穷游专栏作家亲授：省钱旅行的核心秘诀与避坑指南

Rosie Garin: I haven't found Costco travel to be great for the other types of travel that you can book through them, but the cars are pretty sweet.

Christine Cyr: Yeah, that's true. I know people that have booked their honeymoons for, you know, if all you want is like fly and flop. Um, it's great for that.

Kyra Blackwell: I like that.

Christine Cyr: That's all I ever want.

Kyra Blackwell: This should be my life.

Christine Cyr: I'm Christine Cyr. I'm Kyra Blackwell. I'm Rosie Garin. And you're listening to the Wire Cutter Show. Today we are reairing an episode all about finding travel deals. It features an interview with Elaine Glusac who writes the New York Times frugal traveler column. She's covered everything from using AI as a travel agent to itineraries for affordable visits to places like Honolulu, Dublin, and more. We originally aired this episode a year ago, but we think her advice is so great for planning holiday travel, we wanted to reshare it. And remember, you can enjoy a month of content in the New York Times app for free if you sign up for your first account now. Access all your favorite podcasts like the Daily, the Book Review, The Wire Cutter Show, and so much more in the shows tab. All right, on with this episode.

Christine Cyr: Hey, pals.

Rosie Garin: Hey there. Can I start off with a compliment?

Rosie Garin: One of the things I like best about you guys is the extent to which you have inspired me to travel more.

Kyra Blackwell: A

Christine Cyr: It's true. Really,

Rosie Garin: that's a compliment that comes from the heart, but also from the fact that you guys, I feel like, are out and about. You're seeing the world, and it's really cool.

Christine Cyr: Well, I wasn't able to see the world for a long time. I have kids and they were little, and then the pandemic happened, and it's expensive to travel. But lately, I feel like I've been getting to go places. It's nice.

Kyra Blackwell: I'm kind of the opposite. I have no responsibilities and I love to hop on a plane.

Rosie Garin: It's It's great. It's a privilege and it also is a means, I think, of personal growth. And our guest today fits perfectly into that, I would say.

Christine Cyr: That's right. And, you know, Wire Cutter, we cover a lot of travel gear. You can find all sorts of reviews for travel bags and gear to put in your bags, all of that. But what we don't cover is the actual sort of nuts and bolts of how to shop for travel, for your flights, for your hotel rooms, and these are often the most expensive things when you're traveling. So today we're going to talk with Elaine Glusac, who is the Frugal Traveler columnist at the New York Times, and she is really a specialist in traveling well for less. And I have to tell you, I love Elaine's column. I read it all the time. I'm always kind of like following her from afar to see where is she going and how much is she spending on this trip. Living vicariously through her.

Rosie Garin: We're going to chat with Elaine about how to get the best deals on airfare, lodging, and what you should know about travel deals during Black Friday. We'll be back in a bit. Welcome back. Our guest today is Elaine Glusac, a longtime travel journalist who currently writes the New York Times column, The Frugal Traveler. As the name implies, the column focuses on budget travel, international and domestic. Travel by car, by train, camping, cruises, hotels, hosts, rentals, and much more. Well, I wish we could talk with Elaine for 27 hours and extract every nugget of wisdom you have, Elaine. Today, we're going to focus on your very best tips for scoring great travel deals this fall and winter. So, welcome to the Wire Cutter Show.

Elaine Glusac: Oh my gosh, thanks so much for having me.

Christine Cyr: Well, it's so awesome to have you here, Elaine. I have to say I'm a little jealous of your job, honestly. You just travel around the world and you get to write about it. So, you write the Frugal Traveler column. You've done that since 2020. This column has been around for 30 years, though. I'm curious, how long have you been writing about travel? And how did you end up with this gig as the Frugal Traveler?

Elaine Glusac: Yeah. Um, so grateful for it. I've been writing about travel for at least 25 years or really most of my career. I just basically followed my bliss as the adage goes and um I really couldn't find a topic I liked that, you know, made me more happy and eager to get to work in the morning. Partly that's the case because travel is this huge umbrella for so many interests. You could be writing about food or adventure or art or culture or nature. All of those things interest me. All fall under the travel umbrella. And I got the gig right on the verge of the pandemic uh in 2020. So the timing was very interesting. But it ended up being a rather important time to be reporting on travel. The industry was so battered, but people very clearly wanted to get out and go, which they've been doing ever since.

Christine Cyr: Like gang busters. It's been pretty wild the last few years. Elaine, when you are writing columns for the Frugal Traveler, are you mostly traveling by yourself? Are you traveling with family members, a partner? How how does that work for you?

Elaine Glusac: Yeah, I mostly travel solo when I'm traveling for work, but I also travel a lot with my family. So trips can often be sort of a business leisure bleisure blend if you will. When I'm working exclusively, I'm trying to be really mindful of the balance between uh time and budget. So I'm usually running around like crazy to get everything in, to see everything, to eat everything, to do it all on budget, you know. So I only invite my most energetic friends on my work only trips.

Christine Cyr: I feel like I want to become your friend. So but we'll talk about that offline.

Kyra Blackwell: Yeah. I want to know when you first began writing the column, what was your approach to writing about budget travel specifically?

Elaine Glusac: You know, there are things I want to do and things I have to do. The column covers both service and more experiential travel. So, we definitely want to give advice on the best credit cards and how to score deals and the ins and outs of bidding on upgrades. But in the experiential stories where I'm traveling, I want to show people that being mindful of your money does not diminish your experience in any way. I would argue that it enhances it. I feel that you get closer to real people when you're traveling on a budget. You're not cocooned in a luxury resort like the White Lotus and the only locals you meet are the staff, which to me is the whole point of cross-cultural exchange. And I also really wanted to test drive a lot of different ways of traveling and that doing it on a budget can be like so much more interesting. So, for example, what's it like when you exclusively use public transportation to go vineyard hopping? Or what's it like to take a $300 cruise to the Bahamas? Or, you know, what's gained or lost if you go to less popular places, you know, in popular destinations like Costa Rica.

Christine Cyr: How has that changed over the years?

Elaine Glusac: I'm much more mindful of sustainability now and the contribution that conscious travelers can have in promoting it. I think if you're careful about how and where you go, which is very much tied up with your budget. I think you do a better job of leaving no trace or at least reducing your footprint. I also fly a lot less and when I do, I try to stack up assignments so I'm not just flying to England for one trip, but travel around the UK and report three stories. I'm very interested in slow and sustainable forms of travel, including humanpowered trips like walking, cycling, and paddling, and slower means like trains.

Kyra Blackwell: The thing that will usually cost you the most when you're traveling is flights and lodging. So, can you break down your best advice for getting better deals on flights? Because I am a last minute buyer, unfortunately, Wayne. I usually buy my tickets maybe 2 days before I have to leave. That's not very frugal of me.

Elaine Glusac: Unfortunately, it's not great for the spontaneous traveler. I mean, I feel like spontaneity is for road trips, but flights are like you need 6 to 8 weeks for domestic.

Kyra Blackwell: 6 to 8 weeks.

Elaine Glusac: Yeah.

Kyra Blackwell: It's like it kind of kills it, doesn't it?

Elaine Glusac: I know.

Christine Cyr: And that's just that's for domestic,

Elaine Glusac: right? And it could be 12, you know, for international. But I will say there are some exceptions with international. like the big destinations like New York, London, you can probably go a lot closer cuz there's so much service.

Kyra Blackwell: What is the closest you would do on a on a spontaneous trip?

Elaine Glusac: On a spontaneous trip, a month.

Kyra Blackwell: Okay. I feel like that's not spontaneous though.

Christine Cyr: Do you think the same rules apply for holiday travel when you know it's going to be a really high traffic time?

Elaine Glusac: Oh my gosh, holidays are so much worse. And you're going to hate this answer cuz it's like for Thanksgiving you have to start monitoring flights in August.

Rosie Garin: in August

Elaine Glusac: and you Yes. And you have to be ready to book in September or early October. Well, that's when prices bottom out and then they'll start to rise really really quickly and then it's like the same sort of huge margin that you need around Christmas travel. And one little piece of advice, my favorite little trick here is when we're thinking about the holidays, I love the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas for doing a personal trip. It's a really low like everyone's traveling at Thanksgiving. Everyone's traveling at Christmas. It's really tends to be quiet the first two weeks after Thanksgiving. I always book a trip.

Kyra Blackwell: That's a hot tip.

Christine Cyr: Yeah, it is.

Rosie Garin: That is a great tip. Where have you gone in the past during that time?

Elaine Glusac: Oh, well, I went to France and did the uh Christmas markets on the ride.

Rosie Garin: That's so amazing. I was going to guess H Highleberg Christmas markets during that time. I'm curious when you are, you know, you want to go to a specific place, what's your strategy at a technical level? Are you putting in a Google alert on Google flights? Are there other places that you're looking, you know, what are the tools that help you find the best deals for flights?

Elaine Glusac: Yes. And I'm not very techy, so I just want to say if I can do it, everybody can do this. But Google Flights is great because I always start there because a search will tell you if you're getting a good deal, a worst deal, or an average price. So, you kind of want to go there and find out what you should be looking for, what a deal looks like. And then I'll go to Kayak, which is another travel search engine, and they have a little advice monitor that will tell you to buy or to wait. And then I'll set up notifications with both Google and Kayak, and they'll tell you what's happening. Is it going up or down? The flight price that is. And then I spend a lot of time playing with my itinerary. Can I go a day later or a day earlier? You know, is it better to spare myself the expense of an extra hotel night and take a late flight home? I also sign up for free notifications from a website called going.com, which is great at finding deals from your favorite airport. So, I just booked a deal round trip to Toronto in first class for $300, which is a deal.

Kyra Blackwell: That's awesome.

Rosie Garin: And send me the link.

Christine Cyr: I know I will. Did going used to be Scott's cheap flight?

Elaine Glusac: Yes, it did. Yeah.

Christine Cyr: And it really I I've used this site too. It's super cool. But I also have found like I think it works best for people who are super flexible, right? Who can go on the dates that it pinpoints as having good flights?

Rosie Garin: Yes. And can you pinpoint where you'd like to go? It just gives you every possible deal there is at that airport.

Christine Cyr: Yeah. They just kind of look at your airport. So you might not be interested in Honduras. Whatever. Just delete that email. But yeah, every once in a while it'll just come up with, "Hey, Toronto's on sale."

Rosie Garin: Wow. Is there a best day to buy flights? I've heard that Tuesday nights, like at midnight, is a really good time. I don't know why. Or like flying on a Wednesday is cheaper. Is any of that true?

Elaine Glusac: Some of it is true. Like airfare pricing has changed so much in recent years and it's way more dynamic and sophisticated than it used to be.

Elaine Glusac: So there's really no magic day to making your booking. But there was a thing about Tuesdays.

Rosie Garin: Really?

Elaine Glusac: Yes. It used to be that was the day when one person like an actual person went in and updated flights and now it's all computer driven, you know, so they can change hour to hour.

Elaine Glusac: But I am a huge fan of flying Tuesday, like going out on Tuesday, returning Saturday or flying Saturday and returning Tuesday or Wednesday. Those are the lowest load days. So, not only are prices better, of course, but you get a better experience at the airport and in the air.

Christine Cyr: So, in the vein of talking about flights, buying airfare these days can be really complicated. Even on premium airlines like United or Delta, if you go for the cheapest option, you often have to pay extra for things like choosing seats or checking bags, which seems egregious to me. Same deal with budget carriers now Southwest. So for you, do you tend to go for the cheapest option or do you pay more for things like refundable flights, free cancellation? I want to know because I want to know if paying less ends up costing you more in the end.

Elaine Glusac: I think it definitely can and it may be different for every traveler. I will never buy a flight I can't change. Basic economy tickets, okay, they might save you $50, but if you have to cancel, I mean, life happens. If you have to cancel, you're out the entire fair. So, I always book a ticket where I can at least get a credit back if I have to cancel. I just have to have that flexibility. I don't know. Maybe my life happens more dramatically. I don't know.

Christine Cyr: I've run into that. I have little kids and things come up and life happens and so

Rosie Garin: Oh my god. Yes.

Christine Cyr: I've gotten credits that I use for the next thing.

Elaine Glusac: Yes. I mean, they keep your money, but at least they are allowing you to use it within a year or two. But I wanted to say when it comes to seats and bags that I play the credit card game and I get those perks by paying with the airlines branded credit card. It's kind of a no-brainer for me cuz I'm based in a city that has a hub for like two major airlines, actually three. And within a trip or two, I'll have paid off that $95 annual fee through free seat assignments or check bag fees. And like everyone else, I hate budget carriers for their nickel and dimming. But if you abide by their rules, you really can save again for work. I once did a $100 round trip to Vegas, which only allowed me to bring a personal item. So basically, I took like a little backpack with some running clothes and a toothbrush, and I had this great budget trip, and it was cheap. But yes, if you're going to check a bag or you want a decent seat, you need to add those fees in when you're comparing fairs with other airlines. I have another red flag about budget carriers, and that's their frequency of service. So, for example, they might have this great fair to Key West, Florida, but you know, maybe they only fly it once a day or maybe twice a week. So if something happens and you get bumped, it could be days or weeks before they can get you home because their flights are so infrequent.

Rosie Garin: I'm curious, do you buy flights directly from the airline or do you buy flights from Expedia or Travel Velocity or or third party vendors?

Elaine Glusac: I usually buy them directly mostly because I want more control over my booking and I'm always worried about cancellations and getting my money back and I just feel like that's much more seamless if you go direct.

Kyra Blackwell: Are there any budget airlines that fly internationally that you've used before or you think are worth considering?

Elaine Glusac: Yes, definitely. I just took ARIS which is a Mexican lowcost carrier. I took them to Mexico City and I had a great experience. It was super cheap. It was under $300 round trip to Mexico City. I mean, it was more like 200. It was crazy. The seats were fairly intimate, restrictive, and I don't even think they were giving out free water. Oh, no.

Rosie Garin: BYO water, right?

Elaine Glusac: I know. But the service was professional and they dominate the route, so there's like a ton of options. You won't get stuck.

Kyra Blackwell: I want to pivot to lodging. What is your best advice for finding a good deal at a luxury hotel, a boutique hotel, an all-inclusive? Is that possible to do on a budget?

Elaine Glusac: I feel like hotels are really worth booking early. So that like March trip you're doing, you should get your hotels cuz that's when rates are lowest. And most have unrestrictive cancellation policies. So you, you know, you can make these early reservations without risking anything, you know, cuz as hotels book up, the prices go up and if you need to change it, you can usually do that without a penalty 24 to 48 hours in advance. I don't do a lot of luxury hotels, as you might imagine, but I would say if you have a particular hotel in mind that you should sign up for their newsletter or their emails. They often will include special offers for their subscribers or mailing list. And with many hotels, you can kind of scour their availability calendars and find the dates with the cheapest rates and like maybe work your trip around them. And then of course always try to book in the offse or you know on the quieter days of the week which is midweek if you can.

Christine Cyr: When I travel with my husband, just my husband will stay at a hotel. But I am way too cheap to do this with my kids. I need to have a kitchen that we can cook some food in. I usually rent Airbnbs or verbos or whatever. I'm wondering if you have any advice on how to find the best deals on that type of lodging.

Elaine Glusac: Searching early is important. It's basically one ofone inventory, right? If the one you love, you know, is sold out, it's sold out. Also, you could consider staying longer. Airbnb and Verbbo offer, not always, but often discounts for stays of a week or more. You can try to book directly with a host, and you'll usually get a better rate. This takes a little bit of soouththing and I did an entire column on this, but you can get around rental platforms by like scouring their sites, like looking at the pictures on their site. And a lot of people that run their own booking apart from say an Airbnb might have like a framed photograph on the counter that says welcome to Home in the Woods or something like that. Something that you can then go to Google with say like Home in the Woods in Elie, Minnesota. and like maybe their website comes up, you know, if you go somewhere frequently, like let's say you go visit your parents every year, I would go to that host and say, "Look, I'm coming back. You know, would you deal with me directly? And if so, can I get a 10 to 20% discount?" So, you can negotiate that way.

Kyra Blackwell: Yeah. I'm a current Airbnb host and I will say that I'm always happy to have repeat customers and people who will hit me up like the upcoming weekend and I still don't have a booking and when people ask me to negotiate price I'm happy to do it because I'd rather have some money than no money. So I would say definitely in my experience it's better to go directly to a small actual host than like you know management companies now manage these Airbnbs and it's a whole thing. Talking to the people in my experience has always been much better.

Rosie Garin: Oh, that's smart. So, I'm going to look up your Instagram for your house and I'm going to reach out directly after this.

Christine Cyr: Our guest is Elaine Glusac. She is the frugal travel columnist for the New York Times. We're going to take a quick break and on the other side, we'll get into more travel tips and hacks. Stick around. Welcome back. Ela Glusac is in the studio with us today. She writes the Frugal Traveler column for the New York Times and has been generously sharing her most sought-after tips and tricks for traveling on a budget.

Rosie Garin: That's right. I want to briefly zoom out and talk about big picture trends you're seeing in travel. Elaine tourism is down significantly in the US more specifically people who live abroad are not visiting here. So I'm going to skip past the question and explanation of why and instead ask you is this a financially good time for Americans to travel domestically?

Elaine Glusac: Yes, the decline of visitors from Canada in particular has really registered in a lot of places from Vermont to Florida. And of course, travelers, you know, from Europe and other parts of the world are staying away, you know, which means there's more availability. This summer, for example, I saw a series of lodges in Alaska near Denali that went on sale in the summer, and I have just never seen that in my experience. And I have to believe it was related to tour groups cancelling.

Rosie Garin: That's actually really interesting. We talk these days a lot about inflation and tariffs. It's in the news. Many people are financially strapped right now with an uncertain economy. I want to throw one other financial term into the mix and ask you about exchange rates and foreign currency as they relate to travel. What should the average person know and look for when they're considering traveling abroad and hoping to maximize the US dollar?

Elaine Glusac: Yeah, you want to look for a currency where the dollar is strong. So, for example, if you go to Canada, one US dollar gets you a $1 138 Canadian. That's almost like a 40% gain. And I can tell you from recent experience that the prices in Canada are not 40% higher. So, you're getting that bonus. And it's the same in Mexico. You get about 18 pesos to the dollar, which goes a long way unless you're going to like Los Cabos, which has gotten really expensive.

Rosie Garin: And how do you research that? How can people find out?

Elaine Glusac: I like the currency exchange websites that have blogs that identify these countries that have great exchange rate value for travelers. I'm thinking of currency exchange international, but also like personal finance websites like Nerd Wallet are a good place to look for that stuff, too.

Christine Cyr: So Elaine, so far we've focused on ways of searching for, researching, and booking travel independently, but I wonder about passing that time, since time is money, off to someone else, someone who can maybe do it faster and more efficiently, like a travel agent. Are you ever going to actually save money using an agent or an agency, or are those really a thing of the past?

Elaine Glusac: No, I think there are occasions when you can save. I am a DIY person and I kind of enjoy all the planning and research, but travel agents are especially good at high-end trips and focusing on specialist trips like if you want to go on safari or if you want to do Disney, right? And I will say that they own the cruise market. If you are going to book a cruise, you'd be better off going with a travel agent and having them do that booking because they have access to special perks. So, you might not get a better rate, but you might get an upgrade or you might get like shipboard credits. And I think they really prove their value there.

Christine Cyr: So, if you were thinking about specifically for a cruise for your family, are you saying you maybe want to comparison shop with a travel agency or a couple of them versus what you could get on Speedia or I know that I look at like Costco travel sometimes like I'm a member at Costco.

Rosie Garin: That's a thing.

Christine Cyr: Oh, boy. Yeah, that's the Yes, we should talk about that. Yeah, we should talk about that.

Rosie Garin: But just to finish this question, would how would you go about shopping in a savvy way?

Elaine Glusac: Yeah, I always think it's having more sources of information is better. Of course, like there is sort of this time is money thing where you're like, I don't really want to look at five different travel agents. So, you know, maybe you look at Expedia, that's easy. And then maybe call a travel agent that someone told you about or the cruise line recommended because they have these close relationships with a lot of agents and, you know, maybe get a couple points of reference and then decide or look at Costco travel.

Rosie Garin: Well, speaking of Costco travel, let's get back to that. Um, so my aunt and uncle actually are travel agents and they now almost exclusively deal in in cruises, but they gave me this very hot tip that when they travel they it was actually their daughter gave this tip to me. She only books her cars through Costco travel because she gets the best deal on them. And since then that's how I've booked my travel and I usually get a better deal through Costco travel. Have you found that? Are there other membership clubs that you'd recommend sort of looking at the travel perks through those membership clubs?

Elaine Glusac: Oh, I use Costco all the time for car rental. I I don't know. I just have not found better rate.

Kyra Blackwell: Does that work internationally, too?

Elaine Glusac: I think so. I think I rented in Canada and it was better.

Kyra Blackwell: I've never heard this.

Rosie Garin: I haven't found Costco travel to be great for the other types of travel that you can book through them, but the cars are pretty sweet.

Christine Cyr: Yeah, that's true. I know people that have booked their honeymoons for, you know, if all you want is like fly and flop. Um, it's great for that.

Christine Cyr: That's all I ever want.

Kyra Blackwell: It should be my life.

Rosie Garin: We want to talk about Black Friday. Black Friday is kind of wire cutter Super Bowl. We are on the hunt for deals. We're trying to find deals for our readers. But this can also be a time to look for travel deals. And you've written about this. But if somebody knows that they want to buy airfare or maybe lodging or a cruise, do you advise that people wait until Black Friday to look for deals?

Elaine Glusac: Yeah, I think the whole Black Friday season in travel is kind of like the sales bin of misfit toys like you know cruises in the shoulder season rather than when the weather is reliable. You know, there's a lot of first quarter trips. I approach it as what can I get out of this that I know I need to plan? So, like, do I have a wedding in March in San Francisco? Oh, this might be a good time to look for a hotel sale. It's a bin, so like you have to do some digging. And there are some gems. A lot of national park lodges never cut their rates, but they'll do like a one-time sale at Black Friday. So, that, you know, again, if you're thinking about your year ahead, like, what do I want to do next year? Peruse the deals and see if one works for you. I gave it a shot for work. I gave it a trial. I bought a yacht trip in Croatia just to see what it would be like on a Black Friday sale. So, I saved $400, which is significant, but I had to go in April, which is relatively chilly in the Adriatic. But, I have to say that it was a great experience. And I'm pretty sure that I would not trade it for high season in the sense that we had the islands to ourselves. It was super unpressured, the weather was great, and we even did like a polar bear swim. So,

Kyra Blackwell: this sounds like my kind of trip. I would always take less people over great weather. So if I am just to that point of like what you're looking for at Black Friday, let's say I'm looking for a spring break trip for my family. Do you think this is a good time to kind of like see what they've got and then if they don't have what you want, then you can buy full price later.

Elaine Glusac: Yeah, totally. You're just like browsing the racks. That's the way I look at it,

Christine Cyr: right? It's like the TJ Maxx of travel. go shopping at TJ Maxx

Kyra Blackwell: and every once in a while you'll find like a cashmere at TJ Maxx and you're like, "Oh, score."

Rosie Garin: What advice do you have for people around getting refunds on flights? If somebody is running into trouble with a cancellation, do you have any hot tips for them?

Elaine Glusac: This is such a topical question cuz things are changing as we speak. You know, when a flight is canceled, airlines are required to give you a refund, and they're pretty good about that. The cancellation has to be on their end, and then you can decide, you have to tell them pretty quickly, oh, I want my refund, cuz otherwise they'll rebook you. So, you have to decline the rebooking.

Christine Cyr: Do you toggle the button to pay for travel insurance when you're buying through an airlines website? Cuz I usually don't, and I'm curious what the pros and cons of that are.

Elaine Glusac: No, I don't I don't ever buy that, you know, and they are such savvy marketers. Like, are you sure you don't want to buy it? No, because I I find that a lot of credit cards, assuming you're paying with a credit card, have a lot of consumer protections built into them when it comes to flight delays, compensation for meals or hotels that you might have to book in the event of an emergency. So, the things that you might get from travel insurance, you're already kind of getting, assuming you're paying with a credit card.

Christine Cyr: Okay, Ela, while we have you, we thought it would be fun to do a quick lightning round. We'll play green light, red light, yellow light. So, I'm going to toss you some travel strategies, and you let us know your thoughts. Pursue, keep away, or proceed with caution. Ready?

Rosie Garin: Sure. Okay, first one is error fairs. So these flights that pop up for cheap, maybe as a result of human error or software glitches.

Elaine Glusac: Yes, green light go.

Christine Cyr: Sweet. Paying for a subscription services that comb for deals.

Elaine Glusac: Oh, okay. I have to give this a yellow because sometimes they offer this free level of membership and that might be enough for you or it might convince you of it's worth.

Kyra Blackwell: How about purchasing or bidding on trips people have had to cancel? I've seen this recently. platforms like rumor or plans change.

Elaine Glusac: I guess I give that greenish. I think it's a really hard needle to thread. You have to be so flexible to line up your dates and destinations.

Kyra Blackwell: Yes.

Christine Cyr: Okay, Elaine, we are nearing the end of this interview and I'm curious, what is your best piece of travel advice that you've ever gotten?

Elaine Glusac: Don't expect everything to go smoothly and when it doesn't, remember the worst trips make the best stories.

Christine Cyr: Okay. Well, before we wrap, we usually ask all of our guests one final question, which is, what's the last thing you bought that you really loved? But today, we're going to switch it up and we're going to ask you two final questions that are hotly debated here at Wire Cutter. The first is, do you check a bag or a carry-on? And the second is, are you a hard-sided person or a softsided luggage person?

Elaine Glusac: Oh my god, this answer is going to be way longer than you guys want. But honestly, I carry on mostly because I don't want a lot of baggage, like psychic baggage. I don't want to worry about stuff when I'm somewhere trying to have this great experience. I do make exception um and check like if I'm not moving around or I need fancy clothes like a destination wedding or specific gear like skiing and then softsided backpack for carry-on. But I have hard-sided wheelies in sizes for both carry-on and checking. I get all the wire cutter recommendations and buy those things.

Christine Cyr: Well, Elaine, thank you so much. Elaine Glusac, aka the Frugal Traveler. We really, really appreciate getting to chat with you. Thank you for the advice.

Elaine Glusac: Oh, you guys, thank you so much for having me.

Christine Cyr: Wow, Elaine was so sweet and so knowledgeable and I'm still like very jealous of her job.

Rosie Garin: Totally jealous. Also, I feel like I had 16,000 questions I could have asked her. What are you taking away from this?

Kyra Blackwell: So, I'm going to be realistic. I still don't think that I'm going to be planning ahead whenever I'm booking flights or hotels, but I really did like her advice about flying on Tuesdays or Saturdays because it's like the lowest traffic you can get throughout the week. And if there's anything that I hate more than overpaying for a ticket, it's overpaying for a ticket and then coming to a really crowded airport. So, love that. Yeah.

Rosie Garin: My takeaway is book early in Kyra. You know, you know yourself, so you're gonna you are who you are and we love you so much. Yeah. So, before preparing for this episode, I had never really considered shopping for travel during Black Friday, and I will be doing that this year. I'm going to look in the discount bin and see what I might find for spring break.

Christine Cyr: And then I am also going to stop booking non-refundable flights, which I have a tendency to do. Living on the edge.

Kyra Blackwell: I like to live on the edge. And now I'm kind of seeing the the error of my ways here. And I probably should just pay a little bit extra for the refundable flight or for, you know, a free cancellation.

Rosie Garin: Love that. And the last takeaway I feel like I have to shout from the rooftops from Christine and Elaine. Rental cars through Costco.

Christine Cyr: Yeah,

Kyra Blackwell: game change.

Rosie Garin: Cool.

Christine Cyr: That's it for us till next week. If you like the show, we'd love for you to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. We really appreciate it. Peace. Bye

Kyra Blackwell: bye.

Rosie Garin: The Wire Cutter Show is executive produced by Rosie Garin and produced by Abigail Keel. Engineering support from Mattie Maziello and Nick Pitman. Today's episode was mixed by Katherine Anderson. Original music by Dan Powell, Marian Lozano, Alicia Baup, Rowan Mimisto, Katherine Anderson, and Diane Wong. Cliff Levy is Wire Cutters publisher and general manager. Ben Fman is Wire Cutters editor-inchief. I'm Christine Sirette. I'm Kyra Blackwell. And I'm Rosie Garin. Thanks for listening. I once got into a fight with a flight attendant on American when they were not serving water on on So that's that's my line in the and