Where will you find the best flight deals in 2026? Where should you (and we!) travel this year? What else will shape the year of travel ahead - maybe another government shutdown? And who the heck are “Danny & Debbie Delta?” To ring in the New Year, the guys pull out their crystal balls to talk about all things travel in 2026. Plus, a special friend introduces the show and we make a big announcement about what’s ahead for the pod in 2026. Happy New Year, travelers!
Where will you find the best flight deals in 2026? Where should you (and we!) travel this year? What else will shape the year of travel ahead - maybe another government shutdown? And who the heck are “Danny & Debbie Delta?” To ring in the New Year, the guys pull out their crystal balls to talk about all things travel in 2026. Plus, a special friend introduces the show and we make a big announcement about what’s ahead for the pod in 2026. Happy New Year, travelers!
00:00 - Where are we traveling in 2026?
02:20 - A new tradition to kick off the show! Submit your videos to thriftytraveler.com/voicemail.
04:00 - Where to look for the best flight deals in 2026, and why you should keep an eye on the Asia & Delta SkyMiles flash sales
14:15 - What deals won’t survive 2026?
18:33 - A word from our sponsor: Us & our Thrifty Traveler Premium service
20:19 - The trends that will shape 2026 travel: The Olympics & other big events, plus troubling signs for award travel
28:00 - Watching out for low-cost carriers - and why “Danny & Debbie Delta in Detroit” should care.
35:00 - Airports in 2026: Another shutdown, TSA fees & more
40:35 - What about credit cards? Bilt 2.0 & the uncertain future of the Venture X
45:30 - Where to go in 2026? Thailand, Vietnam, Finland, Spain, and beyond
51:45 - Listener Question: When & how you should call the airline to book award tickets
57:40 - On the Spot: Big news ahead for the podcast?
Produced and edited by Sylvia Thomas
Video editing by Kyle Thomas
Show music: “All That” by Benjamin Tissot
Yo, welcome to the show. I'm Gunnar, and that's Kyle, as always, wishing you a happy New year on the Thrifty Traveler Podcast. Today to celebrate the new year, Kyle, we wanna project forward a little bit and take a look at. All there is to come in 2026 for travelers. Like where do we think the best flight and hotel deals will be or what's gonna change at, at airports or on planes?
And maybe, uh, a few ideas of where to go as well. But first, Kyle, where are you going this year? What's on the books for you so far in 2026? Well, I, I, fortunately I can finally talk about it now. Uh, my Christmas gift to my wife was a trip to Costa Rica, so, oh, uh, right at the beginning of February, we're gonna escape the cold here in Minnesota and, and head down to Costa Rica for just shy of a week.
So really looking forward to that. And then just finally, you know, I've talked on the show a couple of times about having just a one way ticket to Hong Kong and nothing else. Still only have that one way ticket, but we finally started booking some hotels using up. Hotel credits on the Amex platinum card right before the year ended to to book a, a couple of nights there and, and hopefully piece together a trip to Thailand as well as a piece of that before heading home and how we'll get home.
I don't know. That's a, that's a problem for future me. Nice. All right. You got a little booksy over the holidays. That's good. You. Yeah, that's really good. Okay. Um, I am going to two, the only trips I have on the books are to two places people might not have heard about, uh, Italy and Hawaii. Are those two travel destinations, they're up and coming?
Both. Both are, uh, you're gonna have to report back. I think the podcast listeners will be, uh, will be curious to know. I Is Hawaii good? Yeah. Is Hawaii good? I'll let you guys know. Is the food in Italy good or bad? Yeah, we have a good friend luring us to Hawaii for their wedding. I'm so excited. And then, uh, we also.
I'm going, our first trip without, uh, little Emery will be my wife and I going to Italy in May, hopefully. All right, so I'm piecing all those together now. Uh, I'll report back on what we end up booking, but it's gonna be an exciting year in 2026. So today on the show, we're gonna tell you about where to find the best deals for yourself and give you some of our predictions about the industry as well, so you can travel more for less this year.
All that, and more, welcome back to the Thrifty Traveler Podcast.
Did you notice, uh, anything different there about the end of our intro, Kyle? No. Tell me. Alright. That clip you just saw or listened to was courtesy of Thrifty Travelers Senior Award Analyst Peter Thornton, who is kicking off what's gonna become a new tradition for us on the show. He introduced the show with a good pithy welcome back to The Thrifty Traveler Podcast.
But we wanna feature your video dear listener, uh, on an upcoming episode too. So we wanna start every episode with someone new, sending us one of those. Welcome back to the Thrifty Traveler Podcast videos. But you gotta get a little more creative than Peter. You can't just be sitting in the pool, sitting in the pool with a drink in hand on an inner tube that says fun boy.
I mean, the bar is quite high here. Okay, but I, I want a little more from the list. Okay, so what what we want you to do is record us a video, whether you're on vacation or at home. Do a quick travel, brag right before you give us that intro, right? Tell us what you just booked or tell us where you are, more importantly.
Um, and then end the video very short, like a less than 15 second video with a big, loud. Welcome back to the Thrifty Traveler Podcast. Then you're gonna go and upload it to our Dropbox link at thrifty traveler.com/voicemail. We're gonna review those there, and we want every episode to start with one of you introducing it, selling a plan.
Kyle, let's do it. We need your help. I know you already recorded one too. We might get some team members, uh, involved. I think you're on top of a, a cliff on a hike in Palm Springs. How did that video end? It ended well. It ended well. Okay. Um. So this week we are gonna start our kind of examination of the year in travel in 2026 through the prism of something hot and something cold, uh, which is a look at the good and the bad news for travelers every week, something hot.
I wanna know, Kyle, what are some of the places you should target for the best flight deals in 2026? What comes to mind immediately for you? I mean, honestly, the overarching theme here, I think for both of us is just supply and demand. Um, that is what dictates all flight deals, whether you're booking with cash, trying to find a cheaper flight deal or trying to use your points.
The more flights there are, the more seats there are to fill, which means the more trouble airlines may have to fill them. And then what they do is they cut prices or they allow travelers to book with their points sometimes for fewer points. So that is what is. Is top of mind for me. Um, airlines have gone bananas adding flights to Australia over the last two, three years, right?
And the biggest winner, or in this case, loser winner for travelers is not Sydney or Melbourne. It's Brisbane because it's the newest edition for many of these airlines. It's probably the least exciting of the major, uh, Australian cities. Of those three, and this is where we keep seeing sales, it's where we keep seeing live flat, uh, points, deals, bookable with.
Delta sky miles or Qantas miles or American advantage miles. So you know, for anybody who has a trip down under on the list, look at Brisbane. We've talked about this again and again on the show and on our site. This trend, I think is gonna keep up through 2026 and then some. Yeah. Brisbane's becoming that aim point where we always tell travelers when they're booking flights to Europe, just choose the cheapest city to get to Europe.
And then everything, once you're in Europe is cheap and easy and and fairly straightforward. Brisbane is quickly becoming that for the South Pacific. Like if you wanna go even to. To New Zealand or elsewhere in Australia. I mean, that's the point where you should aim for, 'cause you're gonna get the Campiest ride at the best rate there, and then you can figure the rest of the trip out.
I don't know much about Brisbane. I'm sure that you can get up to some fun in Brisbane for a day or two as like a connecting point to the rest of your trip as well, so, oh yeah, yeah. No, you're not gonna, you're not like slumming it by going to Brisbane instead of flying nonstop to Sydney. You're gonna be fine travelers.
Yeah. Um, anywhere else jump out at you for flight deal trends in 2026? I am really bullish on Southeast Asia this year, and I think that's in large part because of two really important hubs, again, that are benefiting from this imbalance of supply and demand. We've talked a lot about Taipei. That's going to continue, you know, I think in large part because there are now a pair of nonstops starting from Phoenix to Taipei.
Um, so that's, that's gonna be huge as well as, you know, all of the flights from Seattle to Taipei and Taiwan as well. So Delta Star, Lux, China Airlines, EVA Air, they are still duking it out. That is gonna lead to more and more deals flying from Seattle and, and in many cases from across the country, connect.
To, uh, through Seattle all the way to Taiwan. It's a great way to get to Southeast Asia, wherever you want to go from there. You know, whether you're talking about, uh, Thailand or Vietnam or wherever else, that's a, that's a three-ish hour flight from Taiwan, maybe even less. And then the other one is Hong Kong, which again has seen a lot of additions.
Delta is gonna start. Its first nonstop flight in almost a decade. Uh, from la um, over to Hong Kong. Uh, United has added a ton of flights, but most importantly, cafe Pacific, the main Hong Kong carrier, has added so much capacity. I, I checked the numbers through Syria earlier this morning as we're talking, and in the summer of 2026, there's going to be 45% more.
Capacity flying Cafe Pacific from the United States over to Hong Kong. And back then there was in the summer of 2024. That is a massive increase we've already seen, you know, some tremendous deals. And finally, you know, the kind of a canary in a coal mine for me is, you know, just last week we saw round trip fairs from the United States to Vietnam for like $558 round trip.
That should be a 14, $1,500 ticket. That is really telling about just how much extra capacity has been added throughout Southeast Asia and what that means for the year ahead. Yeah. We've seen these deals start to trickle in where it's, it's basically like Europe prices, but across the Pacific with these, these round trip faires in economy and the five hundreds.
Which are, I mean, really, really low. It's at least half off. And if you would've told me two years ago, I would've said it's, it's even more than that. So, um, that was my, like, biggest prediction and we pulled our thrifty traveler premium flight deal analysts, and they all agreed it. They think that it's, it's the year of the low, far across the Pacific.
It's coming really fast, I think as, as the airlines have adjusted. And we'll talk a little bit more about this. Coming up, but as airlines have adjusted their capacity to Europe, uh, they haven't quite made the same adjustments for the Pacific yet. So if you want to go to Asia, Australia, New Zealand, I think fairs are gonna drop and I think they're gonna continue to drop.
Um, and I would even, I'll put, uh, Hawaii in the Pacific there too. I think the Hawaii fairs are also staying low. We've seen that, uh, we've seen a bunch of good flight deals to Honolulu. La Hu all of 'em. Uh, it's been a really good time to book flights across the Pacific, and I think it's just gonna keep getting better.
Yeah, no. I mean, look at it this way. Airlines have spent most of the last four or five years just adding more and more and more flights over to Europe, and then I think we agree in 2025, they, they hit a saturation point where they couldn't add more without. Leading to too many empty seats to fill. And so then what they do is they end up sending those planes over to Asia, especially during Europe's off season.
You know, so from, you know, basically late October through late March, that's where all of that additional capacity is going. But still there's more than these airlines can, you know, responsibly fill, which leads to the great deals that we're talking about. Yeah. Any other predictions from you? You know, we, we gave delta sky miles flash sales, our very coveted, very prized, uh, first class award of 2025, because those deals were better than we had seen in, you know, almost a decade.
I honestly think that that's gonna continue in 2026. I think we're going to continue to see, you know, the sub 10,000 mile round trip fairs to Mexico and the Caribbean, 20 ish thousand sky miles round trip to Europe. And you know, more and probably even better. Delta one fairs to Europe, especially over to Asia, to some of these destinations where Delta is, is clearly struggling.
We're gonna see another great Delta one deal bookable with sky miles to Hong Kong. Certainly gonna see more to Taipei as well as Seoul, maybe even Tokyo, because I think Delta has realized that they need to throw out more of these great deals. They need to throw people with Delta skymile a bone in order to make sure they keep engaging with that program.
Yeah, I think that's, uh, a slam dunk for a prediction. And it kind of leads me to one of my, a little maybe bolder predictions. I think United is about to get really serious about mileage plus award sales, flash sales specifically kind of in the vein of Delta, right? Like exactly what Delta is doing. We've seen, uh, this is a bit of a copycat industry and we know that United Fancies itself.
A Delta. You know, they think that they are the same airline, and I, I just wonder if they're just going to rip this right outta Delta's playbook and just start doing the same. We've already seen them giving discounts to their card holders, uh, on award sales, and I just think, you know, bigger, more publicized flash sales, um, with better discounts for card holders are coming to.
United's program and hopefully that includes the forward cabin. I hope that people can book some Polaris seats using their United Miles as well. But I just think that United's been signaling over and over again that they're ready to get serious about Mileage Plus and making it, um, something a little more comparable to Delta.
I'm sure some people are covering their ears and eyes at that. Uh, assertion because that also means that prices are gonna get more expensive on some routes. Um, but as they continue to make those prices more dynamic, I think they're gonna have to make some really splashy award sales to, to get people excited again.
Yeah, I, I agree with the caveat that I think having either United status or one of their co-branded cards is going to be a pretty critical element of that, especially to book, you know, those live flat Polaris seats over to Europe or Asia or South America or wherever. But yeah, they, they need to do more.
Their, their award rates are in many cases on par with, if not worse, than Delta of, you know, seeing a hundred thousand united mileage plus miles round trip over to Europe, or 300,000 for a one way in business class. So they, they have to do more in order to make that program more appealing because, you know, honestly, among the big three airline alliances.
Uh, Delta in the Sky Team Alliance American in the One World Alliance, United among the Star Alliance. I think United is the weakest of those three in terms of how they stack up with all of their different individual airline partners within that alliance. So I think they, they need to do some work in order to make that better.
I think that's a good prediction. Okay. One last prediction for me very quickly. I think domestic deals are gonna continue to be bananas. Uh, really, really good low fares through this winter and through this spring season with the kind of carve out of the middle of spring break, which is usually always expensive, but I would say that January, February, April, may, domestic flight deals are gonna continue to be some of the best that we've ever seen.
Those kind of double digit fares that we love and, uh, we love to show off as well. Uh, and then I think when summer comes around, things are gonna get really expensive and, and the airlines are gonna pull way back. Um, I think that there's just been too many years of really, really good fares, and I think the airlines are, are ready to, uh, start making some money again and, and rightsize their operations.
So that's my last kind of prediction. If you're looking for some domestic flights, book now, book early. Anything else on that? No. Okay. I want to hear a prediction from you about something that. Is cold, something that may be dying? What, what deals out there, uh, are you not loving for 2026? What do you think is perhaps in peril?
It's, it's not gone yet, but I think the days of saving a boatload of miles by booking partner airline award tickets using one airlines mileage program to book a flight on another carrier for fewer miles. I think that door is closing. It's closing slowly, but it is undeniably closing. You know, we talked about United's obscene.
Uh, Polaris business class award rates, unless if you have a united card or you have united status, this means that already for United, what has happened over the course of 2025 is booking those united operated flights for 60,000 Aeroplan points, you know, for a one way from the East coast over to Europe, or for 55,000, uh, Avianca life, miles, those days are over.
That kind of partner. Award availability on United is already pretty much non-existent, and I think this is going to continue. I think it's going to. I continue to get harder to, for example, book a Delta one flight. Um, you know, not using Delta Sky miles, but Air France, KLM, flying blue miles from, you know, the East Coast over to Edinburgh or Lisbon or, or somewhere in Western Europe for as low as 60,000 points.
I think that's going to continue to get much harder. I think it might even get harder to save on Delta Flight's flying economy. Using Air France Miles, you know, for that trip to Costa Rica, my wife and I booked that flight for I think, 19,000 Air France, um, miles, each per person, each way, because Delta was charging more than 30,000 sky miles each way.
I don't know how much longer that's gonna last, but I think clearly airlines are wise up to the games that we play, and they're going to keep closing some of those doors. Yeah, I think that makes sense and I, I hope it's, uh. You know, just beginning. I hope those, those, uh, doors are still open for travelers to book for at least the first few months of this upcoming year.
Um, I think the door for my prediction, I think the door is also closing on this Europe bonanza that we've had. Uh, these. Just months and months now of seeing fares in the three hundreds and four hundreds round trip in economy to Europe. Um, the airlines are correcting. They don't wanna be charging that for airfare, that they're not making money on those fares.
The margins in the back of the plane are so tight for the airlines and when they have to fly you round trip to Brussels or Lisbon for $350, that's not. Not what they wanna be doing. I'm sure their shareholders are breathing down their necks about this stuff too. So I, I, I think they're correcting, they're correcting with this kind of premium push with these really specialized planes where the business class seats are going past the wing.
Um, we're gonna talk a little bit more about those later, some single aisle planes as well, where they're, you know, taking these, uh, a three 20 ones and flying them across the Atlantic to. You know, make sure that there are fewer seats on that plane, um, that I'm sure helps them and, and helps them save on fuel and things as well.
But I just think that it's been too many years now of these fares to Europe being too good And, uh, the airlines have to correct, and I think this is the year they do. I agree with one really important caveat. Well, two really. I think there are always going to be destinations where you have better odds of finding a deal and two that really stand out, especially this past year.
And you know, honestly, most of the post pandemic travel boom, Dublin because of Lingus and Madrid. Because of Iberia, but also where it is and how easy it is to get there and how many flights there are to Madrid. I think if you treat either of those two as your starting point, not necessarily that's all you do in Europe, but you know, I'm gonna fly to Dublin and then onward, I'm gonna fly to Madrid and then hop on a train in somewhere else.
I think you're still gonna be able to find a pretty good deal throughout the year. But I, I agree. I think airlines are, are. Past the point of where they need to. Correct. And they're really gonna start to do that in 2026. Yeah, definitely. Okay. Uh, we have a few more predictions, some really big bold ones and, uh, who knows, Kyle might, uh, fry, might send your eyebrows to some of his takes coming up for 2026.
Travel. No promises. We'll be right back. Okay. If one of your 2026 New Year's resolutions is to travel more than, uh. I guess you found the right podcast first of all, but second of all, more importantly, there is a single best way to ensure that your travels can add up without the cost adding up too. And at Thrifty Traveler Premium, that's exactly what we do.
We're searching for the best flight deal alerts from more than 220, US and Canadian airports from Boston to Bismarck, flying to the best destinations all over the world. How about this, Kyle, I'll prove it to you in the past 10 days. Here are all the places we found where you can fly for less than $599 round trip.
You ready? Banff, Iceland, Montreal, Dublin, Vietnam, Madrid, dc, Scotland, Punana, Florence, Thailand, Ibiza, and The Bahamas. Does it get any better than that, Kyle? Yes, it does. In that same last 10 day stretch, you could have booked latam business class to Argentina, Brazil, or Chile for as low as 60,000 points each way.
Virgin Atlantic business cost to London from 21,000 points each way. Turkish business class to Istanbul for just 65,000 miles each way. Vietnam Airlines for 68,000 points each way in business class. Stay at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City for 150,000 Hilton Honors Points. Park, Hyatt, Tokyo for just 35,000 points, uh, from Hyatt.
It goes on and on. So yeah, it does get better. Whether you wanna book the cheapest flights around the world or find the best redemptions for your points and miles, let Thrifty Traveler Premium help you get there. Join us today@thriftytraveler.com slash premium and use promo code TT POD for $20 off your first year of premium.
That's promo code TT pod, all one word for $20 off your subscription in 2026. Happy booking. Okay, we're back. It's time for the extra mile where we dig a little deeper on an important travel topic. And this week we're talking about the year ahead. We're gonna give you some predictions and most importantly tell you what to expect.
So hopefully we can all stay ahead of the curve in this effort changing travel. News environment. But Kyle, I wanna start with what I think is gonna be the biggest travel trend in 2026. And I think that the year in travel is gonna be defined by these major events and particularly sporting events. Um, I think these Olympics in Milano Cortina.
Obviously, uh, your, your trip might already have to be booked in order to secure some lodging for that one, but I think a lot of people are going to be going to Italy. I mean, why not? It's gonna be a, a really fun event there. I think this World Cup in the United States, uh, is going to be really interesting to have the world come and join us during the middle of summer and see what our, uh, our travel landscape is like in the heat of July and August or June and July.
Um, we'll see how that all goes. And then of outside of sports, I think this. Total solar eclipse that's going through the two like amazing travel hotspots of Spain and Iceland is going to be. Logistically challenging for those areas, but I think, uh, the deals are gonna be really good to get there. And I think a lot of people, especially in the next few months, are gonna be taking a look at that and being like, man, uh, there's not gonna be a better spot to go watch the Eclipse for a very long time.
And then of course there, you know, the annual events that happen every year on top of all this carnival in Brazil and February St. Patty's Day in March in Ireland, the Midnight Sun in the Nordics, the October Fest in September, the Christmas markets in December. Travelers love planning around these big major events.
I do too. Uh, it just seems to be getting more important to a lot of travelers, and I think that people are more willing to deal with these peak times, but it just kind of leads to more logistical challenges. What do you think about my, uh, my big travel take of the year? You just had to throw in the midnight sun in the Nordics, didn't you?
I know. Well, now I'm desperate. I just got done with Polar Night and I experienced that, so now I kind of want to go do Midnight Sun this year. No, I, I think you're right. I feel like so much of the conversation around travel is. Less of becoming less about go here for the photos, go here for the food and people kind of building their trips around one of these marquee events like the World Cup, uh, like, um, the, the Winter Olympics.
Um, and, and you have a really good list there. Uh, I hear a lot of that from my friends, and that to me is always really telling about kind of where general travel sentiment is shifting. And I think it is shifting around these, like not just. Big bucket list trips, but bucket list experiences, and I think this plays a huge part in that.
Yeah, I, you know, I, same thing, you know, this is very anecdotal, but I just hear from people all the time who, you know, I'm always thinking of ways to avoid peak travel season wherever I go, but then I just keep hearing from people over and over again. I want to be here when it's happening, you know? I want to be here at the most important time.
So I think this year is gonna be kind of defined by these. Big, uh, logistical challenges including this World Cup. When the world comes to the us. I mean, I just can't wait for that, you know, uh, Paraguayan to land in Kansas City and be like, uh, how do I get to the stadium? Where am I? This is the United States.
Yeah. It's gonna be strange for a lot of people to land in New Jersey, uh, and for the World Cup final and, and see what that whole transit situation is like. Over there, if they're lucky, they'll see a rat with a piece of pizza in its mouth and it will all be worth it. Welcome to the United States. Kyle, what's any big travel predictions jump out at you?
What's, what's gonna define travel in 2026 for you? You know, I, I have to circle back to what we talked about in something cold, which is that I think that this whole game of redeeming points is just going to continue to get a little bit harder. There's, it doesn't mean that the game is over. Um, but I think you're gonna have to be a little bit more creative or just stomach the fact that you're going to need to earn more points in order to do the things that you could previously do for fewer points.
Just this past year. And, and I, I think a lot of that is, is based on the premise that it's becoming very clear that airlines, not just in the United States, but around the globe, are wising up to the games that people like you and I play and that. We, the two of us at least, are very transactional people.
We, we look for the deal, we book the deal, and then we're out. And that's great for you and I and for the people listening to this. But that is not good for creating what these airlines need, which is. Truly loyal customers. Customers who keep coming back, customers that hopefully come back and don't just redeem their credit card points that they transfer from American Express or Capital One, but come back and pay cold hard cash for that business class seed over time and that that's not what you and I are gonna do.
That's not what most people listening to the Thrifty Traveler Podcast are gonna do. So they need to start closing these doors, which I think is why we have seen at least the beginning of how this. Landscape is going to change heading into 2026. This is why United is being so stingy with award space, especially flying business class, to the point that you cannot really book it using Aeroplan points or Avianca Life Miles or Singapore, Chris Flyer Miles.
You need United Miles in order to do that, and more to the point you need a United credit card or you need to be loyal enough to earn united status. In order to book it at lower reasonable rates. Otherwise, you're not gonna see those deals, period. It's the same reason why I think we've seen Emirates basically either reduce or cut out altogether, transfer partners to, you know, be able to send your chase points to Emirates That.
No longer happens. It's no longer possible. And if you're trying to send American Express points to Emirates, you need, uh, it's a crappy ratio now, much crappier than it was just a few months ago. Now, cafe Pacific has said it's doing the same with American Express in the New Year, and I would bet all of the money in my wallet, which is zero.
So it's a safe bet that that's going to spread to other banks as well. So. I think people are gonna need to kind of buckle up for a really changing landscape of, of redeeming their points. Again, I don't wanna be too much of a downer. There's still gonna be a plenty of opportunities. This is not going to happen overnight, but this is clearly the way that the landscape is shifting.
Yeah, I, I would agree with you in that things are shifting and I mean, the strategies that we talk about all the time to earn more and more points are going to be more and more important because, I mean, these, the rates that your redemption rates are just going to basically inflate and you're just have to go through the airline that you wanna fly more often, kind of in the future.
But like he said, I don't, I don't think the party's totally over yet. There's still so much, uh, opportunity out there and, um, you know. You definitely, you definitely mentioned that, but I just didn't want everyone to think, uh, you know, points party's over, pack it up. No, no, it's not. And, and look, as these things are happening, there are still going to be other airlines that say, Hey, I want in on this action.
You know, just this past year in 2025, we saw Japan Airlines become a transfer partner of both built rewards and then Capital One. That is huge. There are going to be other airlines that do the same, that is gonna open up another door of opportunity. And as we've said again and again on the show, when one door closes, another one opens.
That is still true. That's still going to be true in 2026. At the same time, I think people need to prepare themselves for the strong possibility, if not certainty, that more doors are going to close in 2026. Yeah, that's a, a big kind of important prediction for the state of award travel. I, I wanna take a look.
Just at the airline industry at large for this year in 2026, Kyle and I think kinda like last year and maybe like almost every year before, I think the most important things that are going to happen in the industry are going to happen at the low cost carrier level. And we've talked a lot on this show about.
Um, you know why the low cost carriers are so important to the fares that you actually wanna book and fly, right? And, but, so I just want to couch this in. There's been a ton of rumors about spirit and their impending demise, and, uh, it looks like they've just been floated by, uh, a settlement that they reached with.
Engine manufacturer, Pratt and Whitney for $140 million that'll keep them afloat. For now, $140 million doesn't go that far in this industry. So I guess we just kind of do this all again in a few weeks. But, um, I just, first of all, I just want you to touch on spirit. What are your thoughts on kind of the latest on spirit and, and most importantly, what does a post spirit, uh, airline market in the US look like?
Not good. Yeah. No, this is, this is really worrying and I say that. I, I don't really enjoy flying Spirit. I have flown them plenty of times. It's, it's fine, but given any alternative, I will take it. But Spirit is one of, if not the single most important airline in the country. If you like cheap fares. And that doesn't mean you have to fly spirit because spirit's presence at your airport leads every other airline, big or small, full service or ultra low cost.
To lower their fares in order to make sure that Spirit doesn't get your business. Now, that doesn't mean that Delta is gonna offer $19 one-way fares from Minneapolis to Atlanta. If Spirit were to come back here. It doesn't, but it does mean that Delta has to compete more on price. United has to compete more on price just to keep up with spirit.
And that is what is so worrisome about them, you know, potentially going outta business, which still is not out of the question. Even if they do merge with another airline. I mean, the, the rumors have have. Been, you know, circulating yet again about frontier swooping in and basically swallowing up spirit. I don't know that that fixes the problem either.
Certainly perhaps the best case scenario right now. But yeah, I mean, spirit has clearly been on the ropes for most of 2025 going into 2026. Things are not looking better, it's looking worse. And so we really need spirit or something like it. Um, and my fear is, is that if Spirit does in fact go out of business.
What airline? Can step in and do that because this is an insanely competitive business where you need scale in order to really compe, compete and force airlines like United and American and Delta to compete on price. And that is. Becoming impossible. Yeah. I mean, no airline can step in immediately and do what Spirit is doing.
Everyone will try. Like we, we heard rumors of the airlines lining up behind Spirit's Network, like waiting for them to fall apart so they can jump in and, and save some of their customers and hopefully get some loyalty out of those customers. But I mean, I'll reiterate it again, you've, maybe I'm a broken record on this, but if you're.
If you're, you know, Danny and Debbie Delta living in Detroit, uh, you need spirit so badly. The day that spirit goes under your favorite flights from Detroit to Punta Kana are going up $300 and, and you need spirit's competition there to keep your beloved Delta flights going. I, Danny and Debbie Delta sound like a, a really fantastic Midwestern couple.
I, I assume they both have silver medallion, uh, bag tags. They do, and yeah, they're, they tell everybody about those silver medallion bag tags too. We get it. Danny and Debbie. Yeah. No, you're right. I mean, case in point, um, just at the beginning of December, spirit exited Minneapolis, our home airport altogether, which at that point they were flying daily to two airports from Minneapolis, Detroit, and Atlanta.
Those are. Core Delta routes. And lo and behold, what happened is that prior to Spirits Exit, you could buy, you know, a one-way ticket from Minneapolis to Atlanta within the last few weeks of departure for two hundred ninety nine, three hundred and forty $9 each way on Delta. When Spirit left that shot up to $699 each way.
It is so critical to have that kind of a presence from Spirit or something like it. So nobody, nobody can afford to cheer for spirit's demise. I don't care if you hate that airline. They are so, so important for helping you travel more for less. Yeah. So quickly on this, you said that Spirit may have the most important pricing power in the US airline market.
I'd probably argue that Southwest still holds that crown. What are you looking for in Southwest in 2026? 'cause as always, they're, everything they do is consequential What's going on with Southwest, I mean, Southwest transformation, which I think we devoted are. Second ever podcast to in, in March is, is really going to be complete in 2020, sometime in 2026.
I mean, most importantly, they're finally doing away with their divisive, controversial, loathed, uh, open seating policy where it's kind of first come first. Served where, you know, you get a boarding position and you can pick your seat. They're moving to assigned seating and of course that comes with fees.
They're continuing to add extra leg room seats throughout their fleet. If that's not finished in 2026, it will be sometime soon after. But the, the long and short of it is that they are becoming just another airline in the United States with. In order to charge more fees and charge higher fares, which means that that competition from Southwest is, there's still going to be very important pressure, and I don't want to discount that, but, um, the, the floor of how low fares can go.
It's probably a little bit higher than it was this time of year ago. So, you know, I think that's why, you know, back to your prediction, kind of towards the top of the show about domestic airfare going up as the year drags on. I think all of these things are working in tandem spirit, Southwest, the overall struggles of the low cost airline industry of the United States.
I think this is going to be. A huge factor in why over time as the year progresses, domestic airfare is probably going to go up and not down. Yeah. Any other, uh, shifting industry trends that you're looking for in 2026? No, you know, I, I, I do think we all need to be on the lookout for more airline consolidation, additional mergers and acquisitions and partnerships and, you know, every airline who participates in one of these is going to pretend like it's the single best thing for consumers.
And I think we should all be skeptical of whether or not that's going to be true in the end. That's right. That skepticism will be found. On the Thrifty Traveler Podcast each and every week, I promise you that. Uh, let's talk about what to expect at airports because the first big thing on the agenda is January 30th.
So after the government shutdown this fall, the latest government funding bill only goes through January 30th, meaning we could be in for some similar pains that we were in November of last year, early this year. So, Kyle, your prediction, first of all, will we be back on the pain train in February? We're really doing this again.
Like two months later we're gonna do this again. I don't know. Um, you know, the, the shutdown in October and November of 2025 was so traumatic. Um, it was the longest government shutdown in federal history. It was incredibly problematic for air travel as, especially air traffic controllers went a month and a half unpaid.
There had been talks, uh, after that shutdown came to an end of passing a bill to ensure that air traffic controllers. Continued to receive pay and therefore stayed on the job longer, even if the government is shut down. So far, that problem has not been resolved, so I think the best we can hope for is that this past shutdown was so bad and caused so many problems that it served as a wake up call to Congress that they can't let that happen again.
But you know, I trust Congress about as far as I can throw a Boeing 7 37, so I don't know. Good point. Okay. Um, I guess we'll fast forward one single day from January 30th to February 1st, where this new fee that TSA will be, uh. Uh, administering, I guess. And we still don't know exactly how they're going to administer this fee, but it is a $45 fee if you show up to the airport to fly without a real id.
Um, this starts on February 1st. I don't know if I have a take on this. We've already talked about this plenty. You should have a real ID by now and you should, or you should have an alternative by now. But if you need to go pay this $45 fee, um, you may have to starting on February. First, however that may look.
We still dunno. Yeah, I mean, I think the takeaway here for everybody is make sure you've got your real id. If you don't go out to the DMV and and get one, do that now, not on February 1st, because it's gonna take, you know, probably a full four weeks in order to get that ID back or have one of those alternatives ready.
I have my global entry card in my wallet at all times now because I know I will go to the airport without it. I'm also, before the next time I fly, just going to add my passport to my Apple Digital ID wallet because that is an alternative to be able to tap your phone with that passport stored securely in your phone.
Uh, for real ID at these TSA checkpoints. So any of those is gonna work. You can, of course, just travel with your passport in general too, or if you have a passport card, we've got a full list of alternatives on our site. Yeah. It's time to get ready. Yeah. What else should we expect at the airport? What are uh, Danny and Debbie Delta running into at Detroit?
You know, I think. We're fresh off of a, a series of winter storms that hit the East coast and then the Midwest. And I think it's, it's very clear that airlines are still struggling to recover after bad weather. That, you know, the disruptions aren't just about a blizzard and 10 inches of snow on a Sunday night.
It's about Monday and Tuesday, and in some cases even Wednesday. So I think everybody just needs to be prepared. Be prepared, especially during the winter when these storms do pop up and they do clobber airports around the country, that it can lead to days, if not, you know, a week or more of disruptions. I don't know if I have a real takeaway there or something you can do other than, again, as we've said again and again and again, take the first flight.
That is the best thing that you can do really any time of the year, but especially during times of the year when bad weather may strike. Yep. Things are scheduled so tight now. The airlines, the everything is down to the second with airlines, and if one thing goes wrong, it cascades throughout the day, but the mornings operate the best by far.
The stats are there. And anecdotally, all my morning flights tend to operate on time and all the evening flights inevitably have something go wrong. Uh, fly the first flight of the day. If you can. Anything else at the airport, just watch for those lines at lounges. This is. This is only gonna get worse. Um, I think it's become clear that with, with a handful of exceptions, there's really nothing that airlines and credit card companies can do with restrictions and limits to meaningfully reduce the amount of people who are trying to get into lounges.
Because the number one problem is that more people have these credit cards than ever. You know, the, the American Express Platinum now costs $200 more a year than it did before, and it's more popular than ever. More people have that card as a result of those changes pushed live, um, in the fall of 2025.
And that means there are going to be more people trying to get into those Delta Sky Clubs and those Amex Centurion lounges. Same goes for Capital One. Capital One is going to push live changes that mean you can't get a guest or you can't get authorized user free access at Capital One lounges as of February 1st, 2026, you're gonna have to pay another $125 a year to give those authorized users access.
I don't think that that's really gonna move the needle much, if at all. I think Capital One lounges are going to continue to be incredibly popular. Yep. Okay. Let's move on and, uh, talk about another aspect of all of this. An important aspect of all of this. What to expect with credit cards in 2026. I think the first thing on the horizon that a lot of people are excited about is this built 2.0.
What can you tell us about Built 2.0? Kyle. Still not a lot. We know that, uh, capital One's relationship with Wells Fargo is ending and they're moving to a new, whole new suite of cards issued by the company Cardless. We don't know exactly what those look like. We know there will continue to be a no annual fee version.
There will be a new mid-tier version, and then there will be a premium, you know, close to $500 a year version. Most importantly, we know that all of these cards will allow you not just to earn points on your rent. Also on mortgage from not just one or two big mortgage providers, but any mortgage in the country.
But how many points you can earn, whether, you know, certain of these cards will only earn, say, you know, a quarter of a point or a half a point per dollar that you spend. And if those are capped for, you know, 50,000 points per year, we, we have no idea. So still a lot of details to come built has started telling current card holders that.
More details on each of these cards are gonna come out on, uh, January 14th, so we're gonna have more to share shortly. But this'll be a pretty big change, I think, especially for homeowners who have been looking for an easy way to earn points on their mortgages. Yeah. Bill 2.0 is something that, uh, every homeowner should be pretty excited about in the new year for sure.
Um, tell me how, uh, the Capital One Venture X card as its peers have started. Leveling up both in terms of annual fees and in terms of credits. The Capital One, venture X has kind of stayed this like perfectly travel centric, simple but helpful premium credit card. And I think a lot of people have been sniffing around it thinking, is this going to last?
Is it? That's the big question of 2026 at least not just as it comes to credit cards, but I think you know. Travel and the world that we live in as a whole is what is Capital One gonna do? And ISI honestly don't know. They are not talking. We have asked repeatedly. Um, and they say, you know, we have nothing to share.
Um, we don't know. Best case scenario is that, you know, these changes that they're making effective February 1st to really limit lounge access for current cardholders and their authorized users and charging for guests. Is there a way of keeping the Capital One card simple? But you could also see how they look at the SMASH success, especially of the American Express Platinum Card.
And the fact that that card now charges almost $900 a year, and the Capital One Venture X is less than half of that. In annual fees at $395 a year plus, you know that $300 travel credit means it's effectively $95 or close to it. I could see how Capital One would look at that and say, you know what?
There's a lot of room here for us to. Change things to charge a higher annual fee to add some of these coupon style credits without losing our advantage in the marketplace of still being much simpler than their competitors. Because right now it is completely night and day. So I don't know. I'm a little bit worried, to be honest with you.
Yeah. I mean, the other side of that is they could also look at what Chase tried to do with the Chase Sapphire Reserve and that. Okay. I, I will say Chase has insisted that this went well and that everything is hunky dory with the Chase Sapphire Reserve, we've seen at least some evidence and at least a lot of anecdotal, uh, thrifty Traveler readers telling us that they are not excited, uh, about the changes made to that card.
But Capital One might also be looking at the way they rolled that out and say, do we want to. Go for something really big and maybe lose some people in the process. Right now, the Capital One Venture X card is the card I recommend the most of any credit card, any travel credit card out there, I think it's, it's useful for almost any traveler.
And, uh, if they turned it into, you know, a big expensive coupon book like these other ones, it would be a lot harder for me to make that recommendation. So I think maybe Capital One thinks that they can just hold this middle ground. Then maybe there's a market there, but. Also, uh, I don't have access to their books.
I have no idea what's going on in, uh, behind the scenes at Capital One, but very interesting to see what's going on in Capital One Venture X World in 2026. I really hope you're right. I really hope that they look at what has happened with the Chase Sapphire Reserve as a cautionary tale. We will see. Okay.
For our last kind of prediction, Kyle, I want to give some people some destination ideas. Where should they go in 2026? We talked about what we have already done, but um, gimme one and then I'll do one and then you do a second one and I'll do a second one. Okay. This is called live planning on the podcast.
We're figuring it out. We're doing it live. We haven't fired up the mics in a few weeks, sorry. Alright. Uh, where should people go? 2026. The first place is two, so I'm cheating, but I, I still want my second recommendation 'cause it's more important to me. Uh, Thailand and Vietnam. I think it's such a great trip.
This is honestly the trip that gave me the travel bug that I haven't been able to shake. In 2017, my wife and I went to Thailand and Vietnam and then up to Japan to visit. Um, my, my now brother-in-law who's teaching English there, but I think Thailand and Vietnam together is so great. You hit the beaches of Thailand.
And just escape and then you go to Vietnam or do it in the reverse order. And you know, the cities of Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi especially, are just the best version of a chaotic city in the good way that I have ever visited. Hanoi is my favorite city in the world. I can't wait to get back there. It, it honestly changed my life being there.
And I think everybody should experience that. Okay. I like that one. I like that one. My first, uh, I guess travel recommendation for this year will be the eclipse in August. Um, it'll go through Spain, including like the northwest part of Spain, which is a very, very cool region I would love to see. And then it actually goes up through Iceland in like the West Fjords area and the sniffles ness.
Is how you pronounce it, peninsula. Um, it's, that is like the prettiest part of the prettiest country in the world in Iceland. Uh, and I, the chance to see the eclipse there, and I say chance because chasing an eclipse is risky. There, it could just be cloudy that day and then your SOL. But if you're SOL, your SOL.
In Iceland or in Spain to really great places to be SOL. Yeah. Not Ryan Lander, Wisconsin. Sorry. Ryan Lander, but Oh, Ryan Lander. Catching strays, getting swiped by Kyle Potter. Um, I just think this is such an awesome opportunity and if you see the eclipse even for a second in one of these places, gonna be amazing.
Like I said, uh, in. First kind of big travel trend of the year. This is going to be a high density travel situation. Uh, when the eclipse happens, people get together and there's, you know, if you're, if you need to book lodging, it needs to happen asap. And if you need to get a rental car, it's gotta happen asap.
And, um, these are things that are hard to plan for, but if it pays off, it's like once in a lifetime. Truly once in a lifetime. And, uh, I, I really hope that we hear from lots of thrifty travelers who get out there and go see the eclipse. Uh, second. One for you, Kyle. Where should people go in 2026? I think people should go somewhere where their points are of no use.
Earning airline miles and credit card points and hotel points allows you to do some of the coolest things that you could ever afford. Could never afford. But as I've done this more, I've also realized that it kind of boxes you in and your starting point for planning a trip or deciding where to go next isn't just.
Where am I gonna have a cool experience? Where am I going to have that life changing, cool experience and a destination that I never could have dreamed of visiting? And the starting point instead becomes what points do I have? What hotels can I stay at? All right, well, we're gonna stay there because instead of paying.
$300 a night or $1,200 a night, I'm gonna use 35,000 world of high points. And I get that. But I also think you end up really limiting yourself. And so, you know, I would encourage anyone who's listening who has all of those points, do one of those trips in 2026, but then maybe take another, or at least one destination on a piece of that trip to say, you know what?
I'm gonna forget about the points, or I'm just gonna use. Capital One Venture Miles where I can book a boutique hotel for $300 a night and I can go back and erase that from my statement for 30,000 venture miles per night. That is why I love Capital One miles so much as it forces me to remember, Hey, you know, I've got this other option if I do really wanna make sure we cover our costs with points, but it doesn't limit me into where I end up going.
So that's what I'm thinking about heading into this new year is where can I go? That I maybe haven't been thinking about because I'm thinking only about redeeming points and, and how much that really does truly limit where you end up going. Yeah. Oh, that's a great tip. Um, I really like that one. My last, uh, recommendation of where to go in 2026 is to just do the trip that I just.
Did to finish Lapland. And, uh, I'll tell you all, we're gonna do a bonus episode coming up here where I'm gonna break down exactly how I booked that trip and where I went and get into all the details. But we went way, way up into Finn Lapland. We went to Avalo, which is about as far north as you could fly in Finland.
Um, it is. It was extremely remote and just couldn't have been more beautiful, like truly magical place. Uh, I'll never forget watching the Northern Lights for 90 straight minutes in the hot tub outside of our Airbnb. Uh, in Avalo, um, over a course of five days where the sun never came up. It was twilight all the time.
Just truly magical experience. If, if you don't think that, that's your kind of fun, I promise you it's way cooler than you think it was. Way cooler than I thought, uh, at just a beautiful place, and I can't wait to talk more about it on a bonus episode that we will record and, and put out coming up. So I'll save more of my takes for that.
But finish, Lapland was. As advertised and more, uh, beautiful place, especially in the winter. They really know how to do winter there. I'll tell you that much. What was the average temperature? Average temperature was like probably about 20 Fahrenheit. Oh, okay. Right. Yeah. It really wasn't bad. Uh, we had one super cold morning, uh, where I went ice skating.
Uh, but other than that it was like, it was not horrible. Um, but it is, the, the darkness is very weird. We had very strange sleep schedules and, uh, it messed with us a lot. So on top of like a little bit of jet lag, there was just a lot of strange sleep timing. Um, my infant had the best sleep of anybody on the trip.
I think so. Uh, all right, let's hear from a listener. We had Danielle who wrote us with a great question about booking mileage flights that require calling an agent. If you remember, Peter Thornton, uh, who introduced this episode and who we interviewed is a big promote proponent of millennials. Pick up the phone, like, you're gonna have to pick up the phone to get the best deals sometimes.
So Danielle wrote us. Quote, when booking a and a flights through Virgin Atlantic, you generally need to call an agent to complete the booking. I've heard. How does that process actually work? How do people find a word availability for these types of bookings? And are those opportunities ever surfaced through Thrifty Traveler Premium?
Okay, Kyle, so there are times when you do need to pick up the phone. Do you have any tips in general for doing this? Yeah. Uh, a couple, which is first and most importantly, do not transfer any points to the airline that you're going to book with until that agent has told you, yes, you can book this flight.
Then you say, hold on, give me three minutes to transfer my points, and, you know, make sure it's with an airline program who's. Points transfer instantly to that airline because otherwise you, you need to call back a day later or two days later and that flight is gonna be gone. I think you also need to set yourself up for the possibility that it's just not going to be possible.
In this particular instance of booking Japan's a NA using Virgin Atlantic points. It has become increasingly clear that that award space just is not available to Virgin Atlantic using those, uh, flying club points. So. You need to explore it. You need to use some different tools or Yes, we do. You know, when we know that award space is bookable through one of these programs that requires you to pick up the phone, we actually confirm that ourselves.
This is why Peter Thornton St. Peter spends so much time on hold is because we actually check is this, is this in fact bookable? And then the last one is, um. In some cases you may not in fact need to pick up the phone. One of my favorites that uses one of these workarounds where you can't actually book online is using fin Air Avios to book, uh, flights operated by either Alaska or American Airlines because you can fly American Airlines from anywhere in the continental US out to Hawaii for 13,500 FINRA avios each way, even if American itself is charging like 50 or 60,000 miles.
You can call Fit Air, but you can also do an online chat. And that in many ways is, is really it much, much easier. And at the very least, you're not gonna spend, uh, an hour and a half waiting on hold on the phone, maybe just an hour and a half. Uh, keeping an eye on your browser while you're working. The online chats have.
Become really good. Uh, you get good agents and it's very black and white, like when you're asking for something in text. I just feel very, I don't know, maybe it's the writerly version of me, but that I just feel like very confident, like I know they're not gonna screw up my confirmation number. I know they're not gonna screw up my flight times.
My tip for when you're calling an agent, have every detail ready and know exactly what you wanna book and know what it costs. Like go into it with all of the knowledge, because sometimes you will know more than the agent. And that's a, a sad truth of this is occasionally you're gonna go in and the agent's gonna say, uh, no.
You can't book that here. And then you say. Yes, you can please look, here's exactly what time the flight leaves. Here's the exact flight number. Here's my, you know, old confirmation number, whatever, have everything ready to go, uh, so that you have all of the knowledge at your disposal. Tell them exactly what you want.
Um, the second part of that is if you get a bad agent. Hang up and try again. Uh, there is no rule against, uh, you know, finding an agent, uh, that you don't think knows what's going on, right? If, if you, you know what you want, these are your points, this is your money. Like, you need to make sure that you get what you need out of this.
If you are, if you're just not feeling the vibe with the agent, you know, hang up, try another one. Um, you can also juggle agents if you want to. I, sometimes I'll start the online chat and then also call at the same time if there's like a long wait or whatever. Uh, and whoever can get me. What I want fastest wins in that case.
So, uh, don't be afraid to hang up and try again. And finally, this is a, a bit of a niche tip, but don't Google customer service numbers. 'cause there are scams out there where if you'll Google like Air Canada customer support, uh, there's a scam out there where they're paying that Google search to put a number on the top.
That is not Air Canada customer support. You all of a sudden are going through and giving them all your information. They hang up. Steal your identity and you're not flying anywhere. So be careful. Go through the airline websites, go through their apps. If you have flighty, all of the information for every flight you fly is right there.
Uh, and you can just at the touch of a button, call the correct number. Flighty has vetted all that for you. So that's my last tip for, uh, calling the airline. Anything else? The hang up and call back if you don't get the answer you want. Is, is a very, very important tip for anything that requires a phone call.
I would also say, you know, collect all of the information, including the, the specific flight number on the date that you want to travel. Have all of that ready. I would also have a backup ready. Um, you know, your second best option, maybe the day later or two days later, or two days earlier, because if you know that one specific flight isn't available, try the next one.
If that doesn't work, then hang up. Call again. See if, if somebody else can help you out. And if they can't, then the answer is probably just, this isn't gonna work for this particular redemption. Onto the next, next one. Great. Uh, great question, Danielle. Thank you. If you'd like us to answer your questions on the podcast or if you have any feedback, hit us up at podcast@thriftytraveler.com.
We might feature your question on next week's show. And once again, if you want us to feature your video, introducing the podcast like Peter did at the beginning for us, thrifty traveler.com/voicemail, keep it short and sweet. Upload your video there. Tell us where you are, who you are, and always finish with.
Welcome back to the Thrifty Traveler Podcast. Loud and proud. Okay, uh, we're gonna close the show with, on the spot as we do every week. We crystal balled 2026 in terms of travel, Kyle, but do you have any big, bold predictions for this year in our podcast? What, what is your big, bold prediction for the Thrifty Traveler Podcast in 2026?
A falling out between us. Like, no, never a really epic on air meltdown. What do we, what do you think? You know what I'm gonna, I'm gonna put it out there. We're gonna do a live show in 2026. We're saying it out loud. We're doing a live show. Stay tuned. Uh, when it happens, dunno where it happens. Dunno. But it's gonna happen.
Uh, I can't wait. I gotta, we gotta find an outfit. Alright. Thank you all so much for listening to the Thrifty Traveler Podcast. Please rate us five stars in your platform of choice and like, and subscribe to the show on YouTube. Send this episode along to someone you know who needs a vacation in 2026. As always, send your feedback to podcast@thriftytraveler.com.
We'd love to hear from you there, Kyle, tell us more about the team. This episode was produced by your favorite host who is still riding that high of Finn Lapland. Gunnar Olson was produced and edited by Sylvia Thomas and edited on video by Kyle Thomas. Our theme music is by Benjamin Tissot. See you next week.
See ya.