It's time to get that vacation back on the books!

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We all could use a vacation.

I am sure that over the last two years, COVID disrupted your travel plans once or twice; and that probably means that you have a travel voucher that you’re figuring out how to use. Even if you aren't ready to take that vacation, it is important to understand how to redeem your travel credits, so that you can use them when you're ready— and, importantly, so that you don't lose them.

What are the rules?

So here’s the thing about travel vouchers: during the lockdown, most airlines amended their cancellation policies so that regardless of what type of ticket you purchased, you would be able to rebook without being charged a change fee.

Typically, your travel voucher will only be valid with the particular airline you selected, regardless of whether you booked through a third party like Expedia or Kayak. And, even if you did book through a third party, your travel voucher likely won't be stored in your account with that company. Instead, your voucher was probably sent to your email from the airline. This means that when it comes time to rebook, you'll need to buy your tickets directly through the airline in order to use the travel voucher. Yes, I am hitting you with the "likely's" and "probably's" because there are exceptions, but the scenario I just described is the most common.

With most airlines, if you’re booking your new trip online, you can apply the travel voucher at checkout, no problem. Once you’re in the payment portal, there will be an option to apply a travel credit to your purchase.

However, I have had experiences where I needed to have an agent apply the travel voucher, and so I could only make a reservation using the credit if I booked over the phone. It really is a mixed bag. So when all is said and done, I think my main piece of advice here would be to budget a little extra time to book these flights. You may get all the way to checkout and find out that you actually need to book through the phone. Is it efficient? No. But it is the game we need to play in order to actually use our travel credits.

One last piece of advice.

Check the expiration date on your travel voucher. Most companies said that they wouldn’t expire any vouchers that were issued during COVID, but airlines are hurting right now, and they can make changes to policy on a whim. And remember: the travel voucher expiration date would be for when you can apply it, not the date of departure; so the time crunch is actually on booking the flight, not the date of travel.

xo,

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💬 Tell me about your travel questions in the comments below!