What Lies Ahead For Travel in 2018
As 2017 comes to a close it’s a great time to reflect back on all the awesome memories you’ve made from your travels throughout the year. If you weren’t able to travel as much as you’d like this year, now’s the time to start prepping for 2018. Some of these announcements might just make it possible for you to finally take that trip of your dreams!
Here’s what you can look forward to, and what to be wary of, in the world of travel & travel hacking in 2018!
CONTINUED EXPANSION OF LOW-COST CARRIERS
Carries like WOW Air and Norwegian continue to add new destinations, new routes, and additional planes! WOW Air is set to begin servicing Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, St. Louis, and New York’s JFK airport; with Norwegian adding both Austin and Chicago! With these expansions, not only will you be able to travel more places for cheaper, but it also puts pressure on the big airlines to make their fares more affordable!
REVENUE BASED AWARD TICKETS
Airlines often change the valuation of their mileage programs and perform decreases where they deem people are redeeming points and miles for outsized value. Most have already changed to revenue based earnings on paid tickets. We also see more dynamic pricing on award tickets. Delta no longer publishes an award chart and frequently changes the number of miles required for flights, Southwest and JetBlue tie their award tickets to the price of the flight (this, while more convenient and consistent, makes it impossible to get any sort of increased value from an award ticket). As more airlines continue to follow suit this would likely dramatically increase the number of points/miles needed for award travel, especially for business and first-class award tickets.
If you’re interested in a tool that provides point estimate comparisons from a variety of different programs then you should check out Award Hacker!
BASIC AND PREMIUM ECONOMY ON THE RISE
As more airlines try to compete with budget carries by adding a Basic Economy option and striping features while adding fees, we’re also seeing the emergence of expanded and new Premium Economy seats.
Instead of paying the high dollar or points cost for a business class seat, many are instead opting for Premium Economy where they can receive an experience vastly better than those in Economy and Basic Economy. For example, Delta offers Premium Economy flyers seats that recline 50% more, an additional 4 inches of legroom, dedicated overhead bin space, complimentary beer, wine and cocktails on all routes (instead of just international for Economy), and priority boarding access. Delta’s has its own dedicated page that is helpful for comparing in-flight experiences, as do some, but not all, other airlines. So make sure you know what you’re getting before you book!
NEW TRAVEL CREDIT CARDS
So far we know that we’re getting NEW AMEX Hilton cards releasing on January 18th, 2018. There will be a new Hilton Honors Ascend card, which replaces the Hilton Surpass Card. There also will be a new Hilton small-business and a high-end Hilton Honors Aspire card.
Marriott is now going to be co-branded with both AMEX & Chase, and in 2018 there will be a NEW premium consumer card as well as an enhanced Marriott small-business card issued by AMEX; with a “mass consumer” and “premium consumer” Marriott product from Chase.
With the release and popularity of the new Uber card from Barclay, it is rumored that we could also be receiving more co-branded credit cards from Lyft, Airbnb, and Starbucks. At the moment, offerings from Lyft and Starbucks appear to be a sure thing, while an Airbnbcard seems to be purely speculative. However, as someone who uses Airbnb often, I must say that I’d be much more excited to see them offer a loyalty program and a credit card to go along with it.
What are your travel goals for 2018 and what announcements are you most excited for in the new year? I know I’m planning to make 2018 my best and biggest year of travel yet! If you want to follow along make sure you’re following me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!
