I’m still working on planning our Thanksgiving trip this year. I don’t like planning trips at the last minute. I am one of those people who likes to plan everything in advance. However, I do know that there are pros and cons to planning trips in advance as far as the finances go.
Benefits of Planning Trips in Advance
The main thing that I love about planning trips in advance is that it makes the whole thing less stressful for me. However there are a lot of financial benefits to doing this as well. These benefits include:
- You have time to do comparison shopping. You can take all of the time that you need to compare hotel deals and look for cheap flights. When you’re planning a trip last minute you often don’t have the time required to do that so you don’t get the best deal.
- Buying far in advance usually means that you get a lower price than if you buy at the last minute. This is not always true but it seems to be the general rule from what I can tell.
- You can cash in on rewards and free miles if you have them. Some credit cards offer great rewards but it takes time to redeem them. Advance travel planning helps you to cash in on them to keep costs down.
- There is time leftover to research free activities in the area. Once the trip has been planned then you have free time to learn about the free and cheap activities that will be going on at the destination while you’re there. This really helps to save money.
- Part of your budget is already spent. The money is already gone because you’ve paid in advance. Staggering out the trip payment this way (pay for travel now and activities when I’m there) helps me with budgeting.
Drawbacks of Advance Trip Planning
I will admit that I occasionally run into trouble when it comes to planning trips too far in advance. Sometimes it even costs me money. Problems include:
- Having to cancel the trip. If something comes up and you need to cancel then you lose your money. Of course you can buy trip insurance to guard against this but that’s an extra expense. It’s a lot less likely that you’ll encounter this problem if you’re planning a last minute trip.
- Missing out on last minute deals. Like I said, most trips cost less if you plan them in adance but it’s possible to find really great last minute deals and I never get to take advantage of them since I always plan my trips in advance.
Okay well I can only think of those two drawbacks which I guess is why I still like to plan in advance. What about you? Do you think it’s financially smarter to plan trips in advance or to do them at the last minute?
Start discussion »
Leave a Reply