While it’s been another banner year of flight deals at Thrifty Traveler Premium, here at Thrifty Traveler dot com, our team is also closing out another year covering some of the biggest stories in travel, airline news, points and miles, and more.
Travelers took to the skies in record numbers in 2024, and award travel is bigger and more popular than ever. Scan through the list of our most popular stories from the last year, and it’s undeniable: Americans are hungry to find cheap flights, put their points and miles to use, and travel smarter.
But it wasn’t all good news. Some of our most-read posts from 2024 also reflect travelers’ broader frustrations with American Express and ongoing obsession with all things Delta Air Lines, good and bad.
Here are the top 10 stories from another year in travel.
10. Bahamas, Mexico, & More: Delta SkyMiles Deals Under 20K Roundtrip
If there’s one thing we can count on year after year, it’s that travelers have Delta SkyMiles and they’re looking for the best ways to redeem them.
While you might see ugly rates of 40,000 SkyMiles for even a short domestic trip, there are plenty of great Delta deals out there, too … if you know where to look.
Finding the best, cheapest ways to redeem Delta SkyMiles is what we do. We’re constantly on the hunt for the next deeply discounted Delta SkyMiles flash sales – and we’ve found hundreds of them for our Thrifty Traveler Premium members.
That includes plenty of deals for under 20,000 SkyMiles roundtrip, like unbelievable deals to Hawaii for just 9,000 SkyMiles; trips down to the Bahamas under 19,000 SkyMiles or less; or flights to Seattle (SEA) from just 4,000 SkyMiles roundtrip.
9. 6 Ways to Get a Global Entry Appointment Faster
Global Entry is one of the best tools for international travelers, giving you a fast pass through customs and immigration on your way back into the U.S. – plus TSA PreCheck benefits, too. But as international travel demand continues to soar, getting signed up has become a royal pain – especially finding a Global Entry interview.
It’s the last step in finalizing enrollment … and often the hardest part: Travelers often scan through months and months’ worth of interview calendars without seeing a single appointment available. How good can Global Entry be if you can’t actually, you know, get it?
That’s why we put together this helpful guide with all our best tips and tricks to find an appointment, from scouring the schedule for last-minute cancellations to paying a service like Global Entry Spotter to do it for you or using Enrollment on Arrival after your next international trip.
8. How Amex Dropped the Ball with Centurion Lounges
Too often this year, we found ourselves waiting in line to get into one of American Express’ famed Centurion Lounges before a flight. Clearly, we’re not alone.
As Amex has lured in record numbers of new cardholders with *amex platinum*, they’ve given more travelers a free pass into Centurion Lounges than they can possibly manage to squeeze inside. With increasingly long lines to get in the door and scarce space inside, the Centurion Lounge experience is often unrecognizable compared to just a few years ago.
The problem even has our reporter, Long Tran, questioning whether it’s worth paying the $695 annual fee (see rates & fees) to keep this card in his wallet for another year. Why pay nearly $700 a year for a “premium” card that doesn’t feel so premium anymore?
While Amex opened a handful of new, bigger Centurion Lounges this year in airports like Atlanta (ATL) and Washington, D.C.-Reagan (DCA) and many old locations have been expanded, it’s clearly still not enough to handle the demand.
Amex recently introduced a digital waitlist so cardholders no longer have to queue up outside if the lounge is full. It’s a positive step, but that still doesn’t change what’s it’s like once you actually get inside. Without addressing the root of the problem – more and more cardholders looking to gain access – Amex needs to come up with a solution to deal with the overcrowding and poor service that regularly regularly plagues these once-stellar lounges.
7. Want to Fly Business Class? Forget About Delta SkyMiles
We hear from travelers all the time who want to use their Delta SkyMiles to fly business class. Here’s the hard truth: If it’s a lie-flat seat you want, you’re better off earning another airlines’ miles.
Lately, we’ve found and sent our Thrifty Traveler Premium members a handful of deals with decent rates to book Delta One business class abroad. But even on a good day, you can book lie-flat seats using far fewer miles from other airlines – and on a regular day, Delta routinely charges 400,000 SkyMiles to book business class overseas … each way.
In this story, we laid out a new strategy for travelers that doesn’t involve swiping your Delta Amex card everywhere you go. Focus instead earning flexible points and miles that you can transfer to many different airlines and you’ll find you can book business class flights for far fewer points … even under 50,000 points if you know where to look.
6. 10 of the Best Award Search Tools to Use Your Points & Miles
All the points and miles in the world can’t help you if you can’t find flights you can actually book with them. Whether you’re just starting out with points and miles or already consider yourself an absolute pro, searching for award availability can be a huge pain.
So it’s only natural that travelers would be looking for a way to help with this difficult task. There are dozens of tools to choose from: A new one seems to come out every month. We rounded up some of the best tools to help simplify and expedite your award searches.
From the beginner-friendly Point.me and Roame to more advanced sites like Seats.aero and Expert Flyer, these tools can help you zero in on the flights you want to book using your miles.
5. Did Delta Actually Make Earning Medallion Status … Easier in 2024?
One of the biggest stories of 2023 was Delta’s botched overhaul of its Medallion status program. In 2024, the Atlanta-based airline’s new (and seemingly far more expensive) system for earning status officially went into effect.
After the dust settled on all the changes, Credit Cards & Award Travel Editor Jackson Newman theorized that now it could actually be easier and cheaper for many travelers to hit Medallion status this year.
We know, we know, it sounds crazy. Delta has substantially increased how much you need to spend each year to earn every tier of status, after all. But there are more ways to earn those all important Medallion Qualifying Dollars (MQDs) than ever and a brand-new MQD Headstart benefit that comes with the *delta skymiles platinum card* and the top *delta reserve card* can quickly, maybe instantly, unlock Delta Silver or even Gold Medallion status … without even stepping foot on a plane.
4. The Best Day to Book Flights Isn’t What You Think…
With more people traveling than ever this year – and hungry to find a great deal – we put together this story debunking one of the biggest myths surrounding travel and cheap flights: “The cheapest day to book flights is on Tuesdays.”
No matter how many times you’ve heard this from friends, family members, or influencers, it’s not true. The fact of the matter is that the best day to book flights is whenever you find a cheap deal. And cheap flights can pop up at any hour, every day of the week. It’s less about the day, and more about using the right tools – and having the right mindset – to find a great deal.
It’s a convenient but outdated myth that ignores the fact that airfare pricing is constantly changing. Airlines tweak their pricing by the hour to try to win over more customers and undercut their competitors. So don’t assume you’re getting the best deal on your flights just because you’re booking on a Tuesday night.
Take it from us: Our team of flight deal analysts spends all day, every day searching for the cheapest fares to send to Thrifty Traveler Premium members. The best fares and sales don’t happen on only one day of the week. We find crazy cheap flights, mistake fares, and unadvertised award sales every single day of the year – be sure to check out the best deals we found in 2024!
3. Amex Puts Credit Card Churners on Notice with More Bonus Restrictions
Banks are always adding different rules and restriction, hoping to to clamp down on travelers hopping from one big bonus to the next . In 2024, Amex’s suite of Delta SkyMiles co-branded cards were the latest target.
Overnight earlier this year, Amex added cautionary terms and conditions for all the personal Delta SkyMiles cards – from the no-annual-fee *delta blue* up to the *delta reserve card* – that explicitly spell out when they might revoke a big welcome bonus. Namely, cardholders with a history of canceling (or downgrading) Amex cards within a year of opening them are being targeted to have their bonuses withheld … or clawed back.
It’s no surprise that this story caught travelers attention: Canceling or downgrading a card after earning a bonus is a go-to move among travelers focused on earning points and miles – a way to keep that bonus without paying another year’s annual fee. But as banks like Amex try to crack down on consumers cycling through credit cards just to earn bonuses, Amex is now specifically calling that out.
2. How to Use Google Flights to Find Cheap Flights
We love you, Google Flights. We really, really love you. And it’s clear our readers do, too.
Forget KAYAK, Expedia, Hopper, Skyscanner, and every other flight search engine out there. Google Flights is better than them all. Yes, that’s right: The search engine behemoth is also king when it comes to finding cheap flights. It’s incredibly powerful, with tons of features that will help you zero in on the best price.
Google Flights has somehow gotten even better this year, with new features that help you zero in on the cheapest time to book your flight … or even book a trip by train, instead! And now it offers something you won’t find on (almost) any other search platform: For the first time ever, Southwest fares are now listed on Google Flights.
We’ve put a ton of time and energy into this guide to explain the ins and outs of Google Flights – its benefits, a few drawbacks, and the best ways to use it to find cheap flights no matter where you’re going. And as Americans traveled in record numbers in 2024, it’s clear that they found it helpful.
1. We’ve Had It: Amex Card Credits & Benefits Are Out of Control
Frustration with Amex and its playbook of hiking annual fees while adding a slew of questionable new benefits and statement credits to justify the higher price tag hit an all-time high this year.
In February, it was Delta SkyMiles cards getting a facelift. As if limiting cardholders’ Sky Club access wasn’t bad enough, Amex raised annual fees by as much as $100 in exchange for new annual hotel credits and monthly credits for rideshares and select restaurants.
It continued in July, when Amex revamped the *amex gold*, hiking the annual fee up to a whopping $325 per year. Meanwhile, Amex tweaked some of the card’s existing monthly credits while adding others, like up to $100 a year for dining at Resy-participating restaurants and a few bucks a month for Dunkin’ Donuts coffee.
Keeping track of all these monthly, quarterly, and annual credits is starting to feel like a full time job. We finally said enough is enough – and it obviously struck a chord with our fellow travelers.
