82. Secrets to Scoring Black Friday Travel Specials | Luxury Travel Hacks

Are you wondering how to score the best travel deals this Black Friday season? As the holiday shopping weekend approaches, travel enthusiasts need to be savvy to get the most out of it. In this episode, I'll share my best luxury travel hacks for what to purchase now and what you'll find a better deal on in early 2025!

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This episode was produced by The Podcast Teacher.

Transcript

Hello, jet setters. Happy early Thanksgiving. And even more exciting for me, as someone who loves to shop her way around the world, a very happy upcoming Black Friday through Cyber Monday and Small Business Saturday and everything in between. I think Tuesday is maybe charitable giving day. Happy shopping weekend. Amid all of those leftovers, the football games and the family poker nights, which I do have a record of winning, by the way, there are some true travel deals that I do not want you to sleep on. So watch that turkey trip to Van Intake so that you can be wide awake. Ready? Let's shop.

Okay. So the secret to getting a good deal on Black Friday is to not actually buy any travel for 2025. Don't buy your 2025 vacations yet. Now if you're still yearning for an escape from the November drama coming up for December holidays, there are some Black Friday travel deals to be had. There's a $99 per person per night cruise on Virgin Voyages, Princess is offering prepaid gratuities, all kinds of last minute cruises if you wanna get away prior December. The same goes for all inclusives, and Disney is also famous for dropping some last minute holiday vacation specials. So why, yes, please enjoy buying your 2024 last minute travel escapes over this shopping weekend, but spend the rest of your time with your family discussing where you wanna go in 2025 because guess what's coming? In January February of 2025, it's what's known in our industry as wave season. You have heard me talk about wave season before.

It's like Black Friday for your vacation shopping for 8 weeks. Sometimes it even goes into March. So in future episodes in December on this podcast, we're gonna get you good and prepared for wave season in a big way, and that's gonna apply to river cruises, all inclusives, as I said, Disney, ocean cruises, the whole bit. We're gonna wait for January February to buy our 2025 travel. But if you're still wanting to go in 2024, then let's chat and spend some time with your family discussing where you would all like to go to. Now if you already have your 2025 cruise booked, then have your trusted travel professional, aka me, check to see if your beverage, drinks, specialty dining package, Wi Fi might be on sale. That could include potential cabin upgrades and any other onboard items that they may have Black Friday specials for. Those are the kinds of things that we can look up, or you can even look up yourself by logging into your Cruise account, which basically gets sort of set up for you the minute you book.

It's called managed Cruise or manage current booking, something to that effect, and, see if any of the things that you are looking forward to are on special. Now you may have to actually cancel what you've already purchased and then rebook it with that Black Friday special. Again, I will be home all Thanksgiving weekend enjoying the holiday shopping with my family, and I would love to help you with that if that's something you're interested in. And all CTA certified travel advisors, remember that we get a certificate from the travel university, so you always wanna check the initials behind your trusted travel advisor. We are trained to check that if any pricing goes down on your already booked 2025 holiday, though, we're gonna let you know if you qualify for that. More often than not, you don't qualify because they're so limited and they're usually in an entry level category, But just let to let you know that we always do check that. Now one special where you're really gonna hit it big, and this is the big secret to scoring those Black Friday deals, is Amazon, especially Black Friday if you're willing to get up really early or Cyber Monday. Travel accessories, luggage, travel clothing, those are all going to be on sale in a major way, which is why I have my Amazon travel list as a part of my storefront, and we will definitely notate those in the show notes.

So I know this has been a super fast talking, down and dirty episode, so let me just go over the 3 main points that we covered. Don't buy your 2025 travel until the beginning of 2025. But if you've already booked your 2025 travel, then let's take a look and see if anything that you want is on sale, like an excursion, Wi Fi, a cabin upgrade, or any of your specialty drink, beverage, or dining packages. Make sure that your certified travel associate is checking for you for any prices that may actually decrease on your already booked 2025 holiday travel. And don't forget to score those Amazon deals, which are available for you as just ideas. I have several idea lists on my Amazon storefront. And finally, be sure and take this family time that you have upcoming to discuss where you might wanna go for that multigenerational honeymoon or maybe, your empty nesters and you're ready to travel to some more exotic places without the kids. It's a fine time to close your eyes and dream of where you would like to be, and then let me know how I can help you with that.

Until next time, travel safe.