Maximizing Miles, Sharing Points, Avoiding Costly Mistakes: Your Travel Questions Answered
Host Sally French opens the episode with the week’s biggest travel headlines alongside Elizabeth Ayoola, host of NerdWallet’s Smart Money podcast, who fills in for Meghan Coyle during the news segment. They cover sweeping 2026 changes to U.S. national park pricing and fee-free days, Disneyland’s newly announced kids-ticket deals for next summer, Travel Tuesday sales that are still available, and the debut of Chase’s new Sapphire Lounge in Las Vegas.
Then, Sally and Meghan tackle a fresh round of listener questions, including what happens when credit-card travel insurance doesn’t cover a canceled ski trip, whether transferring Chase points to Marriott is ever a good idea, and how to combine Chase Ultimate Rewards points within a household. They also explain how Alaska Airlines applies free checked bags on split reservations, when gifted Air Canada Status Passes unlock Maple Leaf Lounge access, and how authorized users can help families maximize travel perks.
Card benefits, terms and fees can change. For the most up-to-date information about cards mentioned in this episode, read our reviews:
Chase Sapphire Reserve Review: A High-End, High-Maintenance Card
Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business Review: Big Perks, Bigger Fee
American Express Platinum Review: Top-Notch Lounge Access, Big Credits
Capital One Venture X Review: A Steal of a Deal Among Premium Cards
Chase Freedom Flex Review: Multiple Bonus Rewards Wrapped in One Card
Chase Freedom Unlimited Review: A Potential One-Card Solution
Atmos Rewards Ascent Review: Well Worth $95 a Year
Best United Airlines Credit Cards of December 2025
Resources discussed in this episode:
How to Visit National Parks for Free in 2026
Disneyland in 2026: Ticket Deals, What’s New
116 Travel Deals for Black Friday and Travel Tuesday in 2025
Chase Sapphire Lounge Las Vegas Review
5 Things to Know About Chase Sapphire Reserve Lounge Access
11 Credit Cards That Provide Travel Insurance
What Is the Value of Marriott Bonvoy® Points? (Calculator)
The Best Chase Transfer Partners
How to Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards Points Between Accounts (and Why It’s Smart)
How to Access Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounges With Your Chase Sapphire Reserve Card
Want even more tips and tricks to get the most out of your travel dollars? Subscribe to TravelNerd, our free newsletter designed to help you crack the code on spending less on your travel.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Press play and read along
Transcript
In Walmart's Huluville, time was ticking away. Only a few nights left till the big holiday.
But last-minute gifters had no need to worry. Walmart Express Delivery got their gifts in a hurry.
From Nintendo to Nespresso and Lego flowers, they could check off their lists in as fast as an hour. All of Hoo-Nouville, East, West, South, and North, could order gifts up until 5 p.m.
on December 24th. So this holiday, just do as the Who's do.
With gift delivery this fast, they all gasped. From Walmart, who knew? Subject to availability terms and fees apply.
what happens when you get injured and have to ditch your ski trip will your credit cards travel insurance cover it and is it ever a good idea to transfer your chase points to Marriott and what is the best way to combine chase points with your household that's all coming up in today's show
Welcome to Smart Travel, a deep dive into the tips, tools, and tactics to maximize your travel dollars.
I'm Elizabeth Ayola, co-host of the Smart Money Podcast, and I'm standing in for Megan Coyle today.
Elizabeth, we loved having you on the show so much last week that we decided to bring you back for this week's news. And by the way, I am Sally French.
And I guess I am now qualified as a travel nerd and I'm ready to help you plan your next big trip. Elizabeth, you have more fancy travel credit cards than I do.
So yes, I want you here on this show.
And by the way, listeners, if you did not catch it, we did a super fun wallet analysis with Elizabeth on last week's episode. So do go back and download that if you have not already.
And Sally, I want to thank you. Because of you, I will be using my stub hub concert credit to go to a Jagged Edge concert at the end of December.
I'm so excited for you. Thank you.
Nerds helping out nerds. That's what we do here.
And hopefully we can help out the listeners. Speaking of helping out the listeners, that's what we are doing today.
This is one of my favorite episodes to do, a listener questions focused episode.
But first, our disclaimer, and that is that we will talk about a few credit card companies that are nerd wallet partners in this episode. That does not influence how we discuss them.
The benefits, terms, and fees mentioned here were accurate at the time of posting, but things can change. Some offers may have expired by the time you're listening.
So, for the latest details, follow the links in the episode description. Now, let's dive into this week's travel news.
And Sally, we've got some pretty major changes coming to national parks in 2026.
That is exactly right. The Department of the Interior just announced what they are calling the most significant modernization of national parks access in decades.
Pray tell tell Sally, should I clutch my pearls in anticipation of bad news or should I get excited for good news?
Well, it is a mixed bag depending on whether you are a U.S. resident or not.
But I will say it is probably good news for the former and bad news for the latter. Ooh, okay, so tell us what's changing.
Starting with the least controversial of the changes, and that is that the America the Beautiful passes are going digital starting January 1st, 2026.
You can buy them through recreation.gov and store them on your phone. This is nice because you no longer have to worry worry about forgetting your physical pass at home.
That's absolutely convenient and hopefully it'll make for faster entry and a smoother visitor experience. I hate fumbling around with those paper passes.
I don't even own a printer myself.
So the more I can load on my phone, the better my life is. I'm ready for the bad news.
Hit me with the bad news. Whether or not this is really bad news depends on who you ask.
So new in 2026 is what they are calling, quote, America first pricing. With this, U.S.
residents will still pay $80 for that annual pass to the national parks, but non-residents non-residents will now pay $250. What? That's more than triple the price.
Right.
And it gets even more expensive if you don't have that annual pass. So non-residents will pay a $100 per person fee at 11 of the most visited national parks.
And that is on top of the regular entrance fee. I'm just thinking right now as you say that, what about a family of five? So that'd be $500 just for everyone to get in.
Yes, this is not cheap.
It does apply to certain national parks. So that would be Acadia, Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Zion, to name a few.
That doesn't necessarily mean every single national park has this extra fee. But yes, that does mean a lot of money if you are an international tourist.
This is like Disneyland pricing.
Now, the flip side is that revenue is supposed to go directly back into park maintenance and improvements, but it's definitely going to change the math for international visitors who are planning U.S.
road trips. Definitely a bummer for you international listeners out there.
But for what it's worth, this kind of pricing is sort of common where it is cheaper for the taxpayer versus everyone else.
So I live in San Francisco and spots like the Conservatory of Flowers in our wonderful Golden Gate Park are free for SF residents, but it's about $15 for everyone else.
And also in that vein, over the past week, the Louvre Museum in Paris approved a ticket hike from 22 to 32 Euros, which is from about $25 to $37 for non-European visitors.
And that actually goes into effect in January 2026. So all these price hikes for international visitors is not just limited to a U.S.
thing. I also did want to circle back to the U.S.
National Park free days. So in 2026, there are some new fee-free days at the national parks.
But here's the catch. These are now only for U.S.
residents.
So non-residents will still have to pay even on those days. You know what's interesting, Sally? I've never actually been to a national park.
What? Nobody scream at me. I know.
Oh, no.
It's on my to-do list. I know.
I know.
So since I moved back to the U.S., I've not been to to any national parks or ever in my life really but i want to take my son to one so it's nice to know that there are free days so maybe i can plan it around that yes go on one of the fee free days and let me tell you when they are they are president's day memorial day flag day that is also president trump's birthday independence day weekend which is actually three days then there is constitution day the national park service 110th birthday Theodore Roosevelt's birthday and Veterans Day.
Wow. So lots of significant days here.
Lots of patriotic themes here. I will say they got rid of Martin Luther King Day and Juneteenth as fee-free days, which were previously fee-free days.
Well, wow. On to better news.
If you are a motorcyclist, all passes will now cover two motorcycles instead of one. So if you and a friend both ride, you can share one pass now.
That is a win for the motorcyclists out there. We will have a full breakdown of all of these changes on NerdWallet.
We will link to that in the episode description.
So pivoting, you mentioned Disney when talking about about those national park price changes, but this news is kind of the opposite.
Yeah, so national parks getting more expensive for international visitors, but Disneyland just dropped some ticket deals. I gotta say, I am seriously impressed.
I need to hear more about your impressions about these ticket prices, Sally, because I'm always shocked at the prices to get into Disney. Well, you mentioned you got a son.
So if you have a son or any kids, consider going to Disneyland this summer. They have a ticket offer kids tickets as low as $50.
That is a huge discount. Shut the front door.
We might be going to Disney. Now, just to be clear, these are for tickets next summer, and the tickets don't actually go on sale until January 21st.
They announced this deal yesterday just to give some people some time to plan and potentially book those flights, especially with Travel Tuesday.
I've seen so many airfare deals yesterday, so they wanted people to be able to jump on those and then plan to go to SoCal at Disneyland this summer.
Well, it's a good way to get you thinking about going to Disney this summer and I'm already thinking about it. So it's working.
And they have other deals on hotels, some discounts for SoCal residents, more details. We will link to the full rundown.
Well, speaking of those Travel Tuesday deals, we should mention that even though that was yesterday, assuming you're listening to this episode on its air date, a lot of deals are still live.
So we've been talking about Craig Joseph's Travel Tuesday deal guide for a few weeks now. And normally these deals are pretty much gone by Wednesday morning.
But this year, we are seeing a lot of deals that are still bookable into early December, even mid-December in some cases. I can see that.
They get to make some more money.
So if you miss Travel Tuesday itself, you haven't necessarily missed out. Obviously, the best deals go fast, but I would still check out that guide.
See if there's anything left.
We will link to the deals guide in this episode description so you can see what's still available.
Well, Sally, as you know from last week's episode, I am a lounge junkie and you've got some lounge news for us.
Well, we are both lounge junkies because I spent yesterday in the new Chase lounge at Las Vegas airport. This is a big deal because now Vegas has an MX lounge, a Capital One lounge.
And now this new Chase lounge. Sally, all that I'm hearing you say is that I need to book a trip to Vegas.
That's all I heard you say. You could do a great national parks trip out of Vegas, actually.
Go to Vegas and then hop over to the Grand Canyon. Oh my God, Sally just want me to spend all my money in 2026, but I'm here for it.
So tell me, what is different about this lounge?
This one is very not national parksy whatsoever this is the bougiest lounge i have ever seen they are experimenting with this new concept called a champagne parlor Wow.
Now, the only thing I like champagne in is my mimosas. But tell me, what's in the champagne parlor besides champagne? Well, they do serve mimosas, actually.
It is this bar cart, and you can get irregular champagne, mimosas. They got seasonal spritzes, and then there's someone walking around with little past bites because you got to eat if you're drinking.
Also, super posh, super shimmery. Well, I have to ask because I'm a foodie, how's the food? Elizabeth, food unbelievable.
I always, whenever I go to a new lounge, I'm like, this is the best lounge ever. And this is, this one is the best lounge ever.
Why?
Because the food comes from Mama Fuku, which is one of my absolute favorite restaurants. I have never heard of Mama Fuku.
You've not heard of it. No,
we are really exposing you to everything. National Parks, Mama Fuku.
You guys are up-leveling my life. I love it.
Yeah. So this is a restaurant that there's a few around the U.S.
There's actually one in the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Vegas.
And if you missed your chance to go while at the Cosmo in Vegas, just get it here in the airport. It is so good.
They have spicy cucumber salad. They have crispy nori potatoes.
My favorite food you've got to get at Mama Fuku and here in this lounge, Mama Fuku's famous pork bun. Wrong time for you to be telling me about all this food, Sally.
I have not eaten today, but it all sounds delicious. There is a full review on nerveballit.com.
I also posted a video walkthrough on my Instagram and TikTok. You can find that at Save with Sally.
And we'll link to that review in the episode description as well. But I have to ask, how do people get into the lounge?
If you hold certain cards, including the Chase Sapphire Reserve card or the Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business card, then you and two guests may enter this lounge at no cost other than the annual fee you paid for with this card.
And get this, even if you do not have one of these cards, you may still be able to get in.
That is because other credit cards with Priority Pass Select membership, I'm talking about cards like the American Express Platinum card or the Capital One Venture X Rewards card.
These cards get you already passed membership, which in turn comes with one complimentary visit per calendar year to any one of the Chase Apparel Lounge by the Club locations. Love this information.
So, for anyone who's wondering whether their card is worth it, that annual fee, here are some more perks.
And again, we will link to that guide to how to access these lounges in the episode description. Alrighty, that is the news.
And if you want to hear more from Elizabeth, which I know you do, do subscribe to our sister show that's called Smart Money. Now let's move on to those listener questions.
Y'all seem to have loved the past listener question episodes we've done so far. The feedback's been great and we're getting all these new questions in.
So rather than go through these things one at a time per episode that would take forever, we figured we would do yet another all-new listener questions episode.
The last listener question show was entirely points and miles focused, which is definitely our bread and butter. And because we love doing these and you love listening, feel free to send us more.
You can email us at travel at nerdwallet.com. You can write something out or you can save your fingers and just send us a voice memo, which we can play on the air.
Okay, Sally, we're starting off with a tough one this week. This one comes from Laurent.
They say, I use the Capital One Venture X card to pay a $4,500 deposit for a club med ski trip in France for December since it came with a trip cancellation policy.
Last month, I got badly injured in a car accident and still cannot walk. Oh, no.
I called Capital One, who told me that their trip cancellation policy covers only transportation.
So that's like flights, cruise ships, and that I was out of luck. Is it just my bad slash stupidity for having gone with trip cancellation without reading the fine print? Laurent, I'm so sorry.
Don't feel bad and don't feel stupid. I just want to say that.
This is a very heartbreaking situation. I do have some thoughts though.
The first thing is that this is just tough.
It is hard enough to go through this without a financial blow like this.
The other thing I will say is that Capital One trip cancellation coverage is relatively limited compared to other similar policies policies on travel credit cards.
So to understand what a policy like this covers, you actually have to read pages and pages of fine print.
So you really just need to look at these two things, the coverage limit and what expenses count.
This is really hard because travel insurance on a credit card is not some blanket thing that is the same benefit on every card.
We see benefits on other cards that are the same across every card, like Priority Pass Lounge Access. Travel insurance is not that.
So with this specific card you're mentioning, their policy coverage only covers up to $2,000 in non-refundable common carrier costs. And what is a common carrier, you ask? Good question, Laurent.
This is just transportation and not just any transportation, but something that mass people would rely on. I'm talking about something like flights, trains, cruises.
So not hotels, unfortunately, not tour packages and not say that ski lodge deposit in the Alps. I'm so sad for you also.
I've been skiing in the French Alps and it was amazing.
So I do hope hope that you recover and do eventually get to do that trip. Let's not give him FOMO
because sadly that $4,500 ski trip deposit does not qualify. Really, another thing you need to know is that Capital One has a very narrow definition of Common Carrier.
In fact, even within Common Carrier, they have their own definition and theirs does not include things like taxis, limos. It does not even include commuter trains.
Now, I want you to know this is a lot different from other travel credit cards where their travel insurance is much more all-encompassing.
Those other premium cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve have much broader definitions.
That card can reimburse prepaid trip expenses like hotels, tours, or even a ski package if it's part of a travel bundle. It's one of our favorite credit cards with travel insurance.
We'll link you to NerdWallet's guide on credit cards with trip insurance in the episode description.
Next time you do look for a card with travel insurance, it's important to know what sort of rolls up into travel insurance because that can include so many different things.
It could include trip cancellation, it could include trip interruption, which is actually slightly different from trip cancellation.
Typically, they're bundled together, but not necessarily the same thing. There's some types of travel insurance that include lost luggage insurance, some that include delayed luggage insurance.
So, really know what you're getting with this card that you have. It is a really limited benefit.
All right, Laurent, we really do hope you get to go on another ski trip sometime soon.
Okay, we've got more listener questions after the break. Stay with us.
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All right, Sally, moving on to another listener question. This one is about Marriott Points Boost.
This one's from Alex, who wrote in after reading our colleague Craig's piece on getting maximum value from Chase Points, especially now that Points Boost has rolled out.
So Alex says, you mentioned transferring points. I have a bunch of Marriott Bonboy points too, but they're worth roughly roughly a penny.
Won't that devalue my Chase points to a penny with a one-to-one transfer? Can I give the rare one-word answer? Go ahead. Yes.
It's yes, Alex. The answer is yes.
Well, actually, I do have a caveat about this one. Oh, really? Let me hear it.
Well, I don't think Marriott points are actually worth roughly a penny.
Based on NerdWallet's valuations, they're actually worth less than that. So it'll devalue your Chase points even more.
So definitely do not transfer. According to NerdWallet's valuations from this year, Marriott points are only worth 0.8 cents.
If you transfer your chase points, even if you're not doing a points boost redemption, they're going from one cent in value to 0.8 cent in value.
So that's why you probably shouldn't transfer to Marriott.
Alex, honestly, this is such a good question because so many people assume I should just always transfer my points to one of these hotel or airline partners. Definitely not always the case.
So do check and see what kind of transfer you're getting. Alex, you feel like you're getting a one cent transfer.
Megan and I are actually concerned you're getting a 0.8 cent transfer.
So yes, do watch out. And we do have a points calculator for that.
So if you are ever curious about how much your points are worth, I would go to the link in the episode description.
And also, you might want to consider if there are transfer bonuses because that might affect how much your points are worth. So there are smart times to do a transfer, as Megan said, transfer bonus.
And then also sometimes there are just these outlier hotels where there's some sort of hotel out there that for some reason only costs 50,000 points a night to book, but the cash rate is $1,000.
In that case, transferring them could make sense. And Nerdwallet's valuations are based on an average.
They're based on a study that we do every year where we look at a bunch of hotels and try to kind of come up with this aggregate number. That does not mean that there are not outliers out there.
And Alex, maybe you found a good one. And then I also would say, don't discount.
points boost. I know that points boost.
It does sound like it is a devaluation.
And it is if you're not booking with points boost a lot of the time. But I've booked a couple of Marriott properties with Points Boost, and it was great.
Redemption value is much more than 0.8 cents or even one cent. Yeah.
And so that's a case where you would want to book your Marriott hotel in the Chase portal to take advantage of that points boost option.
I'm getting the sense that you have both Marriott Points and Chase Points.
So if you're wondering if you should just transfer those Chase points to Marriott to get an even better value in Marriott Points, I would say very likely no, but you could be getting a really good value if you just book that exact hotel you want to book within the Chase portal.
Sally and I can give you another tip, which is if you do want to transfer your points for a good, high-value hotel redemption, we would recommend Hyatt. Hyatt's our favorite, right, Sally?
Yes, that is one hotel program that we generally like. We think their points are worth closer to two cents each.
So that is one where if you transfer them out of Chase, almost always you are getting a better value if you transfer out of chase and into Hyatt.
Other good ones, if you're looking for air partners, are JetBlue, Singapore, and Virgin Atlantic. We'll link to our guide to the best and worst chase transfer partners in the episode description.
Okay, that was a fun one. Next question, very similar vein, but instead of transferring Chase to Marriott, we have a listener who wants to transfer points to their spouse.
I love that. All right.
Here's what Scott said.
Can I apply for and get approved for a chase sapphire card, then meet the signup bonus requirements, and then have my wife, who already has a Sapphire card, transfer her points to me and then cancel her card.
Sounds like you basically want to take advantage of the signup bonus, but not necessarily pay two annual fees in your household, which I endorse.
Oh, Megan, I know you endorse it because I know you mooch off of Eddie's Chase Sapphire Reserve because you don't want to travel fee.
Diversify, you know?
Yes. So, Scott, you can definitely do this.
You are allowed. totally legal to combine or transfer points between yourself and one other member of your household.
Chase defines this as someone living at the same address. So I'm going to assume y'all live at the same address.
To do this, you do need to hop on the phone with Chase to have your wife added to your account before you can initiate a transfer.
Our colleague Benjamin Din wrote a story with some more detailed instructions in case that's helpful. So we'll put a link to that one in the episode description as well.
Oh, and you know, can I add one more thing? Of course, Sally.
I want to say that instead of just having your wife cancel outright, in which she would lose all of that credit history, she should ask for not a cancellation, but rather a product change to another card.
I'm glad you said that because that's really good advice. Typically, Chase allows you to product change Chase Sapphire cards to a different Chase card with a $0 annual fee.
So some examples are the Chase Freedom Flex or the Chase Freedom Unlimited. These are technically cashback cards.
So the cashback is earned in the form of Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
And those can actually be transferred to a Chase Sapphire card instead of redeeming them for cashback.
So once you transfer those Chase Ultimate Rewards points from your Chase Freedom card to your Chase Sapphire, then you can transfer them again to an airline or hotel partner and get a really high value redemption that way.
The reason why your wife would want to do this is not cancel IRI, but rather transfer or downgrade to another product is simply to maintain that line of credit.
You don't want her to have a possible negative impact on her credit scores because she canceled this old account.
By downgrading, you keep that same account number, allows her to maintain that credit history, which is generally good for her credit scores.
Plus the Chase Freedom cards actually earn 1.5% cash back or 1.5 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per dollar that you spend on everything else that's not a bonus category.
And that's better than what you would get on the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Chase Sapphire Reserve. So also a great card to just kind of use for those everyday expenses.
Have her pay for the everyday expenses and then put the the travel and dining on your ChaseFire Reserve. Perfect.
So Frank emailed us asking about checked bags for his family.
He has an Atmos Rewards Ascent Visa signature card. Reminder, that is the card tied to Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
He is booking a trip for his family of four.
He wants to use his companion fare on one of their flights. And he writes, My question is regarding the free checked bags.
Since the companion fare only allows booking two tickets at a time, if I make a second reservation for the other two family members, do they get free checked bags too?
That card typically offers a free checked bag for the cardholder and up to six guests on the same reservation when you pay for that flight with your card. Right.
But Frank is concerned because this particular reservation would just be him and one other family member.
So he's worried the other two of them will not get the free checked bag benefit because it's not the same reservation.
So shout out to our editor Claire Socy, who contacted Alaska Airlines for us.
And they told her, quote, either the primary card holder or an authorized user must be traveling on a ticket that was paid for with a qualifying card to receive the bag fee waiver.
So in English, that basically means if you make the reservation for yourself plus the companion fare ticket and then you make a separate reservation for the two other people, then the two other people on the second reservation would not get the free check bags unless, and wait for this, Frank, unless one of them were an authorized user on your card.
Interesting. Okay, so possibly he could add one of his family members as an authorized user on his card and then they would all get the free checked bags.
That is exactly what I'm thinking, Megan.
Okay, this doesn't work for every airline card, though. I have to say, we tried this in my family with the United cards and the authorized user on the United cards does not get free checked luggage.
Claire's person at Alaska Airlines said that it does. So try it out.
Great for Alaska.
The other thing that I will say is great for Alaska Flyers is that the Ascent does not charge a fee to add an authorized user. Many other cards do.
So I would consider adding someone in your family as an authorized user. That way, that person can be on the second reservation rather than as your companion, increase your odds.
And I think this person at Alaska Airlines is right. I love finding ways to use these credit card benefits to help your whole family.
As we all know, I do this for my whole family.
So Megan is the one that brings in 15 of her closest friends to the Capital One lounge. You got to roll up with a squad, you know?
All right, life hacks. We are here to help and next up is a question about lounges sal you're gonna love it
this one is from anastasia it goes i wanted to ask if you happen to know whether someone can access the sfo maple leaf lounge that's an air canada lounge using a status pass that was gifted to them i wasn't able to find a clear answer on the air canada website anastasia i have actually been to the sfo maple leaf lounge and it is fabulous it is one of my favorite spots it's got got amazing local food and it has a roof deck for plane spotting.
And what is local food in San Francisco, you ask? They have Chiopino, which is like an Italian-American seafood soup. Mm-hmm, that sounds good.
Sally, I went to the Maple Leaf Lounge on your tip, and I also loved it. So any way you can get access, I think you should try.
Okay, so let's tell you, Anastasia, you can access this glorious lounge.
If you have an Air Canada status pass that someone gave you, you can use it to get into the Maple Leaf Lounge at SFO or really any Maple Leaf Lounge, as long as you are flying on an Air Canada operated flight that day.
I feel like the gifted lounge access is kind of a present that says, I love you, but I also don't want to travel with you.
I love that. I will travel with anyone if they hook me up with a lounge pass, whether they are there or not.
So what does the person giving the pass have to do to make that happen? Good question.
So before the trip, the person who's gifting the pass needs to log into their Air Canada account.
They can then then go to the benefits tab click redeem the status pass benefit then they enter the recipient's last name so anastasia that would be you and booking reference number once that's done they can double check that it went through there is a button that says send passes and then on the day of the flight the traveler that got the gift just walks right into the lounge yeah pretty much one thing that you can know just to look and make sure that you have access is that there will be a maple leaf lounge indicator on your boarding pass and the boarding pass is what you need to show at the door anyway.
And Sally, what is status pass exactly? This is a nice perk you get with Aeroplan Elite 50K, 75K, and Super Elite members. They can choose to get this perk.
So when you use a status pass, you get not only lounge access, but also a bunch of other elite style benefits on your flight just for that one trip, like party boarding, up to three free checked bags, and then of course lounge access.
So maybe make friends with someone who has Air Canada Elite status. Always have fancy friends.
That is our life hack, or in our cases, husband/slash boyfriends who have a Chase Sapphire Reserve.
Many people don't know that you can actually use your Chase Sapphire Reserve to get into Maple Leaf lounges for you and a guest if you are traveling on a Star Alliance airline.
So that's not part of the priority pass situation. That's just a special benefit for Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders.
We'll link to that in the episode description.
Okay, I think that's it for listener questions. Sally, do you have a hot take off today? Do I? Are you ready for this? I'm ready.
My hot take is that checked luggage should be free and that they should still charge for carry-on. Ooh, reverse it.
I like that. That,
baby. That's what I'm talking about.
Because then boarding won't take as long, right?
Because everyone will be checking their bags because it's free and they won't be putting their bags in the overhead bins because that would cost money. Exactly.
This literally saves everyone money because how many times have you been on a flight where there are two bags that they cannot find any overhead bin space?
They have to hold the entire plane to bring the bags down, put it in the hold. Everyone is waiting.
Now the flight is delayed. Now you miss a wedding that you're trying to get to.
It's horrible.
Everyone hates you. Just check your bags.
Ooh, okay. But as someone who was burned by checking my luggage earlier this year, I'm scared though.
That's why it's free.
You didn't pay anything. So if they lose it, at least you didn't lose money.
Oh, gosh.
Everyone, please just make sure you have an extra pair of clothes in your backpack, the thing that goes under the seat in front of you.
I think it would work like this because a lot of basic economy fairs actually do this, where you can bring a personal item.
So this is backpack or smaller and not those big, camping, huge backpacks, but just like a small school bag. That is still free if it fits under your seat.
But anything that needs to go in the overhead bin costs money. I like where this is going, maybe.
Yes.
I will stick to my backpack. Actually, I would probably pay for the overhead bin.
Right, right, right. Because then you get to have your bag by you.
And everyone who really demands to have their bag by you, you know what? Pay for it. That's my hot take.
Or get elite status or something. I like this.
I like the idea of this. You like it.
Interesting. Because I guarantee you, there are no listeners out there who like this.
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We hope you're inspired to keep your passport full and your wallet even fuller. Thanks everyone.
We'll see you next time.