Travel Top Tips
Over the years of our travels, we've learned a lot along the way. We're sharing the things we wish we'd known earlier: where and how to book, how to get free stays, how to get yourself reward flights, and the most frequently searched questions online, we have the answers.
Booking flights
Search wide, book direct. Aggregators are brilliant for finding the price, but they don't always offer the same guarantee. In most cases we book direct.
Start researching with Skyscanner
It scans the whole market, including budget airlines. If you haven't got a specific destination in mind, search "Everywhere" to see where you can travel to on the dates you're looking at. Or switch to the flexible month view on a route you've already picked to see the cheapest day to fly within that month.
Cross-check with Google Flights
Google Flights makes it easy to compare prices day-by-day on a route you've already chosen. Use the flexible-date grid to find the cheapest flights available, and switch on price-tracking alerts so you find out about a drop without having to keep checking.
Then book on the airline's own site
If a flight gets delayed, cancelled, or you need to change it, the airline deals with you directly. You also earn points toward your fare status. Things like lounge access and extra bags come from building that up over time.
Try and use the same airline
We always try to stick to the same airline so we can build up your points and status. The more you fly with them, the more you get back. Things like free lounge access and free bags make a real difference, especially on longer trips.
Be flexible by a day or two
Shifting a flight by 24 to 48 hours, or avoiding Friday and Sunday departures, can often save you money on the same route.
Flights are often cheaper when they get released
This is true for most long-haul and budget airlines. It's based on supply and demand. Most airlines open bookings around eleven months in advance, but it's best to check directly with the airline as it does vary.
Set a price alert
Fares move constantly. A free alert on Google Flights or Skyscanner means you find out about a drop without having to keep refreshing a tab.
Check what protection you're actually getting
Many aggregator sites are based outside the UK or your country and aren't the airline operating your flight, so ATOL or Section 75 cover can be weaker. Check what you're actually covered for before you pay, especially for a package.
Check what things cost before you go
It's really useful to know roughly how much things cost at your destination before you arrive: meals, transport, activities. Numbeo gives you a cost guide by country and city (which we use), so you can plan your spending and avoid any nasty surprises when you get there.
Booking hotels
Hotels can often offer direct-only discounts and perks, and booking directly is also how you earn your points and rewards. Always worth checking the hotel's own website before you pay.
Check Expedia or Trivago first
Great for comparing prices across lots of properties in one go and getting a feel for what's available on your dates. Really useful when you haven't made up your mind yet.
Don't forget Hotels.com
Hotels.com gives you a credit after a set number of stays, and you can often combine this with cashback accounts to double up on the saving. We've built up a great status there simply by using it as a default when we book. They also offer free credit when you reach ten nights, so the more you book, the bigger the discount gets. At the time of writing, the average cashback was around 10% on the total booking value.
Book the room directly
Hotels often give you discounts and perks for booking directly that you won't see via a third-party travel website. Direct bookings will sometimes earn your points and rewards, plus things like breakfast, late check-out or an upgrade. It also goes towards your status, which means even more perks depending on the hotel group.
Free cancellation rates
Free cancellation rates can cost a little more, but they give you flexibility. Our insider tip: we've often been able to look again closer to the travel date and the prices had changed, so we rebooked and saved money. Sometimes free cancellation can work really in your favour.
Check TripAdvisor before you book
Reviews on aggregator sites don't always reflect the full picture. We always check TripAdvisor for every hotel. You can read both the horror reviews and the great ones, and see what actually matters to other guests. Noise, location, what the rooms are really like rather than the professional photos. It's all there.
See it for yourself: our Accor stay
Booking directly with Accor is how we got a free upgrade, late check-out and free drinks, plus points towards future stays. Watch our YouTube video on how we did it and how the Accor reward system works.
Watch our Accor free upgrade, drinks & treats video →Hotel reward programmes
Our favourites are IHG and Accor. Stick with one programme and your stays start to add up fast. Points, status and real perks that make a genuine difference to your trip.
IHG One Rewards
Includes Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Intercontinental & more- Our experience
- We built up our IHG points for a year and stayed four nights in New York completely free. We've also been able to book hotels from as little as 8,000 points, and while some of the luxury properties need a lot more, it shows how far they can stretch.
Accor Live Limitless
Includes Novotel, Mercure, Sofitel, Fairmont & more- Our experience
- We reached Silver status easily. It's based on how much you spend or how many stays you have. Just two trips in one year got us there. With Silver we got free drinks, a free upgrade and late check-out until 2pm. That's what convinced us to keep booking with Accor.
IHG One Rewards: Ambassador
Intercontinental hotels, paid membership- What it is
- Ambassador is a paid membership that gives you automatic Platinum Elite status across IHG, which means a drinks voucher, late check-out and room upgrades as standard. On top of that, you get a free weekend stay at an Intercontinental, guaranteed late check-out at 4pm and credit to spend in the hotel. That 4pm late check-out is particularly useful if you have a late flight, as most hotels will charge you for this otherwise. If you stay in Intercontinentals regularly, it's well worth looking into.
How airline credit cards can earn you a free flight
Spend enough on the right card and the points, or a companion voucher, can cover a flight outright. We've used both the British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Credit Cards in rotation within the same year and ended up with a companion voucher for each airline.
How to Visit NYC & Washington in Under £1k video →Always pay your card off in full every month to avoid paying any interest. If you don't, the interest charges will cost you far more than any reward you've earned. This is based on our own personal experience of using these cards and is not financial advice.
British Airways
Virgin Atlantic
Our honest opinion: which is better, British Airways or Virgin Atlantic?
Both have their strengths, but if we had to pick a favourite it would be Virgin Atlantic, simply because we love going in the premium cabins. The companion voucher can be used in any cabin class, and we've used ours for Upper Class. On one trip, Upper Class return cost us around £1,000 in taxes and points combined, when the same seats would usually start at around £2,500. On another trip to Vegas, we paid around £970 total for what would have been a £10,000 trip. That kind of saving is what makes these cards worth having.
On taxes, British Airways is actually cheaper. BA taxes start at around £150 for a return to the US, while Virgin is typically around £300 for economy, so roughly double. Virgin points go further on many routes though, which balances it out. British Airways also has a much wider range of destinations than Virgin, which is worth keeping in mind depending on where you want to go.
Honestly, having both cards and getting a voucher from each in the same year is the best of both worlds. That's what we do and it works really well.
How reward flights actually work
Both schemes use dynamic pricing, meaning the points cost moves with demand or in peak periods. Learn to spot the best seats and both programmes become a lot more useful.
British Airways: Avios
Earn it: flying British Airways or any oneworld partner airline, or via the British Airways Credit Cards above.
Spend it: search Reward Flights on ba.com or the Avios app. Flexible dates will find better availability and pricing.
Partner airlines: Avios also books oneworld partners including American Airlines, Iberia, Cathay Pacific, Qatar and more. Partner seats are sometimes far better value than British Airways' own flights on the same route.
Companion Voucher: covers a second passenger on the same booking, or reduces the points cost if you're travelling solo. Best saved for a long-haul or premium cabin booking rather than a short hop.
Virgin Atlantic: Flying Club
Earn it: flying Virgin Atlantic, the Virgin Atlantic Credit Cards above, Virgin Red shopping, or transferring in from Amex Membership Rewards or Marriott Bonvoy.
Spend it: search Reward Seats on virginatlantic.com and look for Saver pricing. That's where the real value sits. Some shorter or less popular routes can start from as little as 6,000 points one-way in economy, which means a welcome bonus from the credit card could get you a flight straight away.
Partner airlines: Virgin is part of the SkyTeam alliance, so points also book Air France, KLM, Delta and Korean Air. Useful for routes Virgin doesn't fly itself.
Reward Voucher: can be used for a companion seat or to upgrade your cabin in any cabin class. The maximum points you can use depends on your Flying Club status. Red members up to 75,000 points, Silver and Gold members up to 150,000. You can top up the difference if the flight costs more. We always try to use ours for premium cabins, as that's where we feel the value is greatest.
Orlando & Disneyland Paris
This is one of our favourite tips when it comes to theme parks. Use a crowd calendar before you even book, to make sure you're going when it's less busy. The difference can be queue times of two to three hours versus walking straight on. Pick the date before you book the flight and the whole trip becomes so much more enjoyable and efficient.
Orlando: Disney World & Universal
Use: Undercover Tourist's Crowd Calendar at undercoverTourist.com. It gives each day a simple crowd score based on years of real wait-time data, alongside park hours, special events and ticket pricing.
Insider tip: avoid US school holidays and the days either side. September and late January are usually the quietest times of the year.
Insider tip: the last week of August is one of our favourite windows. UK school holidays technically still run, but US spring break and summer have already finished, so it's cheaper and much less crowded. A really great time to go.
Disneyland Paris
Use: there are some good crowd calendar tools available for Disneyland Paris. We'd suggest DLP Tips or Magic Tips, both of which score each day based on real historical wait-time data.
Why it matters: Disneyland Paris follows the French school holiday calendar, with a big pull from UK half-terms too. Those dates drive crowds far more than the season itself.
Insider tip: aim for Tuesday to Thursday and try to avoid French and UK school half-terms. Mid-January, early September and early November are usually the quietest windows. The Halloween and Christmas events are magical if that's what you're after. Just go knowing it will be busy.
Insider tips
Always pay your credit card off in full every month. Every card here only works in your favour if it's paid off each month. Otherwise the interest can be really expensive and will wipe out any reward you've earned.
Pick one airline and one hotel group. Spreading your stays and flights across too many programmes means you never build enough points or status to make a real difference. Hotels.com is also worth building up alongside a hotel loyalty programme, earn free nights and stack it with cashback accounts for extra value.
A companion voucher is great for getting a free flight, but we love using ours for premium cabins. That's where the value really is. Don't waste it on a short economy hop.
Watch for point bonuses and point sales. Virgin, for example, will sometimes let you buy points and give you a big bonus, up to 70% extra at certain points in the year. Never move points between programmes without checking if there's a bonus transfer offer running first.
You can buy and top up both Avios and Virgin Points directly. Both British Airways and Virgin Atlantic allow you to purchase points outright, and they both run sales at various points through the year where the cost per point drops significantly. It is worth keeping an eye on these if you are a little short for a redemption you have in mind.
Use a fee-free card abroad. Keep your airline card for UK spend where the points are best and switch to a fee-free card the moment you land. Airline reward cards charge close to 3% on foreign transactions.
Always book direct. Aggregators are great for finding the price, but always check what guarantee you're actually getting before you pay.
The world's most searched travel questions
The ten questions that come up again and again, answered straight, learned from experience.
How far in advance should I book flights?
We always recommend booking as early as possible, ideally when flights first get released, which for most airlines is around eleven months ahead. Flights work on supply and demand, so the more seats that go, the more expensive the remaining ones get. The sooner you book, the cheaper it tends to be.
Is travel insurance worth it?
Absolutely, every single time. You never know what is going to happen on your trip. We learned this through our bags going missing, the airline's own allowance for replacement essentials is very small, but our travel insurance covered us for a few hundred pounds for clothes and essentials, which made a huge difference. It is the only thing standing between you and the full cost of a cancelled trip or unexpected medical care abroad. Check your bank account first though, as some come with travel cover already included.
Do I need a visa for where I'm going?
Check the destination's official government or embassy website. Requirements change and vary a lot by passport. Don't rely on a travel blog for this one.
How long do I need left on my passport?
Most countries around the world want at least three months' validity beyond your return date. It is also worth knowing that many countries go by the ten-year issue date on your passport, not the printed expiry, so even if it hasn't technically expired, it may not be valid. Always check the specific destination before you fly.
What are the rules on liquids in hand luggage?
We always try to keep everything under 100ml if possible, all in a clear resealable bag. Some airports have newer scanners and the rules are changing in certain places, but we'd always recheck directly with the airline before you travel as it varies.
Can I fly while pregnant?
Most airlines allow travel into the third trimester, but they'll often ask for a doctor's letter for longer flights from a certain point, usually around 28 weeks. Always check the airline's specific policy before you book, not just before you fly.
How much should I tip and where?
It varies a lot by country. The US expects 15 to 20% as standard. Most of Europe rounds up or adds a small amount if service is good. Japan doesn't tip at all. Always look up the norm for where you're going rather than defaulting to what you're used to at home. We cover this in detail in our destination blogs.
Card or cash abroad?
Card is our main method, but use one with no foreign transaction fees, not the airline reward card you use at home. Always carry a small amount of local cash for markets, tips and anywhere that doesn't take card.
How do I avoid jet lag?
Our best insider tip is to stay up for the whole day when you arrive. Yes, you will be exhausted, but it gets you into the new routine so much quicker. Try to land and just keep going until a normal bedtime at your destination. It really does help.
Can AI find me a cheaper flight than Skyscanner?
Not reliably, no. AI tools are great for planning and answering questions about a route, but live fares still come from the same flight search engines underneath. Use AI to plan. Use Skyscanner or Google Flights to actually price it.