1999 Write The Future, a music and art collective by 88Rising, has dropped a heater of a new single. Tonight (January 19), the group shared “Slopes,” which features 88Rising rapper Warren Hue and Offset rapping back and forth over a scorching beat.
The musical chemistry between Hue and Offset is undeniable, as they effortlessly bounce off of each other’s flow and mirror each other’s energy.
Hue, who is originally from Indonesia, can’t help but shine, knowing that he’s making the haters “mad mad” as he’s adjusting to international fame.
“Pull up with a fit and they mad mad / Show money bands in my backpack / Introduce Warren to your grandad,” raps Warren.
Though Offset has been in the game for over a decade, he hasn’t lost momentum. He makes this evident noting that while he’s already shown to be one of hip-hop’s greats, he’s still setting out for more.
“I been going number one I could taste it / I was born up a star up on Elliot / I’ma sell out arenas and the stadiums / I got my gang and my family, I ain’t trading ’em,” raps Offset.
According to a press release, the debut album by 1999 Write The Future arrives “soon.”
In the meantime, you can see the “Slopes” video above.
Warren Hue is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Noah Kahan has given a fan-favorite an international upgrade. Tonight (January 19), Kahan has shared a new version of “Homesick” featuring UK artist Sam Fender, capturing the feeling of homesickness around the world.
The original version of the song was inspired by Kahan’s feelings toward his Strafford, Vermont hometown, and how he misses home while he’s out chasing his dreams. The updated version’s second verse features Fender waxing poetic over his hometown, Newcastle.
Fender recorded his verse in Newcastle after meeting Kahan on tour last year. While the two artists come from different places, they bonded over their tumultuous relationship with touring, and the emotions that come with being away from home for too long.
“Noah actually came to my hometown of Newcastle when he was on tour, so we met up and I showed him around,” said Fender in a statement. “I found it canny funny and flattering as he said in his east coast American accent, ‘I wanna see where these songs came from man’, so we hit the Lowlights Tavern for a swift Guinness and walked in the bitter cold of the sea-front. Chatting with him about things in both of our pasts made me realize how universal ‘Homesick’ is. We’ve all been that kid.”
You can listen to the new version of “Homesick” above.
Charles Barkley made it a point to try and stop drinking Diet Coke in the new year, which led to him getting trolled by everyone else on the Inside the NBA set. That, apparently, did not go very well, because Chuck is still putting Diet Coke in his mug and drinking it while he’s on set.
During halftime of Thursday night’s game between the Chicago Bulls and the Toronto Raptors, someone on set (ok, it was Shaq) decided to pull a fast one on him and put something other than Diet Coke in his mug. It was unclear what got put in there, but whatever it was, it caught Barkley completely off guard and led to him making a face that made the whole crew lose it.
Barkley saying “I don’t know if they had me on tape” only to find out that they did, indeed, have him on tape was terrific television, and the replay of Chuck taking a sip and trying to figure out what the heck was going on was even better. It’s not often that something is able to get Ernie Johnson laughing like this, and hopefully, Barkley doesn’t pay extra attention to this going forward and we get it more often.
The United States has long been seen as a “melting pot,” a “nation of immigrants,” and a country where people of diverse backgrounds mix and mingle together under the common banner of freedom and liberty.
It’s a bit more complicated than that, though, especially for Black Americans whose ancestors came to the U.S. by force as part of the “peculiar institution” of human chattel slavery. Through the cruel system of buying, selling and breeding human beings for generations, many people’s ancestral knowledge was stolen from them, a historical reality that prompted “Black” with a capital “B” as an ethnic and cultural identifier for people of the African diaspora.
Curiosity about the varied backgrounds of Americans is the basis of “Finding Your Roots,” a PBS series hosted by Harvard professor Henry Gates, Jr. The show has revealed some surprises in some famous people’s DNA, including the beloved “Reading Rainbow” host, LeVar Burton.
Burton sat down with Gates to go over what researchers had found out about his lineage, and what they discovered floored him. Burton said that his mom, who had raised him and his siblings as a single mother from the time he was 11, had never wanted to share anything about her own personal history, so he didn’t know much about his ancestry.
As it turns out, the man who was on record as being Burton’s great-great-grandfather, Louis Sills, was not actually his blood ancestor at all. The man who fathered Mary Sills, Burton’s great-grandmother, was actually a white man named James Henry Dixon.
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Burton knew Sills when he was a child and referred to her as “Granny.” He had always been told that Granny had some Native American ancestry, but she was actually half white, her father being a North Carolina farmer who had a wife and children at the time Sills was born.
Not only that, but Dixon had served in the junior reserves for the Confederacy as a teenager, too young to be in active combat when the war broke out in 1861. So not only did Burton have a white direct ancestor but that ancestor was on the side of defending the enslavement of Black people.
“Are you kidding me?” was Burton’s initial response to this news. “Oh my god. I did not see this coming.”
Once the news sunk in, Burton thoughtfully reflected on what it might have meant.
“I often wonder about white men of the period and how they justify to themselves their relations with Black women, especially those in an unbalanced power dynamic,” Burton said. “There has to be a powerful disconnect created emotionally and mentally. So it’s possible in my mind that he could’ve contemplated it and was conflicted at worst, maybe repentant at best. And then there’s the possibility that he didn’t think about it at all.”
Through we don’t know the nature of the sexual relationship between Sills and Dixon, sexual violence was a ubiquitous feature of enslavement in the U.S. and the power dynamic between white and Black people at that raises questions about whether any relations could be viewed as truly consensual. Previous episodes of “Finding Your Roots” has unveiled relationships that defy assumptions one way or the other, so that element of Burton’s family history remains a mystery. However, Dixon fathered at least nine children and had at least 40 grandchildren, meaning Burton likely has white relatives scattered throughout the country.
When Gates asked Burton how this revelation of having a white Confederate great-great-grandfather made him feel, he said, “There’s some conflict roiling inside of me right now, but it, it, it also, oddly enough, I feel, I, I feel a pathway opening up…I believe that as Americans, we need to have this conversation about who we are and how we got here. But yet I see that we’re so polarized politically and racially. We’re not talking to each other. And so I’ve been looking for an entry point to talk to white America.”
“Well, that door just opened,” said Gates.
“Here it is,” responded Burton. “Here it is.”
Some people didn’t understand Burton’s reaction, highlighting the complexity of racial identity and the history of race relations in the U.S. in particular due to the reality of race-based slavery. One of the things people love about “Finding Your Roots” is how it opens up entirely new perspectives in people’s own life stories, which is a very personal thing.
As Burton wrote in response to a commenter on X, “It is one thing to know something on an intellectual level, another matter entirely to be introduced to an emotional truth that is both surprising and wholly unexpected.”
— (@)
Burton found out a lot more about his ancestry on both sides, including the fact that education and literacy—which Burton has dedicated much of his career to—can be traced back several generations through his father’s side. His father left when he was 11 and he didn’t know anything about his background, but he actually had educators in his family going back to at least 1880.
Though Burton said it was “overwhelming” to find all of this out about his lineage, he also said he was “ecstatic” to learn it.
“Never in a million years would I ever have imagined that you would find information like this for my family,” Burton told Gates.
Watch Burton’s entire ancestry being revealed on “Finding Your Roots,” starting at the 12:00 mark and continuing again at 32:50:
Only seven games remain in the 2023-24 NFL season. That is a wild reality after watching six Wild Card matchups across a three-day period, but the field of contenders for the Super Bowl is shrinking with haste. As the Divisional Round approaches, the full-game opportunities are also slimming down in this space but, fear not, there is more to come. The first week of the playoffs was quite solid, even without the help of the Dallas Cowboys, and we’re back for more.
But first… the season-long record.
Wild Card Weekend: 3-1
2023 Season: 49-39-4
Come get these winners.
Baltimore Ravens (-9.5) over Houston Texans — Widely Available
Because I was on Houston last week, I can say this with perhaps a bit less blowback, but I think the Texans are in for a long day. This is a different animal than facing the Browns at home, as Baltimore is better, deeper, and more rested, plus the game is on the road for Houston. Long-time readers may recoil at seeing me hand out a big favorite like this, but anything under 10 would be a go from me.
Green Bay Packers (+9.5) over San Francisco 49ers — Widely Available
I don’t love this, but I think it’s the side. Green Bay’s defensive line should, at least in theory, be able to heat up Brock Purdy on one side. On the other, it will all be about whether the Packers can stay on schedule. Aaron Jones looked great last week. So did Jordan Love. Maybe the backdoor will be open if we need it.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (+6.5) over Detroit Lions — Widely Available
Wait, no teaser? Well, unfortunately, I am writing this on Thursday evening and the six-point teasers that I could realistically advocate for are just not available right now. I’d love to take the Chiefs up from 2.5 to 8.5, but there isn’t an ideal partner for them at the current numbers. Alas, we are taking the Bucs. Detroit had an incredibly emotional win last week and, honestly, it would’ve been better for us with this number if the Eagles didn’t absolutely lay down on Monday night. Still, I think 6.5 is a good buy for the Bucs, even if it’s possible Tampa overachieved last week.
Noah Kahan is making his tours even more memorable. Today (January 18), Kahan took to social media to announce his 2024 Tour Patch Adventure.
Kahan is booked in several cities this year, and in each city, fans can purchase a limited edition patch.
“I’m excited to introduce Tour Patches,” said Kahan in his post. “So many of you have told me you’ve been to multiple shows of mine, which is incredible. I wanted to launch this patch program to offer a unique keepsake for every show. We’re going to try this out by creating a custom limited-edition patch for every headline date in 2024. The only way to get them is at the merch booth one of my shows. Collect them, trade them, put them on anything you want!”
A video clip on Instagram shows that patches will be available for purchase at the North American shows, as well as the international shows.
The European leg of Kahan’s upcoming We’ll Be Here Forever Tour is set to kick off in Dublin on Feb. 8, and the North American leg will begin at Rogers Arena in Vancouver on March 26. Fans can find the full list of tour dates here.
In more Kahan-related news, the singer-songwriter teamed up with Sam Fender for a new version of his Stick Season cut, “Homeless,” which is set to arrive tomorrow (January 19).
Even though Richard Simmons dropped out of the public eye in 2014, the world clearly wants more of the exercise guru. That was made clear when a new teaser trailer for “The Court Jester,” a short film where Simmons is played by Pauly Shore, dropped before its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
On the first day of the trailer’s release, it received over 230,000 views on YouTube. The top commenter does a great job of explaining why people are so interested in Shore as Simmons.
“Richard Simmons is an incredibly fascinating man and I’m very eager to see how this turns out,” Dilapsor wrote. “I also think Pauly Shore is long overdue for some sort of career revival and I really hope this helps him achieve that.”
“The Court Jester” appears to be a sneak peek into what we can expect seeing Shore as Simmons in an upcoming full-length biopic being produced by The Wolper Organization, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. In a statement to CNN, the company’s president, Mark Wolper, said the company is in “serious discussions with a major writer to develop this as a dramatic and heartfelt feature in the tone of Little Miss Sunshine.”
The Court Jester | Official Teaser | Pauly Shore is Richard Simmons
That news may excite those who feel Pauly Shore was born to play Simmons. However, the real Richard Simmons isn’t very excited about the news. He commented on the situation in a rare public statement on his official Facebook page.
“I have never given my permission for his movie. So don’t believe everything you read,” he wrote. “I no longer have a manager, and I no longer have a publicist. I just try to live a quiet life and be peaceful. Thank you for all your love and support.”
No one is sure why Simmons refuses to be part of the project; it could be that he’s enjoying his retirement. He could also be reticent for fear that Shore’s casting may make him the butt of the joke in the movie. That would be unfortunate for a man who spent his life helping people overcome their body issues, discuss their mental health challenges and get fit.
“While we would love to have him involved, we respect his desire to privacy and plan to produce a movie that honors him, celebrates him and tells a dramatic story,” the Wolper Organization said in a statement to CNN. “We know he is deeply private, and we would never want to invade that; however, he is an amazing person who changed millions of people’s lives, and the effect he has had on the world needs to be recognized.”
Shore believes that now is the perfect time to celebrate Simmons’ life.
“I’m really excited about sharing Richard Simmons’s life with the world. We all need this biopic now more than ever,” Shore said in a statement. “Simmons represented mental health, getting people in shape and being his authentic silly self!”
Simmons was ubiquitous on American TV from the ‘80s until he stepped out of the spotlight in 2014. His disappearance was the subject of much speculation, with some claiming that he was being held hostage by his housekeeper or that he had transitioned into a woman. However, a 2022 TMZ documentary, “What Really Happened to Richard Simmons,” set the record straight.
According to TMZ, Simmons suffered from knee troubles that prevented him from being the same big, gregarious personality that people have loved for decades. So, he left it all behind.
“He wanted to be remembered as a vibrant, healthy man,” the documentary claimed, “not an elderly man with medical problems. Richard wanted to retreat before his image was recast as an old man. And his knee problems were a huge factor in his decision… He had a right knee replacement a few years back. And still needed a left one. He was in a lot of pain.”
A pair of Madonna ticketholders have filed a lawsuit against the musician, as reported by Billboard. Michael Fellows and Jonathan Hadden, who attended Madonna’s Celebration tour back in December, are reportedly claiming that the singer “caused real legal harm to buyers” who had attended the December 13 concert, as she started the show two hours later than planned.
The lawsuit specifically notes that several fans “had to get up early to go to work” the day after the show, and that by starting the show at 10:30 p.m., and not the originally planned 8:30 p.m., she violated New York state laws.
“Defendants’ actions constitute not just a breach of their contracts … but also a wanton exercise in false advertising, negligent misrepresentation, and unfair and deceptive trade practices,” said attorneys for Fellows and Hadden in the lawsuit.
Attorneys also noted that Fellows and Hadden “would not have paid for their tickets had they known that the concerts would start after 10:30 p.m.”
Billboard notes that Fellows and Hadden didn’t leave Barclays Center, where Madonna was performing, and were “left stranded in the middle of the night” and “confronted with limited public transportation” options. Rideshare options were in surge pricing mode.
The lawsuit also reportedly names Live Nation and Barclays Center as defendants, alleging breach of contract; violation of New York’s business practices and false advertising laws; and several other forms of wrongdoing, including unjust enrichment.
Stress, they say, is a killer. And they mean it literally. Even if you might not ever see “stress” listed by name, many studies link it to leading causes of death like cancer, heart disease, accidents prompted by behavioral impairment, and suicide.
But what is stress? Before we teach you to combat it, it’s important to know your enemy here. Stress is a natural human response to challenges or threats in our lives, actual or perceived. Is being chased by an African lion through the desert going to stress you out? No question. But so will a homework assignment that you need to turn in next week. Or a humanitarian crisis happening across the globe that you have no power over. Or a hypothetical interaction at a party you might not even actually attend, with a person you just don’t want to see at the moment.
In our hyper-connected age, it’s easier than ever to find reasons to be stressed about the intangible. An errant IG “like.” A perceived sub-tweet. A text left on “read.”
These intangibles make stress a very difficult foe to face head-on. But that doesn’t mean that we are helpless and finding ways to fight stress can not just make you a healthier person, it can also help you be a calm and composed person for the people you care about. Below you’ll find six simple, yet effective, ways you can move towards a stress-free existence.
1. GET A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP
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Sleep is a critical factor in our ability to process information and our overall brain health. It should come at no surprise that if you don’t get a quality sleep, you are going to be less effective when to comes to problem solving and the processing of emotions. And as you can imagine, it can cause a lot of stress when you aren’t able to act or react properly at work, at home, or out with your friends.
Even worse, a vicious cycle can develop when you miss out on quality pillow time. Being stressed during the day because you are easily irritable can lead to higher cortisol levels, which in turn make it difficult to sleep.
See the pattern here?
The best way to reclaim your rest is to practice good sleep hygiene. Remember everyone has different needs when it comes to a quality sleep so it’s important to find ways to study your own whether that’s with a Whoop, Oura ring, or an app on your phone. Eliminating blue light devices from your nighttime routine at least half an hour before bed can have tremendous benefits. Look into temperature-regulating bedding options like Eight Sleep, sound devices like Hatch, or vibration technology like Apollo Neuro as ways to improve your REM sleep.
2. CREATE A SUSTAINING AND SUSTAINIBLE (!) MORNING ROUTINE
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Stress can be aggravated or even induced by feeling out of control. Studies show that you can benefit greatly by creating a morning routine that makes you feel strong and in control. This means completing small tasks that are easily accomplished and implementing sufficient self-care into the schedule. Remember that you are setting the course for your day, and you likely want that to be a course toward confidence.
Find two or more activities that you can complete without fail every morning. Perhaps that is making a healthy breakfast for your family or taking the dog out for a walk. They don’t have to be chores either, you can choose to make sipping a cup of coffee or reading the newspaper part of your morning routine for success.
The secret is that these need to be “sustaining” as in “they give you energy” and “sustainable” as in “not so intensive that you stop doing them.”
3. GET OUT IN NATURE
Being Outdoors Can Combat Stress
There is scientific research that suggests that just looking at a photo of trees or the sea can help our overall mood. So imagine the positives that can come from actually being out in nature! You may have heard the term “forest bathing” which is the healing practice of meditating while exploring the wilderness, but you don’t need to go on a week-long retreat to see the benefits.
Getting outside for even 20 to 30 minutes can reduce stress. In fact, that is when you will experience the greatest drop in cortisol levels. Every additional minute after that is just bonus. That is the perfect amount of time for a lunch break in a nearby park or a jog around the local track. The more trees and water you can encounter on your route the better.
Try trading in your treadmill time at the gym for a morning or evening run. Or see if your afternoon business meeting can be held at a park instead of on a Zoom call. Even better, see if you can do either activity while the sun is out, as having natural Vitamin D in your system can lower stress potential.
4. PRACTICE INTENTIONAL BREATHING
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Do you ever feel the need to take quick, sharp breaths when you are feeling anxiety or stress? This is a natural reaction that occurs when you feel a threat, and indulging in that kind of rapid breathing can only make matters worse. One way to prevent the kind of spiral that might start with these shallow breaths is to launch a practice of intentional breathing.
Why? Because this type of breathing can activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which in turn signals to your body that everything is okay.
The best way to go about starting an intentional breathing practice is to treat it like a “workout.” The majority of people out there don’t realize their full lung capacity and haven’t coached their bodies to take breathe properly into the diaphragm. Like a workout, you can start anytime by taking 15 minutes to sit upright at your desk or nearby on the ground and observe your breathing. You might be surprised at how much progress you can see just by trying to breathe slower, more effectively, and steadier.
There are many ways to advance this practice though and a number of great instructors out there. For additional coaching, try browsing tutorials online to find a coach that you connect with.
5. GET EXERCISE
Charles Thorp
Speaking of workouts, traditional exercise is also a great way to fight off stress. Not only is it great for your physical health and longevity, but it takes your focus away from nonproductive thoughts. Studies show that regular exercise has been proven to build emotional resilience in healthy adults.
Remember that your feelings of stress can be aggravated by perceiving a physical threat, even when there isn’t one. So it stands to reason that on a base level, the stronger and more capable you are physically as an individual, the less threatened you are going to feel. On the other side, the more stagnant you are throughout the day, the more susceptible you are to feeling vulnerable.
That means you can do a lot of good just by getting out from behind your desk at regular intervals or maybe looking into a standing desk. For a workout, you can pick your potion, whether that’s lifting weights, going on a job, or playing a game of basketball. Getting half an hour of regular exercise a day is a great way to ensure you are stress-resistant.
6. PRACTICE JOURNALING
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No matter where your stress is coming from, whether it be from work, school, or personal, journaling is a great way to process those concerns. So often we hold too tightly onto our worries and our anxieties, so it makes sense that purging them onto paper (or computer) could have a positive effect. Studies show that people who wrote for at least 15 minutes, three days a week, saw a consistent improvement in their stress levels.
Once again, for those who haven’t journaled before, it can feel daunting at first. But just like the other practices mentioned, it will get easier with each session. This writing should be used as a way to let go of any traumas, small or large, as well as an opportunity to identify any mistakes we might have made in haste. Sometimes our stress can come from repeating errors in judgment over and over again. Being honest with yourself in these moments is a great way to break the cycle.
There is also the benefit of sustained focus that occurs when you are journaling, which is unlike most computer work that we do these days. Put on some classical music and pull out some paper, you won’t regret it.
Game Of Thrones heroNed Stark was right when he galvanized his people with his speech in the opening episode to warn them that “winter is coming.” Because winter is here. After getting over the frenzied weeks leading up to the holly jolly jam-packed holiday season, January and February leave us melancholy.
The upside? We have a bit of an open-ended agenda. No major holidays coming. Festival season is still out on the horizon.
As we already know, in the realm of everything travel, maximizing rewards and points on credit cards is essential. After hearing from flight and point experts on the most valuable credit card sign-up bonuses and sure-in strategies for maximizing your credit cards and redeeming them for an epic early-year trip, we asked our panel for their best tip for scoring the last-minute deals for your winter escape, wherever that may be.
Let the travel commence!
Thomas Lonergan (@travelliketommy): Book Last Minute To Secure Great Deals
If you want to live life on the edge a little bit, book your flights last minute!
In order to successfully do this, you must be flexible and spontaneous with your dates. If you’re itching to get out to Southeast Asia this winter but don’t exactly know when set some flight alerts for last-minute deals and be prepared to head to the airport the next day if you have to.
Specifically search for flights out of major hubs like JFK, IAD, ORD, LAX, and SFO.
Adam Hill (@adamhillyeah): Set Hotel & Flight Alerts On Seats.Aero, Point.Me & Awayz To Use & Transfer Points For Last-Minute Deals
I get this a lot from people looking to book a vacation or escape in a relatively short amount of time and with specific dates. It’s hard to get the best deals when you aren’t flexible or wait until the last minute, however, fear not as there is hope. Let it be known that I recommend booking as early as possible, sometimes up to almost a year in advance, by setting alerts or diligently, and tediously searching for whatever coveted hotel or flight you are looking at.
Many times, some of the best award spaces or hotels become available at the last minute. Prime examples of this are booking Lufthansa First Class seats which often become available 1-14 days before the travel date, or even with Japan Airlines first class. This last-minute method typically works best with one person but having a player two isn’t impossible either. Many airlines will release last-minute saver business class award space or even have saver economy available if you have more than two people. It may not be sexy to fly economy, but saving money and getting the family somewhere to have a memorable experience is the ultimate goal here.
Hotels can oftentimes have last-minute rates open up for unsold rooms on a cheap cash fare, or at a reasonable award rate. It may not be the lowest off-peak rate, but if it saves you from paying a huge amount of cash, that’s a win in my book.
People looking for last-minute deals, or looking to set alerts for hotels and flights can use websites like Seats.Aero to find last minute deals or Point.me as both websites will show you how to transfer points and from what programs you can do it. The other great hotel award finder I like to use is AWAYZ as it has been helpful in the past for myself. If you are looking for cheap cash fares, you can download the chrome extension of Travel Arrow which you can then search the hidden hotels on priceline.com and see what the hidden hotels are
Allison Tackette (@luckytictac): Let The Points & Miles Guide Your Destination
Let the point and miles deals guide your destination. If looking for a beach escape, don’t settle on a location. Take a look at all the warm beaches during your dates and choose the one with the cheapest points options.
Don’t forget to check nearby airports as well. Want to go skiing in Aspen or Vail during peak season? It may be difficult to find points options into those airports. Don’t forget about Denver. It’s a shuttle ride to your final destination.
Look into positioning flights. For example, you can take a flight to catch another flight if there is a deal there. For example, my Delta One flight is out of JFK (and not LAX my home airport) because there was a Virgin Atlantic deal to fly Delta One Business Class. The Delta flight was 50,000 points + $5.60 in taxes with Virgin Atlantic (a transfer partner of the bank) vs. $3,782 or 252,080 in the bank portal!
To get to New York, I’m taking a cheap flight out of LAX. Currently, I’m booked with Southwest Airlines, but I’m going to cancel this flight if I find a nonstop flight out of JFK on red eye.
Angelo Minella (@paidwithpoints): Look For Increased Point Transfers To Partnered Airlines And Hotels
Once you have a grasp on earning and how to redeem points by transferring them, you’re going to want to look for two things. First, keep an eye out for increased transfers to partnered airlines or hotels on a bonus. For example, if American Express points regularly transfer 1:1 into your Emirates account but you notice that there’s currently a limited time offer of 30% bonus, that means that for every point you transfer you will get 1:3 Emirate miles.
Secondly, you want to search for Saver Award flights. This is essentially a discounted award redemption. For example, if it normally costs 50,000 to fly business class from JFK to Dubai, a Saver Award seat may be 37,500.
Using these two strategies can be very effective and a great use of your points.
Ryan Horn (@profitsandpoints): Use Specific Strategies To Secure The Cheapest Flight Possible
There are five different strategies that I always use to make sure that I find the cheapest flights possible:
1) Join a Cheap Flight Newsletter: There are a growing number of cheap flight newsletters out on the market. For the price of a subscription, most of these newsletters will send the lowest-priced flight deals they can find right to your inbox. The companies that run these newsletters typically employ people who spend hours each day searching for the cheapest flights meaning you won’t only save money, but you’ll also save time.
2) Set Price Alerts: Google Flights has an awesome feature that allows you to receive an email whenever the price of a flight you’re looking at goes up or down. These alerts can help you time when to commit to purchasing your flight.
3) Consider Flying Out Of/Into Alternate Airports: Probably the biggest factor at determining the price of a flight is where you’re flying from or where you’re flying to. By looking at other airports that may be a short drive from your first choice airport, you open up the potential to save a lot of money. Advanced travelers may want to also consider positioning flights. A positioning flight is a flight that you would take to get to an airport who’s airfare is cheaper to your final destination. It’s basically like creating your own layover. Just be careful to leave enough time in case something goes wrong with your positioning flight.
4) Rebook Your Flight If The Price Drops: Many airlines will allow you to receive a credit/points/refund if the price of your flight drops. My favorite example is Southwest Airlines. If the price of your flight drops, you can rebook your flight through Southwest and receive a credit for future travel equal to the difference in the fare. If you paid with points, the difference in Rapid Rewards points will automatically go back into your account.
5) Flexibility, Flexibility, Flexibility: Finding cheap flights ultimately comes down to flexibility. Are you willing to fly on a different day? Are you willing to have a longer layover? Are you willing to travel somewhere slightly different than you had first planned? The more flexible you are, the more likely you are to save money on air travel.
Sierra Smith (@highsierrapoints): Use Last-Minute Flight Deals With Points
SIERRA SMITH
Winter holidays are peak travel time, so the cash cost of flights will surge. The good news is that last-minute flight deals using points will often show up a few weeks prior to departure if you’re flexible. I will sometimes book a refundable cash flight several months out as a backup, and wait for last-minute award deals to be released. You can also find amazing flight deals for quieter times like early morning or late-night flights.
Spencer Howard (@straighttothepoints): Optimize Winter Travel Deals With Flight & Hotel Points
Summer travel might get all of the hype, but there are some amazing winter destinations. Plus, you can score some great deals on flights and hotels and it’s often easier to use points to book both!
With less competition for award space on flights and at hotels, you can often find great deals in the weeks before your travel dates. Don’t be afraid to book last minute to secure some exceptional deals. Sign up for my business and first-class flight alerts here.
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