put out a new report, The Plain Truth 2025.

Now, what do you think are the high-level points that we should know?

The main takeaways are complaints against U.S.

airlines hit another new record, which it's done four out of the last five years.

And then complaints against all airlines, including foreign airlines, were at the second highest level ever.

Some of the other high points, cancellations and delays were up.

About 1.7 million flights were canceled or delayed.

And is that up year over year?

Yes.

And mishandled bags, lost wheelchairs, that improved slightly.

Well, that's good.

At least people aren't losing as many bags.

Now, one of the things that I do wonder when you say complaints are up, is that a percentage or is that a raw number?

Because on some some levels, someone might say, well, air travel as a whole is up.

More people are traveling.

So of course more complaints might come in.

It's actually a raw number, but what's interesting about that is the complaints were up against U.S.

airlines by 9%,

but passenger volume was up only 4%.

Oh, interesting.

So complaints are still up relative to even the number of increased passengers.

Yes.

Why do you think that is?

Well, I mean, obviously it's speculative.

A few reasons why we think is one, passengers have found their voice.

They realize that complaining gets results.

We saw the FAA reauthorization passed last year with tons of new consumer protections.

Also, some of it we think, we hear anecdotally that it's...

there's like this post-COVID mentality.

You know, we didn't get to go out and play very much there for a year, a year and a half, two years.

And so now when people travel, dog on it, they want things to be perfect.

And then the other thing that's a consideration is airline tickets have gone up in price and baggage fees, for the most part, have gone up in price.

So people expect more for their money.

And if they're not getting it, they're ticked.

And the other thing I'll just note real quick is there's cancellations, you know, and we can say, okay, cancellations are up a little bit, but there's also something called discontinued flights.

And anytime a flight is taken off the board more than a week ahead of time,

it's not considered a canceled flight.

If you find out that your flight that you're supposed to take in two weeks is just boom gone, then that doesn't count as a canceled flight.

Like DOT doesn't track it yet.

If you have to rebook, then it will probably cost you more to do it two weeks ahead of time.

And there may not even be seats available.

Yeah, I've been there where I'll have a 10 a.m.

flight and they'll say, oh, well, we've moved you to the flight at 4 p.m.

And I'm like, wait, no, but I had to be somewhere at 3 p.m.

at my destination.

Like that 4 p.m.

flight is not going to work.

So I do see why passengers are frustrated by things like that.

It's funny you mention that ticket prices are going up.

We do see actually from ticket prices departing out of the U.S., ticket prices are down.

But what we see is that there are so many increased checked bag fees.

Customers are ticked about that because you're right.

When you are checking a bag and there's a giant line to check your bag, maybe your bag doesn't arrive.

Of course, you're going to send a complaint, particularly when the bag fees.

we find are sometimes higher than certain airfares themselves.

And that's certainly the case, but people should know that as part of the new rulemaking, that if your bags are delayed by a certain amount of time, you get a refund for those baggage fees.

And you're entitled to the airline must cover incidentals if it's like overnight.

So toiletries, clean change of clothes, that sort of thing.

And what you are talking about is actually a new set of consumer protections.

These were passed in 2024 by Congress and the Department of Transportation.

They are going into effect on a rolling basis.

Many of them are already in effect, and a lot of customers don't know that they have possibly way more protections than they did in years past, especially if you've traveled two, three years ago, things might be different.

So we are going to talk about that after this.

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We are back with Teresa Murray.

We are talking about passenger complaints, but more importantly, I want to talk about right now is passenger protections.

Teresa, you know all about these new consumer protections that have been passed.

What should people know?

It's really notable that what Congress passed in May of 24 were the most sweeping consumer protections passed as part of any one FAA reauth in generations.

More than two dozen major ones and a lot of minor ones.

The biggest things that people should be aware of is it requires no hassle refunds for canceled or significantly delayed flights.

And then now there's a definition for what's a significant delay.

You know, you might say, well, a half hour is significant.

The airline might say, well, five hours, that's significant.

Well, okay, that's fine.

But now there's a legal definition and it's three hours or more is a significant delay.

And I think we could all agree on that.

And then airlines cannot offer you a voucher first.

They have to offer you a refund first, whereas in the past, the airlines would try and shove a voucher down your throat.

And if you decide to take a voucher, it has to be good for five years.

And then there's also a requirement that the airlines must display what their commitments are to passengers who are inconvenienced or disrupted.

And a couple other things that are important.

The airlines must all have 24-7

live agents for people whose flights were disrupted.

None of this like getting lost in voicemail.

And then also vast new protections for people who use wheelchairs or scooters and need help in the plane or need help perhaps getting to the restroom.

There's tons of new protections there, and that's long overdue.

There's another thing about the refund for the baggage fees if your checked bags arrive 12 hours or more after you do.

And that's for domestic flights.

One thing I do want to remind listeners is that refund is for the price of your airfare.

I see this all the time where people have a canceled flight and then they immediately book a flight on another airline.

And last minute flights are almost always super expensive.

And so I'll see these people who will book like an $1,000 last minute flight just on the next departing flight.

And they probably won't be compensated for that, particularly if it's on a different flight or a different airline.

So it is important people know they can get their money back, but they won't necessarily be rebooked on another flight if it's with a different airline.

However, airlines do pledge to rebook you on their own flights.

That's correct, right?

Yeah, and actually, this is part of where it's really important for travelers to know what their rights are.

So one thing to back up, if your flight is canceled for any reason, it doesn't matter whether it's because of bad weather or a zombie apocalypse.

It doesn't matter.

You are still entitled to a refund, not only of your ticket price, but also your baggage fees, any extra ancillary fees, your Wi-Fi, all that good stuff, taxes.

Now, the dashboard that we talked about earlier, right now, as it stands, all 10 of the major airlines have committed, and it's in writing, so they're required to do it.

They will rebook you on their own flight if there's a cancellation or a delay, you know, a significant delay.

And then the ones that will rebook you with a competitor, that's what's really important.

The ones that will rebook you with a competitor are Alaska, American, Delta, Hawaiian, JetBlue, and United.

The ones that will not, that haven't promised you, are Allegiant, Frontier, Southwest, and Spirit.

Generally, more of those budget airlines aren't going to be as helpful in the event of any sort of flight issues.

And that's kind of one reason why often NerdWallet recommends that it might be worth paying more upfront for that more expensive airline for that Delta or that American over that Spirit flight, because often Spirit won't necessarily give you as much help as something like a Delta or an American.

I think another thing to note is if you are worried about the potential of a canceled or delayed flight is with an airline like Spirit, if there aren't as many flights going out that day, they might rebook you on the next flight, but the next flight might be tomorrow, which might not be good enough.

Yeah, you're absolutely right.

I mean, it's really important for people before they book to go onto the DOT's website and it's flightrights.gov and it lays out the whole dashboard there.

And that way you can make an informed choice.

And to your point, maybe you don't want to book with an airline that doesn't offer you much if the flight is canceled or delayed and it's the airline's fault.

You mentioned this passenger dashboard.

Can you kind of outline what sort of things are promised in that dashboard?

And then I want to know which airlines have the best promises and which ones maybe make not so much, and I'm guessing Spirit and Frontier might be some of those.

Well, it's important to know where this came from because prior to the summer of 2022,

none of the airlines made these promises.

Okay, no airline guaranteed meal vouchers or hotels, even if it was their fault that you were delayed or your flight was canceled.

And then the Department of Transportation made a decision.

They said, Okay, you know, we can't require you to offer hotels or meal vouchers or ground transportation, but we are going to publish a who's who's list of who does what.

And if you do, you get a pretty green check mark.

And if you don't, you get a big red, nasty X.

And so it's changed over time because now the top 10 airlines have started coming on board with what they will and will not do.

And do you have any airline that maybe stands out to you as the most generous in terms of what their promises are?

Well, I mean, really pretty much nine of the 10 are on that page.

One of the things is the airlines are starting to even do more than that because when it comes to rebooking, hotels, meals, ground transportation, again, all of them are pretty good except for Frontier and rebooking with a competitor, not so much with four of the airlines.

But then the expectations have increased.

So it's like, okay, will any of these airlines offer just cash compensation for the inconvenience?

Because, you know, you didn't get where you were going.

And,

you know, what happens with reward points?

Maybe you get more.

Those kinds of things are coming online, but they're not really universal yet.

There are a couple of the the airlines that will offer some of the things.

But now the one thing that's important to note here is when we're talking about a significant delay, the three-hour thing, that is arrival, not departure.

So I do want to circle back to some of these complaints.

Are you able to see the nature of the complaints, what people actually write?

Unfortunately not.

That has never been public.

Unlike with some other regulators that do make like the generalities available, especially if it's like the company involved, but no, there's there's no narrative.

Okay.

But you are with the U.S.

Public Interest Research Group Education Fund.

I'm sure you talk to a lot of people who do travel.

Have you heard any sort of wild stories of reasons why people would complain?

Are you seeing any themes?

I know you mentioned complaints about prices being higher and all these extra fees, but I'm curious if you have any great anecdotes.

Probably one of the wildest ones was from a couple years ago.

A gentleman in 2023 and his wife, they had booked a flight through a ticket agent, through a third-party website, which didn't have a very professional name.

And they booked the flight through Delta.

They got confirmation and so forth, and they were supposed to go in March.

And then the day before, when the guy wasn't able to get his boarding passes, he started trying to figure out what was going on.

It turns out they said when he finally got through to like Delta's customer service that he had canceled his tickets.

And it's like, no, he hadn't canceled his tickets.

And it turns out there was just some kind of just horrific cluster.

Oh, no.

And they said, not only are your tickets canceled, we don't know what happened to your money.

He paid like 600 bucks per ticket.

And so it turns out that he eventually was able to rebook tickets directly through Delta at a cost of more than $2,000 per ticket, not the $600.

Okay.

And get this, they were the exact same seats, like 11A and 11B.

Apparently, this ticket agent was not very reputable.

He was not even able to get the $600 back.

It looks like somebody pocketed it and then, like, the company went out of business.

Interesting.

That's a long way of saying that if people think they want to try and save money through these third-party ticket agents, they should definitely be careful.

There are some good ones, and there are some not-so-good ones.

But if you have a problem, if you need to rebook, if something goes wrong, if there is a

controllable cancellation or delay, it's just a lot more difficult to do.

Oh, I agree.

I agree.

NerdWallet always recommends avoiding that middleman when possible.

The only reasons why NerdWallet recommends using that third party is maybe if you're in a situation like you're booking a cruise and then the cruise company, which you know is reputable, maybe like a Norwegian or a Royal Caribbean, they book your airfare.

And the benefit of that being you might be able to bundle price and save.

And then the cruise company knows what flight you're on.

So if your flight is delayed, they can help you then get on that cruise or figure out how to rebook that cruise.

So there are some situations where using that middleman makes sense.

Teresa, can you imagine?

Stories like these are a great reminder to often just book direct.

Yes, absolutely.

And I think that kind of brings us into our next portion.

I really want to talk about advice, especially for travelers who haven't flown in the past year, which is pretty common for many people.

What are things that passengers should know?

What's your best advice for people?

And are we talking for newbies or veterans or both?

Let's start with the newbies.

Well, the information is that the average person flies every 12 to 18 months.

And so, if you haven't flown in 12 to 18 months, there are a bunch of different things that you should know, including the things that we've talked about, your rights if the flight is canceled or significantly delayed.

Some of the advice that we tell people, though, whether you travel every week or once or twice a year, is in addition to that, you should put trackers in your bags, including your carry-ons, because more and more airlines are requiring people to gate check those, even if there's plenty of overhead bin space.

Now, you ask, why is that?

Well, a lot of it is because it takes so long for people to futz around and like, oh, I want my overhead here.

And these airlines, in many cases, are scheduling these so close together that they don't want people messing around with the bags and the overhead.

So put trackers in all of your things.

We would recommend that people know that they have rights so that if something happens, you know where to go to look it up.

Now, we do have what we are proud to call a one-stop resource it's perg.org backslash flight tips and it has links to all of the new rights the old rights how much you're entitled to if this is lost if that happens all that kind of stuff and then the other thing that we really encourage people is just be nice

travel can be stressful the airline employees they're working their butts off be nice to your fellow passengers and if something goes wrong be nice to whoever you're dealing with at customer service or on the phone, because that person probably did not cause your problem, but they might be able to help fix it.

So is that your advice for the frequent travelers?

Well, all of that, but they probably know that.

But I do have a couple of other pointers for people who are fabby travelers.

If you're really trying to avoid a problem, there is a site on the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

for chronically delayed flights.

It's really easy to search.

I mean, something else is we have seen more over-booking in some cases with some of the airlines.

Now, of course, they are reluctant to involuntarily bump some people, but they will take volunteers.

So we have some tips on that.

And people should not just say, okay, I'll take $100.

You might be able to get more.

But if you don't want to get bumped, airlines must have a fair process, non-discriminatory for bumping people.

But, you know, it could be who checked in last, who paid the least for their tickets, who is not a loyal, frequent flyer, those kinds of things.

So you might want to be cognizant of that if you don't want to get bumped.

What are your tips for passengers who can get the most money?

How do you max that out?

Well, I mean, you've probably seen these offers too, where the morning of your flight, like you've already checked in ahead of time, you got your boarding pass.

And then that morning, you know, it's like so-and-so airline is looking for volunteers and then you have to put in a bid.

Yes.

And so it's like it could be $100 or $300 or $500.

So, you know, people just need to decide what's important to them.

If you bid $500, you're not as likely to get that.

But if it really makes absolutely no difference to you and you could use an extra hundred bucks to go out to eat and have fun, then you know, bid that, and there's probably a chance that it might get taken.

And I think it's also important for customers to note is they have to give you the amount of the highest bid.

So I was on a flight that the Delta One I say, they were offering either 200, 400, or 600.

And I actually bid 400, but I got the 600 because the last person took 600.

They needed maybe five volunteers.

I was an early one willing to go, but the fifth volunteer was only willing to do it for that 600.

So everyone got 600.

That's great.

Any other tips that you want to give people?

Last words?

Just a couple of things to kind of keep your eye on in the future is we're waiting for the DOT to announce some decisions and to have these rules take effect as far as delay compensation.

And there could be a point where the airlines will be required to to do more than what they do right now as far as hotels and food vouchers and ground transportation.

And also, there's a part of it where there's a thought on

whether they should be required to compensate us for our time and just the inconvenience of being stuck in the airport.

There's been no determination on how that's going to play out.

I mean, that does exist in some other countries, but that's just something to watch.

The part of it that is super interesting is right now the airlines are only on the hook for controllable cancellations or delays.

So staffing or equipment or scheduling.

And one of the things DOT is looking at is what exactly is the definition?

of a controllable cancellation or delay.

Because a lot of times the airlines will try and say, oh, it's bad weather.

And there's always bad weather someplace, you know?

I totally see like it's sunny outside and they'll say bad weather.

Everyone is like what?

Yeah, I mean, it could be coming from your connecting flight.

And so that certainly makes a lot of sense.

But DOT is going to finally get to the bottom of it because the airlines don't necessarily like to fess up.

about how much of this is actually their fault.

So that's one thing.

And then something else that's really important that's safety related, and this has been ongoing for years, but new passenger protections are coming when it comes to evacuation standards.

Airlines are required by law to be able to evacuate an airplane within 90 seconds.

So they did a study several years ago and they filled the plane with people,

and they got off in less than 90 seconds.

But here was the problem: all of them were like guys in their 20s, these young stud athletes.

Right.

There were no old people, there were no young children, there were no people with walkers.

And it's like, okay, come on, that's just not real life.

And so, DOT has demanded that this study be redone.

And what we will see is something addressing this.

And then also to come in the future, that dashboard that we were talking about, at some point, it's going to be required for the airlines to publish their seat sizes so that you and I will know: okay, am I going to get crammed into some place?

You know, this small plane, or what's, you know, the pitch and the seat width.

And that's something that's important to a lot of people.

So it's something to keep an eye on.

Very interesting.

Thank you for keeping up with the tips.

Nerdwall will be following it.

And if they want to follow you, where can listeners find you, Teresa?

Perg.org backslash scams.

Thank you so much for joining us just in time for summer.

I appreciate you being here and have a great week.

Thanks.

You do the same.

Good tips in there, especially as I'm in the midst of making my own complaints.

Ooh, that's right.

Megan, are we talking about your lost luggage in Italy?

Oh, yeah, you bet.

But we'll go way more into that on a later episode.

I literally have an episode worth of things to say about losing your luggage.

I am on the edge of my seat.

We will do a whole show on your baggage journey.

I have to say, Megan, I know so many people who have lost luggage en route to Europe.

Yeah, it happens.

It honestly does.

I think it's time for a listener question, though.

Okay, let's do that Disney one from Melissa.

So Melissa wrote in and said, my family is planning a Disney trip next year, and my sister, who has a husband and two kids, is wondering if the meal package is worth it.

We usually get one to two sit-down restaurant meals per day and the other quick service.

They're big snackers and drink a lot too.

Haha.

From what you know, do you think the meal package for a family is worth it?

I love that she had the haha.

Okay, Okay, Melissa, I love talking about the Disney dining plan.

You hit up the right people.

So for those of you not in the know, the Disney Dining Plan is a prepaid meal package available to guests staying at Walt Disney World-owned hotels that's over in Orlando.

So there are actually two tiers of this.

The first is a quick service plan, which is about $60 a day, and it gets you two counter service meals, one snack, and a refillable resort mug.

And then there's the standard dining plan.

That one is about $100 per day.

It gets you one table service meal and then again, one quick service meal, one snack, and that same refillable mug.

$100?

That's like a pretty big investment.

Like, am I eating $100 worth of corndogs and churros at Disney by myself?

Okay, you do get fancier food than corn dog and churros with this thing.

That's true.

That's true.

Even still, Megan, I would say for most people, I really don't think of the dining plan as much of a deal, but more like a prepaid budgeting tool.

So you're not necessarily saving money by default, but it does often feel like you're getting a better value once you're in the parks and not constantly pulling out your wallet.

Right.

It's the difference between paying for every cocktail on a cruise versus getting the drink package.

You might not always come out ahead, but you'd feel like you did.

And it takes the stress out of those mealtime decisions.

And real talk, saving stress is worth a lot of money on a family vacation.

100% agreed.

So now for the fun part.

I am fascinated by the Disney dining plan and I've written many stories on it.

Yes, definitely.

We'll post your dining plan guide in the episode description.

I love to talk to Disney Super fans about it and more importantly, how they hack it.

So I met this one woman who actually runs an Instagram account called Toric Deal Hunter.

She saved nearly $200 on food during her trip.

Wow.

I will link to her interview in the episode description because it's hilarious.

It is amazing.

Her strategy had some nuance to it, but it generally came down to basically don't order the corn dogs, like you said, but instead order the most expensive items always.

Right.

So like a steak over the vegetarian entree or a cocktail instead of a soda.

Right.

And snack credits can be sneaky good too.

I love hydration, but do not waste these on bottled water.

Bring your own refillable water bottle and then use those snack credits at places like Gaston's Tavern, where you can get these massive cinnamon rolls that are basically small meals.

Yum.

And then you have to factor in the age of the kids.

Disney oddly defines kids as ages three to nine.

So sorry, 10-year-olds, you're adults.

If you do have kids in the under 10 range, though, the real pro move is you can use the kids' meal credits at places that don't have a kids' menu.

So I'm thinking about Yorkshire County Fish Shop.

In Epcot, you can get a full-size fish and chips meal using just a kids credit.

And Melissa says she's going next year.

So I'm assuming that means 2026.

And you reported on a good deal in the dining plan universe that applies for next year.

Yes.

So if you purchase a stay at a Disney World hotel in 2026 and you buy the dining plan for all the adults in your group, then all the kids in your group eat free.

So this is a good deal because one, there is no cap on how many kids per room qualify.

It's just as many kids as you fit in the room.

And then two, you can stack this deal with other hotel discounts.

Melissa, it sounds like your family is a good fit for this dining plan deal.

And we'll link to more details about that in the episode description.

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