I’m Gilbert Ott, frequent traveler and founder of a travel site. godsavethepoints.comand I have 10 top tips to make your next trip more luxurious.
Follow my advice and you can get a reclining bed back on a plane for around £1,300 ($1,999), get your money back if the weather turns bad, and avoid wasting time trying TikTok tricks that just don’t work.
My list also includes ways to avoid the crowds at popular tourist destinations and why going back in time and picking up the phone to speak to a travel agent can pay dividends.
Read on to learn more and let me know what you think in the comments.
Book in advance and forget about being flexible
Flatbed trucks for long-distance travel in business class for around £1,300 ($1,999) return? You bet. Generally, you will just need to be sure about the trip. Yes, most airlines now offer their best discounts and prices for the earliest bookings and least flexibility.
If you are committed to a wedding or set dates and want the best experience for the least amount of money, get into the habit of searching and booking in advance. For example, book for January 2026 in January 2025 if a great deal appears.
Another good tip? Book flight and hotel packages directly with airlines, as they will often reduce prices if you get accommodation through them.
Gilbert Ott, frequent traveler and founder of travel site godsavethepoints.com, has 10 top tips to up your luxury game on your next trip.
There are real occasions when ‘flight + hotel’ can be cheaper than flying alone.
Go back in time and pick up the phone.
For some of the best hotel deals (those that include a free daily breakfast and an upgrade), pick up the phone and talk to a travel agent.
Travel agents are once again at the center of travel planning and have special hotel perks that typically can’t be found anywhere else, and often for the same price you’d pay online without the perks.
Just don’t waste their time if you’re casually looking.
Good time or your money back
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but there are some new travel companies that will guarantee good weather or give you your money back, for a price of course.
Sensible and Climate promise They are two companies that lead the way in travel satisfaction. They offer insurance-type products that allow you to purchase guarantees for your trip, such as sun for a beach vacation, and you can receive full compensation for each day that the weather is bad.
Research subscription discounts
Pay £93 ($118) and you can save thousands instantly. It sounds too good to be true, but it isn’t. This is the membership fee for ‘Disloyalty‘, the new and pretty cool ‘loyalty’ program from Ennismore, a brand behind Hoxton, SLS, Mondrian and SO/hotels globally, among others.
For some of the best hotel deals (those that include a free daily breakfast and an upgrade), pick up the phone and talk to a travel agent, says Gilbert.
Membership gets you a free coffee at any of their hotels every day of the year (and that could pay your rate alone), but the gem is that all the newly opened hotels are 50 percent off and you get 20 percent off. real percent discount. Your first time in any hotel, new or not.
Crazy and true.
I booked SLS Playa Mujeres in Mexico and saved $2,800 (£2,284), reducing $750 per room night to $375.
Consider “Nearby” Airports for Big Savings with Ease
Google Flights lets you enter up to five (yes, five) departure and destination cities at once, meaning you can instantly compare how much it might cost to go to various places in a single search. You can use this in two ways. Let’s say you want to go to Buenos Aires, but the price is expensive from London.
You can enter cities you would consider flying, driving or training to, such as Amsterdam, Paris and others, and see if there are enough savings if you leave one of them.
This can also be a gem for choosing a destination where you want to go to South America, for example, but are open to Rio, Buenos Aires, Santiago or Bogotá. Enter everything in the destination search box and the cheapest option will appear.
Dive into points
Points used to be called frequent flyer miles and that was a terrible misnomer. In today’s world, it’s less about frequent flights and more about frequent shopping.
You can earn points for daily activities with or without a credit card.
At the very least, points can be a discount on a flight, and at best, they can be first class somewhere far away and exotic for next to nothing.
Finding out what your preferred airline is and looking at their ‘revenue generating partners’ is a great way to start. When dealing with burning spots, use dot.mewhich simplifies the search for flights.
Find the next hot place to travel
The harder it is to get to a destination, the more likely other people won’t bother trying to get there, Gilbert notes.
If you want to improve your travel in 2025, be open to new and perhaps more exotic destinations, or those that require an additional boat, train or flight.
The harder it is to get to a destination, the more likely other people won’t bother trying to get there, and that’s where you’ll often find better savings and better trips.
For example, while Mykonos may seem particularly crazy, other islands just a ferry ride away are still relatively idyllic.
Stop wasting time with silly ‘tricks’
TikTok can show you a lot of wonderful things, from recipes to new dance moves, but most travel hacks won’t help you.
Save money by not wasting valuable time trying things that don’t add up to much.
The days when you can change the country or website currency to save on hotels or flights are really limited and there are only rare exceptions where significant savings can be made.
If you spend five hours trying, just to save $10, something tells me you actually lost that deal.
Take advantage of exclusive online member pricing
Due to hotel pricing rules, it is often necessary to be a “member” of a site (which can be as simple as sharing your email address) to see their “special” prices.
By obtaining your email, booking sites and hotels themselves can discount publicly available prices, as it is completely legal and okay for them to show “closed environment” discounts.
Try new travel apps
From Turó, which is basically the Airbnb of car rentals (and even has luxury cars) to Resort Passwhere you can simply buy a day pass to the hotel pool, and Wandera vacation home company that guarantees fast Wi-Fi and dedicated work spaces, there are many “new” ways to experience travel.
Do your research, not all of these platforms will be right for everyone, but they are a great tool to add to your arsenal as you look for savings.
I was able to rent a Tesla Model Y in California through Turó for less than a basic car from a major rental company, and the host picked up and dropped off the car.