More Americans are obtaining passports and going abroad than ever before—and thousands of different travel apps, websites, and services have proliferated to help them on their journeys. Many promise to make the experience of flying cheaper, easier, and less stressful. Want dinner delivered directly to your gate? There’s now an app for that, of course.
Some of these services are superfluous or really only benefit the most frequent travelers. But others are genuinely useful and can make getting to your next destination a less costly, more streamlined affair. And aside from application fees paid to the US government for things like TSA PreCheck and Global Entry (more on those later), many of the best travel apps and websites are don’t cost anything to use.
Before You Go
If you’re in need of some vacation inspiration first, Scott’s Cheap Flights will send you email alerts for airline deals. (There’s also a premium version that for $49 a year promises access to exclusive and “rare” deals.) In the age of information overload, signing up for more emails might seem like a bad idea. But Scott’s Cheap Flights can help you get a sense of what sales are actually out there. Once you spot tickets to the destination of your dreams, you can easily snag them. Last spring, when Scott’s highlighted round-trip tickets to Bangkok for about $600, I pounced.
When you’re ready to book your flight, Skyscanner and Google Flights are some of the easiest sites to use for browsing cheap options. I used Skyscanner to snag round-trip tickets from New York to Hong Kong and South Korea for around $750, including all fees. Can’t decide where you want to go? Skyscanner has an “Everywhere” option that will show you the cheapest places to travel from wherever you’re currently based. At one point when I was in Accra, Ghana, I used the Everywhere search and found a bargain to fly to Istanbul, which I never would have guessed on my own.
While you’re getting ready for your trip, don’t forget about the apps you might want to use when you get there. If you’re going to be navigating around on your own, download the entire Google Maps area of your destination so you can use it offline—and avoid international data fees. Similarly, use Google Translate to download any foreign languages you may need. And if you’re not planning on using public transit (or if it isn’t an option), look into transportation apps. You probably already have Uber and Lyft, but if you’re headed to Southeast Asia, you’ll want to download Grab, the ride-hailing app everyone uses in the region. And don’t limit your research to car services! On a recent trip to Paris, I found myself wishing I’d downloaded the Lime and Bird scooter apps before I left.
At the Airport
One of the worst things about flying is the long lines at the airport. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to reduce your wait, or even skip lines altogether.
If you’re a US citizen, national, or legal permanent resident, you can apply for TSA PreCheck, a government program that allows you to join a special security line when flying 67 different airlines out of 200 US airports. A membership costs $85 and lasts five years; a number of credit cards cover the fee as one of their perks. In June 2019, 92 percent of PreCheck passengers waited in line for less than five minutes, according to the TSA’s website. It also helps you avoid some of the more annoying aspects of airport security, like taking off your shoes and jackets and removing laptops and liquids from bags.
(PreCheck doesn’t give you carte blanche to show up at the airport late, though. “No individual is guaranteed expedited screening,” the agency’s website warns.)
To get it, you’ll need to apply online and then show up at an enrollment center for a short interview, which includes a background check and fingerprinting. Some people have also reported receiving PreCheck on flights despite never having applied. It was randomly bestowed on me when I flew to Puerto Rico, for instance. According to the TSA, though, people won't be able to luck into PreCheck this way much longer. The TSA Modernization Act, which was passed last year, requires that those lines soon be made available to authorized program members only.
"Some passengers deemed to be low-risk by TSA, on an unpredictable and infrequent basis, may be eligible to use the TSA Precheck lane on a flight by flight basis," Jenny Burke, a spokesperson for the agency, said in an email. But "TSA continues to reduce the percentage of daily travelers who are deemed eligible for TSA Precheck via this process."
