What AI Can’t Book: How Travel Advisors Deliver VIP Perks at No Extra Cost

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Megan, have you ever used a travel agent before?

No, I thought it costs money.

And I can save money by finding the deals myself, you know?

You, Megan, are good at finding deals, but it turns out that it is a huge misconception that travel agents always cost money.

Sometimes they do, but I talked to a travel agent to find out how it really works to book with the professionals, and sometimes it won't cost you anything.

Oh, amazing.

I'm excited for this one.

I've always wanted to look under the hood and see what they know that I don't.

Welcome to Smart Travel, 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 next big trip.

If you're curious about what it might look like to have someone else do the research and book your trip, well, let me introduce you to a real travel agent.

Yes, they still exist.

But before that, let's do the news.

As we do in pretty much every episode, we'll talk about some credit card companies that are NerdWallet partners in this episode, 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 always change and some offers may have expired by the time you're listening.

For the latest details, follow the links in the episode description.

Hopefully not news to anyone at this point, but 4th of July is this Friday.

If you are thinking of traveling for the holiday, the news here is that so is everyone else.

In fact, AAA expects 72.2 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles or more from home for July 4th.

That's a 2.4% jump from last year and the most ever recorded for the holiday.

Nearly 62 million will drive and almost 6 million will fly.

And that's projected to be a new air traveler record.

According to AAA's data, 4th of July travelers spent $810 on average for domestic round-trip flights.

That doesn't seem cheap to me.

But the good news is gas prices are relatively low for the summer.

So people who are planning on road tripping might not feel as much pain at the pump.

AAA says today, Wednesday, July 2nd, and Sunday, July 6th, will be the worst days to drive, which is a bit odd to me because Wednesday is the middle of the week and Friday is the holiday.

So I'm surprised people aren't traveling more tomorrow.

Making it a super long weekend.

Yeah, they're just having a whole week of 4th of July.

I get it though.

I'm also already at my 4th of July destination.

Peak congestion is expected to be the worst in the afternoon.

So if you can hit the road early if you're driving to beat the traffic and the heat.

JetBlue is turning 25 and they want you to celebrate by hopping across their entire route map.

No way.

JetBlue is a Gen Z

25.

I guess.

Yeah, that makes him Gen Z.

Wow.

I did not realize they were that young.

Well, I think this is a fun promotion that they're running.

If you visit 25 unique JetBlue destinations between now and December 31st, you'll earn 25 years of Mosaic 1 status.

That's a quarter of a century of status.

I will say Mosaic 1 status is the lowest of JetBlue's status levels.

It's pretty good, but the move to Mint Perk, which is, I think, the perk that everyone really wants, that is only for Mosaic 3 or higher.

So don't get too excited about the status aspect of this challenge.

Yeah, maybe don't chase those 25 destinations unless you are planning on hitting most of them anyways, but I'm more excited for some of the fun stuff you can earn with fewer destinations.

I actually think this is the best part of this whole competition.

As long as you get to 15 unique cities, you will get 150,000 bonus points with JetBlue.

Wow, that's really good.

NerdWallet's valuation of JetBlue true blue points are 1.5 cents each.

So 150,000 bonus points.

That's an estimated $2,250 in value.

And then get this.

When you get up to 20 unique destinations visited on a JetBlue flight, JetBlue will send you another 200,000 points.

So that would be worth an estimated $3,000.

It's definitely for JetBlue super fans, but I kind of love it.

Same.

If I had unlimited time, I would totally want to try this.

Taking flights all at unique airports to earn what is potentially more than $5,000 worth of JetBlue points.

Loki sounds like a challenge if you're a serious travel junkie.

If I was trying to maximize it, I would do a lot of those open-jaw and multi-city itineraries to get those extra destinations.

Yeah, definitely a good tip.

And one more note, you can't go super cheap on this to get all the points.

That's because Blue Basic Fares are not eligible for this promotion.

You do have to to front at least enough money for the standard blue fare to qualify.

If anyone does visit at least 15 JetBlue destinations for the rest of this year to win the points, we seriously want to hear from you.

I would totally vote to make you a guest on the show just to hear how this went.

No promises, but we'll see what we can do.

Let's just say this.

If you end up making this JetBlue promo happen, email us at travel at nerdwallet.com because you know we want to talk to you.

Okay, Sally, I hate to say it, but I think we have to talk about points boost again.

Points boost!

So if you somehow haven't heard, that's the new redemption option in the Chase Travel Portal that launched last week with the new Chase Sapphire Reserve card.

But Points Boost is also on the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the two Chase Inc.

business cards.

Points Boost eligible flight itineraries can supposedly offer up to two cents per point, depending on the card in value.

Supposedly.

Supposedly.

But our team crunched the numbers.

Shout out to our colleague Craig Joseph.

Shout out, Craig.

He led this charge so we could look at all of the points boost eligible bookings and see if they're actually worth it.

So hate to tell everyone, but this boost is mostly a bust.

Yo, Megan, I knew this program was going to be a bust right off the bat when I went troll mode and I started saying points boost because now it is official.

Points boost is now points boo.

Boo.

I like that.

Out of over 13,000 flights analyzed, fewer than 10% qualified for points boost pricing.

And most of those were the most expensive seats on already pricey fares.

Gross.

Did you see that one that was like, get from Utah to Seattle and do a layover in San Francisco?

I was like, this is hideous.

It just didn't make any sense.

Also, you only get the points boost on select premium fares.

Think domestic first or international business and not even all of those.

Often with economy fares, forget it.

Yeah, this really eliminates what I felt like was the key value in this card.

You could have booked any flight, even economy at a great rate.

It used to be 1.25 cents per point on the the Chase Sapphire Preferred or 1.5 cents per point on the Chase Sapphire Reserve.

You didn't necessarily have to transfer your points to be able to get good value and get those expensive business or first-class seats, but now that value seems to have gone away.

Yeah, this is so disappointing.

I am a proud economy class, Curly, and I like to save my points for more trips, not necessarily fancier seats.

But here's one tip.

If you have a Chase Freedom card, make sure to move your points to your Chase Sapphire Reserve or Preferred by October 26th to lock in the 1.25 cents per point or 1.5 cents per point value in the Chase Travel portal through October 2027.

But if you got a new Chase Sapphire card recently, like after June 23rd, when the points boost went live and the new card went live, honestly, the best move is just to use your transfer partners and transfer your chase ultimate rewards points to transfer partners and get high value redemptions that way.

Or if you don't do that, you'll just cash out your points at one cent each if you're booking like an economy flight.

Now, I will give one bone to points boost.

There is an exception.

Domestic first-class flights that actually price out competitively might actually be worth it with Points Boost.

So more of the story, especially on the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Sapphire Reserve.

Transfer partners are still your best bet if you want outsize value from your points.

Okay, last thing, let's do a quick plug for our Amazon Prime Day story.

Amazon Prime Day is coming up next week, July 8th to 11th.

And how did it get to four days?

I I thought it was one day.

No more.

But if you are a Prime member, there are a bunch of deals on Amazon for their summer version of Black Friday, which is now multiple days.

As we said, if you want to buy some travel gear essentials, this is a great time to buy them for less.

And we'll be updating it next week too as more deals come in.

I'm really more of a buy experiences, not stuff kind of person, but Amazon Prime has kind of enticed me.

They do deals on actual travel too, like hotels and cruises.

Wow, Amazon really sells everything these days.

Yeah, you know, Megan, I've become a cruise convert in a surprising turn of events, and there are big discounts on both Carnival and Royal Caribbean cruises.

In fact, Royal Caribbean is offering a really good one with 60% off the second guest in your cabin, plus kids in your cabin sale-free.

We'll post the link to all the best deals you found in the episode description.

So Sally, you brought on a travel agent to find out whether booking with one is actually worth it.

Who did you interview?

Yes, today you get to hear my conversation with Jen Lee.

She is president and CMO of Travel Planners International and Vacation Planners.

She worked her way up over the past 10 years from various roles in sales and marketing to ultimately become president and CMO.

She is based in Maitland, near Orlando, definitely vacation capital of the world.

All right, I'm excited for this one.

Sally, take it away.

Jen Lee, welcome to Smart Travel.

Thank you for joining us.

Oh, it's a pleasure.

I always love talking about travel.

And travel agents specifically.

I would love to know what is the role of a travel agent in 2025 so first off we do refer to them as travel advisors we changed that vernacular several years ago for a very specific reason and that is going to help answer this question okay travel agents of yesteryear were really agents of the supplier of the travel partner they were there representing that travel partner and connecting the consumer with that partner the role has flipped over the last eight to ten years where really the role of the travel advisor is on the consumer side.

It's all about asking the right questions, ensuring that there's a curated experience that's going to meet their expectations of their vacation needs.

So, it's really think of it like your financial advisor.

Like when you want to go get a new haircut, you go in and you sit down and say, Advise me on what it is that I want.

So, their role is not just giving the advice, it's curating the experience, it's managing that whole multi-pronged trip during travel if there's a challenge, and then afterwards, ensuring that, all right, we're back.

What's next?

So that's the role of today's travel advisor.

It's not a booking agent any longer like it used to be.

We just did an episode on smart travel about how to plan your trip.

And so many people don't know.

One thing Megan and I talked about was a lot of people just say, I'm going to Italy.

What do I do?

Right.

And there's so much more to it.

A travel advisor can help you figure out, well, what's your travel style?

Do you want a fancy hotel?

Do you want a family-oriented hotel?

What do you want?

A lot of times, Sally, what happens is, and you and Megan are spot on.

Nobody Googles or uses AI to say, this is what's motivating me to want to go to Italy.

A travel advisor says, tell me why Italy.

What's important to you about Italy?

And they start from there because there's usually a story behind it.

And it could be a simple story.

I've always wanted to go.

My family's from Italy.

My next door neighbor went to Italy.

I'm jealous of this Instagram post that I constantly see of Italy.

But what's that motivation?

And that's really what kickstarts the whole curated experience.

Of course, with that one-on-one attention, I have to know there's got to be costs involved.

You have to get paid somehow.

So, what is the typical cost of using a travel agent?

Travel advisors, there's a variety of different ways they get paid.

And this is probably one of the things that I think most consumers don't understand.

So, they make a commission from the travel partner, right?

Like, thank you for choosing us, and we're paying you a commission to manage that booking.

You were a salesperson for us, you closed the deal, and now you're managing the booking on our behalf.

But travel agents also charge fees, they could charge a planning fee.

Maybe it's a multi-country type of thing and you're piecing it all together with hotels and air and car rentals or tour guides or whatever.

So they could charge a planning fee.

Travel advisors sometimes will charge a modification fee.

In other words, we've nailed all this.

I've sent you all your documents.

And three days later, you say, now I want to go to Germany.

Well, that's a modification, right?

Or a cancellation fee.

You know, of course, your travel insurance can help cover for your cancellation.

cancel fees through the travel advisor.

But the most part, most people find that they're saving money by working with a travel advisor as opposed to spending more money.

So basically, some work on a commission where maybe I book a Disney cruise and the Disney Cruise then gives you some amount of money, or there are some models where I would just pay you and say, help me plan my trip.

Is there one model that is better for a certain type of traveler?

So let's use Disney as a perfect example.

You mentioned Disney Cruise Lines, but I don't know if you go to the Disney parks or anything, Sally.

Are you like a theme park?

Girl.

I go to the Disney parks.

Girl, that is one confusing mess of a whole situation, right?

Yes, it is a lot to plan.

It is a lot to plan.

And it's like, you know, a Taylor Swift concert.

You've got to be at the app right at time to be able to get your dining and all that stuff.

So people pay advisors to curate that experience to set up the dining.

If you just want to book a hotel, book a hotel direct.

Like you don't need to go through a travel advisor.

If you just want to book a simple flight, then do that.

If you only fly once a year, twice a year, just do it yourself.

There's no reason to go through a travel advisor, quite honestly.

Travel advisors are mostly used for people who say, I have seven days of vacation.

I have $7,500 that I've allocated for this vacation.

I want to be by a beach or I want to be sipping martinis or whatever that is.

Help me come up with something within that budget that really puts me on vacation.

Because what happens is a lot of times people try to piecemeal this stuff together and they don't know that if you were going on, let's just say a a Virgin Voyages cruise.

I just got off a Virgin Voyages cruise.

And if you book a suite, it's a little bit more expensive, but I save so much money because I get bar tab, I've got a butler, I get that door-to-door service.

They're picking me up at the airport, driving me in my private limo over to the cruise.

I'm going through a VIP section, so I'm not standing there with a bunch of other people.

Well, guess what?

That was well worth the extra $700 to do all of that because you know what?

My vacation started the moment I left the house.

One thing you mentioned is ways that travel advisors can save you money.

So I would love for you to talk about what some of those things are.

Sure.

There's three big areas where advisors can save you money.

Anytime you're booking a cruise, travel advisors usually have access to what we call blocked cruise inventory.

Like as an example, I'm a host agency and a franchise.

So we pay for cabins two and three years in advance at the two and three year ago price.

So our travel advisors can save their clients money.

A client could look online and try to book with, let's just say, celebrity, and it's going going to be $1,700 less to book it with us because we have that cabin already blocked.

Another way is through packages.

Travel advisors have access to group inventory when it comes to resorts.

And when you package maybe your air, your car, your hotel in it together, or because there's promotions happening, again, it's about the buying power that the travel advisor has that the consumer doesn't have.

The travel advisor has the buying power.

So it's cruises, it's hotels, resorts, and packages.

And then third is air.

So they have access to air rates, mostly business class or premium economy, going over to Europe.

They have access to special rates that the consumer does not have access to many times.

But the first two are the big ones.

Those are some great ways to save using a travel advisor.

This is a smart travel podcast by NerdWallet.

So we're going to focus on that a little more.

Up next, we'll talk about how people can leverage travel agents to save even more money.

Stay with us.

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And we are back with more money saving tips with Jen Lee.

Now, you mentioned some special upgrades, experiences you can get when someone uses a travel advisor.

Can you talk a little bit more about what someone might expect in terms of those extras when they book with you or another travel advisor?

Again, it goes back to that kind of, I hate to use that word bulk pricing, but that's the easy way for everyone to look at it, right?

So you might be looking online as a consumer direct with that travel partner a cruise line and you can get a veranda cabin for let's just say twenty four hundred dollars per person or a seven night cruise the travel advisor actually could get you a suite for the same amount because they've got better pricing on suites than what's showing online for even a veranda so those upgrades happen another thing that happens and this is a lot when it comes to the hotel collection.

We're part of the signature travel consortia.

So that's even a bigger buying power on top of our agency, on top of what the advisor has.

So as an example, I just went to Dublin, Ireland, stayed at a beautiful hotel.

I got $100 credit to use at the hotel any way I wanted to.

Early check-in, late checkout, free breakfast.

And I think a bottle of wine came to my room with chocolate and strawberries.

If you didn't work with a travel advisor, you wouldn't get any of that.

And those benefits, like the bottle of the wine or the free breakfast, are always always such a nice touch.

We do see benefits like that on credit card programs, like Chase's, the Edit, Amex, Fine Hotels and Resorts often offer similar benefits like that.

But with those benefits, you have to have one of those credit cards to participate.

Those credit cards, as our listeners know, have many hundreds of dollars of annual fees.

NerdWallet does recommend those credit cards for frequent travelers, but for people who aren't frequent travelers, who don't want to drop that annual fee up front,

it does seem like using a travel advisor might be a way to get those similar benefits that you could expect on the edit, find hotels and resorts, but without having the credit card.

Absolutely.

What is something that customers should be aware of when working with a commission-based travel advisor?

Is there any sort of risk that they might try to put you in a Marriott because they get a commission there and not the Hilton, but the Hilton down the road is actually better?

What kind of things should a customer pay attention to?

That's an excellent question, and I don't get that often enough.

Here's something that's going to surprise you.

Travel advisors are not motivated by commission.

You know what they're motivated by?

Building a business.

And if anybody who's listening is in the business world, you know that it's not just ones and zeros, dollars and cents.

It's the X's and O's, which are the relationships, right?

So travel advisors don't want your one piece of business.

A call center wants to close the deal.

A travel advisor wants to keep you as a client.

So recommending something that is not necessarily going to fit your need could put them out of business.

One bad experience utilizing a travel advisor where the advisor didn't advise properly could actually cost them hundreds of clients down the road because referrals are everybody's best business.

Now, we did talk about money and I do want to sort of talk about other challenges besides money.

I know travel agents became wildly popular in 2020 because they helped navigate all those country closure rules.

There were so many last minute cancellations with flights.

Obviously, thank goodness we are long past that.

But how our travel advisor is able to help navigate issues besides just the cost in booking?

Once you're traveling, your travel advisor is still with you.

And a lot of times what happens is, let's just say you booked a hotel or a resort and it's full.

Well, the travel advisor will already have known that.

So they would have saved you time and money by making sure you got rebooked somewhere else.

When flights get canceled, nobody has control over that except for the airlines and what's happening in the skies.

They're usually there to help pick that up and recommend or walk you through that stressful time.

You could have kids with you.

You're in an airport.

You're standing in line.

Maybe you're booked with a travel partner that doesn't have a really strong app that's going to rebook it for you because you don't have status with them.

A travel advisor is already on top of it.

They already know they've already gotten a ping that your flight has been canceled.

They're already working on it for you.

So that can save you money in having to sit in the airport or pay for your own hotel.

Travel insurance is something a lot of people do not understand.

They think they could could just click it on the airline and, yep, I'll take that travel insurance, but that's only going to cover you for the air portion.

It doesn't cover you prior to leaving.

What if there's a hurricane coming to your town?

The right travel insurance will help pay for that non-refundable event because you've got to get ready for the hurricane.

So a travel advisor can help you with that.

So they can definitely say, this is a time for you to get the travel insurance.

And then do you work off a commission model as well with, say, World Nomads or the travel insurance company?

And then they give you a small commission?

Yeah.

So think of it like this way, Sally.

The travel partner or the supplier, they pay a commission as a thank you to the travel advisor for choosing their product, booking, closing the sale, and managing the client's expectations properly.

So they pay them a commission.

Travel agents make money in a variety of ways, but that's the majority of it.

What does the process look like from start to finish when someone contacts you and then they want to plan their trip and then they go on their trip?

How much are they interacting with you and how and what are we talking about so every advisor is a little different that's one of my irks of this industry there's not a consistent consumer experience that you can settle into but in general they usually have some sort of 15 20 minute consultation call asking those really important questions to make sure that they're going to recommend the right thing to you they're going to talk to you about whatever the terms and conditions and if there are any additional fees a lot of advisors don't charge fees but they'll let you know that right up front once you've agreed to that then they're going to send over a handful of options for you to choose from together based on what that consultation was.

Then they're going to require your credit card or credit card authorization.

They're going to book the travel.

They're going to send you a link to an itinerary app so you can kind of keep up on it.

Then you're going to get documents.

They're going to keep you up to date.

They're going to check to make sure your passport isn't going to expire too soon.

Maybe packing list things to know.

Again, if this is the first time you're traveling with a child with autism, here are the things to know.

They would have picked the right place for you, understanding what those programs are.

Then you go on your trip.

And if you've got any challenges during the trip, the advisor is usually going to let you know.

I know my advisors usually text me two days before.

Hey, it looks like your hotel, your room is still confirmed.

They're confirming the hotel.

This is a concierge service.

I am so intrigued by travel advisors because it seems like something that was very popular pre-internet.

Then we got Expedia and all that.

And it felt like they kind of did your jobs for you in a way.

And it seems like travel advisors are making a comeback.

Do you think that's right?

And why do you think that is?

If so, Sally, we've never been busier than we've been now.

And I will tell you, during the pandemic, people were joining the industry.

And I remember saying to our sales team, can we give these people some aptitude tests?

Do they not know there's no traveling going on?

But what they saw and what we're still seeing is that people realize time is important.

The internet has not put advisors out of business at all.

It's only made it stronger.

AI has only made it even stronger because AI helps you kind of inspire Instagram, Pinterest.

You're inspired by that and then you want it to be specific to you.

The reason why people thought advisors were gone was because the brick and mortars went away.

We didn't see our local travel agency anymore with that little awning and you'd walk in and see all the brochures.

We didn't see that any longer.

So that's one of my personal missions in the travel industry is to kind of bring back the best of yesteryear without having to have the brick and mortar.

And that's that's why I'm high about travel advisors.

They're making well over six figures.

Wow.

Should I become a travel advisor?

Sally, if you're not advised, what am I doing?

Host a podcast.

Girl, I've got advisors that are making $300,000 a year.

Amazing.

It also seems to me like a big reason why travel advisors have become so popular is because travel is so much more complicated now.

We mentioned kind of, you know, Disney with the reservations, but it is not just Disney.

It seems like every museum requires a timed entry.

It seems like even with airlines, there's so many confusing add-ons that people aren't sure what they do or don't need.

So it does seem like maybe a travel advisor is that good person to just give you straight answers.

Even with the visa requirements changing, there was a new visa that I had to get to go through the United Kingdom, even though I wasn't going to the United Kingdom, but I was going through the United Kingdom.

So therefore, I needed a visa.

A travel advisor knows all of that.

It's also more complicated, Sally, because we really want the best value for our money.

And what does value mean?

Value isn't necessarily saving apples to apples, saving money.

Value is that time, that investment.

I got exactly what I needed out of it.

All right, Jen, I want the listeners to get to know you.

So I have some rapid fire questions.

Oh, good.

One favorite place you've traveled to.

You can't make me say one best place, Sally.

I've United States, Jackson Hole, Wyoming all day long.

I love Jackson Hole, mostly because it was a great experience for my husband and I.

It was a great reconnection.

And then I would say Munich, Germany.

Dublin, Ireland was just lovely.

I was just there.

Cape Town, South Africa.

Really?

Okay, lots of places.

You can't pick just one.

I know.

It's like Lay's potato chips.

Top place you want to go to next?

The Galapagos.

And Antarctica.

I want to hang out with some polar bears.

Or is that the Arctic?

That's the Arctic.

Penguins.

Penguins.

We could do both.

We'll do the Arctic and Antarctica.

Let's do it.

Let's do it.

Now, what is a top place most people who you work with are booking for this year or next year?

River cruises.

People are all about river cruises right now in Europe.

River cruising is one of the best ways to travel through Europe because you're actually pulling up right to the cities.

You only unpack once.

You don't have seasickness.

It's small.

It's usually 200 people, no more than 200 people on a ship.

It's great to go with friends and it's great to meet new friends.

River cruising is hot, hot, hot, hot, hot.

What is the worst travel mistake you see people make that costs them money?

Worst travel mistake?

Probably relying on Instagram to tell you where you go.

Oh, interesting.

Listen, with AI out there, there's all those AI-generated photos.

And there was one not too long ago that came out that looked like it was like a lazy river through Greece.

And there is no such place.

Like, there's no lazy river in Santorini, babe.

I'm sorry.

Oh, my gosh.

I would say also not buying travel insurance.

I'm really serious about travel insurance.

People think, oh, I'm not going to get sick or, oh, I'm not going to cancel.

Oh, nobody plans on getting sick and nobody plans on canceling.

And I've seen people out hundreds of thousands of dollars because they had to be airlifted or they're at a hospital somewhere that's not home, even if it's within the United States.

That's an extremely costly mistake is not having travel insurance.

If you could make one change to the travel industry, what would it be?

Oh, one change.

I would say I really want us to have a consistent consumer experience again.

That is really the thing that is the missing component.

As a consumer, you're listening to this.

You know, like I can book it myself.

It's because you don't have a consistent experience that you can rely on.

That is the one thing that I would want to change.

I love people coming in that are kind of doing it part-time, but they need to be serious about it.

There's a lot of legalities behind.

Working with somebody and curating an experience and taking their credit card and being fiduciary responsible.

It's a consistent consumer experience.

That's the one thing I wish we could get back to.

Last question, Jen.

What is one single piece of travel advice you want to give to listeners?

Always have a carry-on bag.

That lost luggage will get you if you don't have the carry-on.

Exactly.

Get the carry-on bag and don't stress.

The second piece of advice is really pack your patience.

You've heard that over and over again, but you can tell those that use travel advisors and those that don't in an airport.

I can promise you that.

Those that have an advisor, they feel like they're double covered, right?

Those that don't, they feel in very lost.

So always a carry-on with a couple of days worth of clothes in there.

Great tips.

Jen Lee, president and CMO, travel planners, international, and vacation planners.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Loved it.

Talk to you soon.

Take care.

Wow, Sally.

I really hadn't thought about how many perks travel agents have access to that you might not get when you're booking on your own.

If it doesn't cost me any more money, I will take that late checkout and free breakfast.

Thank you very much.

Speaking of the unexpected, it is time for our hot takeoff section.

Megan, do you have any?

Yes.

I've actually been pleasantly surprised with my Airbnbs recently.

I know they sometimes get a bad rap, but I realized you can get some hotel perks at Airbnbs.

What do you mean by that?

So if you book like an Airbnb with a pool or whatever, that's like a hotel amenity, sure.

Right, right.

I was really impressed that I was able to get late checkout from two of the Airbnbs I stayed at recently, and it was totally free.

Obviously, there's no elite status.

One also let me store my luggage for a few hours.

You just kind of broker this with the host?

Yeah.

And I'm just communicating with them through the messaging.

Some of them also offer like little amenities at the Airbnb itself.

For example, like the one that I stayed at, they had a bottle of wine on the table that you could buy basically like a little mini bar already in the kitchen.

So I've just been really impressed lately with the service I've gotten at Airbnbs, especially if you're able to get some of those local hosts.

And if there is a perk that you're looking for that you're like, I'm going to book this Airbnb, but I'm going to miss out on the free breakfast.

I would just ask them and you might be surprised at what they can do.

You know, it's funny that you bring up that you don't actually need elite status because often I'm at a hotel and I'm like, can I stay until 1 p.m.

at a place where I don't have elite status?

And they're like, that will be $75.

That could happen at a hotel or at an Airbnb.

I mean, there is definitely a way that they could charge you, but I think it's worth asking.

You might be surprised at what you get.

Okay, great tips.

We want to hear your tips.

Tell us whether you do or don't recommend travel agents.

Tell us how you feel about Airbnb.

All the things.

Email us at travel at nerdwallet.com.

You can even leave us a voice memo.

This is cool because I am inclined to play your voice back on the show.

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This episode was produced by Hilary Georgie and Tess Figlin and edited by Nick Charismy.

Claire Soci helped with fact-checking.

And our brief disclaimer, as always, we are not financial or investment advisors.

This info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes.

It may not apply to your specific circumstances.

Thanks for listening.

We hope you're inspired to keep your passport full and your wallet even fuller.

See you next episode.

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