04.08.26 Booking Rules Of Travel / Cell Phone Bans

Summary

The Clark Howard Podcast – Episode Summary

Episode Title: Booking Rules of Travel / Cell Phone Bans
Release Date: April 8, 2026
Host: Clark Howard (with Krista, Team Clark)
Main Theme: Clark and Krista provide detailed, actionable advice for thrifty traveling this summer amid rising costs, field listener financial questions, and share thoughts on newly popular cell phone bans in schools, restaurants, and concerts.

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Episode Overview

This episode focuses on how to effectively manage summer travel plans amid sticker shock on airfare, hotels, and gas, identifying booking hacks and trends shaping prices. The second half, Clark and Krista discuss the growing movement to restrict cell phone use in public spaces (schools, restaurants, concerts) to foster more meaningful, present experiences. Listener questions cover everything from travel logistics and identity theft protection to financial document retention.

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Key Topics & Discussion Points

1. Summer Travel — Booking Smart in a Pricey Season

[00:48–06:59]

• Airfare Strategies:

  • Prices have surged due to increased demand even before global events, like hostilities in Iran.
  • Day of the week flying matters more than the day you buy tickets:

    “You got two friends: the calendar and comparison shopping. Because day of the week matters so much. Not when you buy a ticket, but the day you fly, the day you return…” (Clark, 02:11)

  • Always search for flights both one-way and round-trip — sometimes combining different airlines each way gives the lowest fare.
  • Clark’s Favorite Tools: Google Flights and Hopper.
  • Don’t start on your favorite airline’s website; search broadly first.
  • Flexible travel dates can mean dramatic savings.

• Hotel Price Trends:

  • Despite perceptions, average hotel rates ($160/night) have barely outpaced inflation over 7 years, but luxury/expense account hotels have surged, while budget hotels remain competitive.

    “What’s happened is…the really high end hotels…are spending bigger money, pushing up the rates at the higher end.” (Clark, 05:48)

  • Booking Tip: Business hotels (e.g., Hilton, Marriott) often offer good deals on weekends when corporate travelers are absent — look for gaps in pricing.

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2. Listener Travel Q&A

Flight Delays & Tarmac Rules

[06:59–09:35]

• Example: Nico from Utah stuck on Atlanta tarmac for 4+ hours.
  • U.S. DOT mandates for tarmac delays focus on basic rights (bathroom, access to snacks, option to deplane) but not compensation.
  • Airlines aren’t required to compensate like European carriers.

    “We need a compensation system like Europe has where when an airline fails you receive compensation…it’s a clear formula.” (Clark, 08:39)

Paris & Milan Trip Booking

[09:35–13:48]

• Flying into Paris and out of Milan: Search all major alliances for open-jaw tickets (multi-city), not just single airlines.
• Consider the train for Paris-Milan travel, not just flying — sometimes much more pleasant than a short-haul flight:

  “By the time you get from a central city to an airport…go through security…you get to Malpensa…then you gotta get into Milan — take the train.” (Clark, 11:10)

Packing Light & Travel Costs

[14:36–17:09]

• Why carry-on only? Convenience and efficiency, even for long trips — Clark and spouse traveled Europe for 13–14 days on just carry-ons.

  “It made it so much more convenient that we were carry on only...I hate standing in lines and I hate a bag taking a trip somewhere and I go somewhere else.” (Clark, 15:37)

• YouTube offers many strategies for ultra-efficient packing.

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3. Cell Phone Restrictions: Schools, Restaurants, Concerts

[22:25–26:29]

• Clark supports school policies banning or restricting cell phone use to force students to engage with each other and not hide in screens.
• Praises some restaurants and concert venues for prohibiting phone use, believing it creates a better, more connected experience:

  “The advantage of it is you actually re-engage with the people you’re with. What a concept.” (Clark, 23:46)

• Warns of the downsides of always documenting versus experiencing life directly:

  “It's funny how much people don’t just enjoy the moment and they want to document the moment...when are you ever going to watch that again?” (Clark, 26:05)

• Clark admits he also struggles with overuse and relies on an app for self-shaming to moderate device use.

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4. Personal Finance & Consumer Protection Q&A

Identity Theft & Security Locks

[26:29–29:42]

• Rich from Ohio asks how to protect against rising identity theft, especially with AI increasing risks.
• Clark recommends:
  • Keep credit freezes in place.
  • Pursue SIM-phone number locks.
  • Understand ACATS (securities transfer) — Fidelity excels, Schwab lags; lobby providers to add protections.

    “This shouldn’t be so hard.” (Clark, 27:43)

• Accept you can only do so much; institutions are falling behind the sophistication of criminals and don’t expect government rescue.

AI Meeting Transcription at Financial Advisors

[29:42–32:54]

• Renee in Florida’s advisor plans to record meetings with AI transcription.
• Clark warns: Non-fiduciary, high-cost investment houses may use transcripts to protect themselves, not you.

  “This is not for you. This is for them...in the event you later realize they weren’t looking out for you.” (Clark, 30:52)

• For general consumer calls (e.g., chat logs with big companies), Clark likes transcripts for proof in disputes.

Document Retention — Old Bank Statements

[32:54–End]

• Ed in Georgia asks about purging decades of bank statements.
• Clark: Keep only the last statement of each year as a summary is generally more than enough for records.

  “If you want to keep any of it…keep just the last statement of each year…That's more than plenty for you to keep.” (Clark, 33:18)

• Reflects humorously on just how rare anyone would need those very old records.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On flexible airfare booking:
  “You can end up paying much more money. So you search both ways: one way…and round trip, which is where I usually find the best deal.” — Clark, 02:31

• On U.S. vs. EU airline compensation:
  “The airlines are too powerful, their lobby is too strong and we've never been able to get real consumer protections in the U.S.” — Clark, 09:07

• On cell phone bans:
  “I've been really happy by the spreading of restrictions on use of cell phones during school hours with kids so they have to engage with each other again.” — Clark, 22:54

• On financial advisor meeting recordings:
  “If later you were like, wait a minute, you ripped me off…and they can go to the AI summary…use it as a defense…” — Clark, 30:54

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Travel Booking Advice: 00:48–06:59
• Flight Delay Rights: 06:59–09:35
• Paris/Milan Trip Planning Tips: 09:35–13:48
• Packing and Carry-On Strategies: 14:36–17:09
• Cell Phone Ban Discussion: 22:25–26:29
• Identity Theft Protections: 26:29–29:42
• AI Meeting Transcriptions: 29:42–32:54
• Document Retention: 32:54–end

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Tone & Style

Clark and Krista deliver practical tips in their light, conversational style, blending expertise, humor, and encouragement to help listeners get the most value for their money and life experiences.

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Useful resources:

• Clark.com/askclark for listener questions
• ClarkDeals.com for curated deals

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This summary distills all major topics, tips, and moments—perfect for catching up or referencing as you plan your own travel or financial strategies!

Transcript

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[Clark Howard]

I'm so glad you're with us here on the Clark Howard Show. Our mission is to serve you and with advice and information that empowers you to make better financial decisions in your life today. If you've been planning your summer travel, there's a lot of sticker shock you're seeing right this moment. I'm going to explain what's going on, how you handle this. And later, when you eat out or you go to a concert. Have you noticed how many people are on their cell phones the entire time? Some businesses, artists are jumping on the cell phone bandwagon. Yeah, bandwagon. I want to talk about Ban Ban wagon and I'm going to talk about that straight ahead. I like that, Chris.

[Krista]

You like it? Yeah, I thought you'd like that.

[Clark Howard]

All right, so time to talk travel, hotel rates, airfares. Gosh, gasoline of late. All so crazy expensive. I want to talk about each of those and get you ready for your summer. Okay? So rule number one with airfare. Airfares were already significantly higher before the hostilities began in Iran because demand has been crazy strong. So the key with airfare is you're shopping for summer. You got two friends, the calendar and comparison shopping. Because day of the week matters so much. Not when you buy a ticket, but the day you fly, the day you return, and who you fly. Remember, always do your airfare searches, trying them two ways, one way and round trip. The one way is really important because a lot of times the airline that's cheapest one way is not the cheapest the other. And most searches for flights. When you pick an airline going one way, it automatically only searches that same airline coming home so you can end up paying much more money. So you search both ways. One way, which is where I usually find the best deal, and round trip. And second, never go to your favorite airlines website. You can eventually book there, but you never go there. First you search airfare. Multi mode, multi airlines. I love using Google flights. A lot of people prefer Hopper. Those are the two most respected of the airfare search engines. You can use both of them and look again one way and round trip. And then you can look at the fare screen and you see by day that, oh, if I go one day later and come back one day later, it'll cost me half the money, or something like that. And that's all I'm going to say about airfare right now, because I've talked about that strategy in the past. Hotels, we are in the oddest time for hotels. The average rate of a hotel room has actually gone up less than the overall rate of inflation over the last seven years. The average cost of a hotel room right now is about 160 bucks for a night. And you're like, and that's less inflation? Believe it or not, it is than a lot of other things they were paying more for. But that's only the smallest part of the story, because what's happened in the hotel business, and you got to be aware of this when you're booking your own travel, is that the price points have really spread out. I talked recently on the podcast and YouTube show about how the buckets have spread, but in the hotel business it works a little different. What's happened is that the category of hotel you're looking at, if you're looking at one that you're paying your own money for and your fellow travelers overwhelmingly are paying their own money for, those have not really gone crazy in price. It's the expense account kind of hotels, and especially the luxury end of the hotel market that has seen giant increases in price. And so when you're paying with your own money, you'll see these enormous gaps in price depending on where you're booking. And all the big hotel brands now have segmented their hotel names to all different kinds of target customers. They're reaching different kinds of people. And right now, the owners of the more budget oriented hotels are having trouble getting the revenue they'd like on a nightly basis. And at the same time, the really high end hotels, because wealthier people have done really well in the stock market and all that, and they're feeling pretty flush. They're spending bigger money pushing up the rates at the higher end. And there is one thing, though, about the expense account hotels, not the luxury ones, but the ones that the Hiltons, the Marriotts, that kind of thing. They on the weekends when the corporate travelers are not there, they can often be your best booking deal as a leisure traveler. So we're during Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday night, maybe Thursday night. They can be extremely pricey the rest of the weekend of that week. They may be a deal if they're not at a resort kind of area. Krista.

[Krista]

Okay, the first question I have for you today is from Nico in Utah. Nico says, I recently had the pleasure of sitting on the Atlanta tarmac for well over four hours waiting for a gate. I was offered a flight refund and $250 in flight credit that I have to use within a year. I'm aware that the DOT allows for a maximum of three hours on the tarmac, but the airline doesn't really seem to care. Seems like a bigger deal to me than just a flight credit and refund. Any thoughts?

[Clark Howard]

Okay, so Nico, the the flight tarmac delay rule governs things like giving you access to a working bathroom, giving you the ability if at all possible to exit the plane if you desire after a delay of three hours and gives you access not to a full meal but snacks or something so that guys think about people with pre existing health conditions and no food or water. So it only deals with the life kind of things, does not require even the money. I know that your situation was the big Delta meltdown that they have very publicly apologized for and so they are not required to give you that refund and the flight credit and all that. You definitely have some level of status with Delta because I've heard from a number of people who have no medallion status with Delta and they got nothing. They got just a pro forma apology note, no compensation at all. Delta had such an operational meltdown, they kept people on planes as long as seven hours with no gate available for them. And it was just one of those things started with a weather problem and compounded on itself. And we need. How many years am I to say we need a compensation system like Europe has where when an airline fails you receive compensation and it's a clear formula that you're paid for your inconvenience, paid for your hard costs that you have because of a delay. The airlines are too powerful, their lobby is too strong and we've never been able to get real consumer protections in the U.S. okay.

[Krista]

Lane in Louisiana says a question concerning two of Clark's favorite items. The New Orleans Saints are playing in Paris in October of this year. My wife and I are Jim's the Saints. My wife and I are going to see the game and spend A week in France, but also want to spend a week in northern Italy, probably flying out of Milan. Is there a reason to use the same airline to go to Paris and back from Milan or should I price them separately? Also, would you recommend flying or using the train between Paris and Milan? Thanks. And who dat?

[Clark Howard]

Who dat? Tim's the Saints. Okay, so we got a lot of things to talk about when the Falcons play the Saints. You know, I want the Falcons to win. So second, from Paris to Milan, it's a puzzle because it's a 90 minute flight and it's an almost seven hour train ride.

[Krista]

Is it really? They don't have any.

[Clark Howard]

Like that is a fast train. You look at a map of Europe, how far it is, Paris to Milan.

[Krista]

That's true.

[Clark Howard]

I love Paris to Milan. Have a relatively fast train because, you know, the fashion capital Milan, fashion capital of Paris, each thinks they're the fashion capital of the universe. And there's a lot of designer traffic that goes back and forth. And so there is good train service and a zillion flights a day. So if it were me, I would take the train between the two.

[Krista]

Me too.

[Clark Howard]

Because by the time you get from a central city to an airport, go through security, go through whatever delays there are and all that, you get to Malpenza, you get to Linate, and then you got to get into Milan, take the train. It's pretty. You got more room than you do on a crunch class on an airline. Now to your airfare question.

[Krista]

Can I say one more thing about the train? Sorry.

[Clark Howard]

Sure.

[Krista]

I don't mean to interrupt, but I'm also wondering, I didn't look at the schedules, but maybe there's even a cool overnight place to stop, stop in between to see one more country or something. That would be really fun.

[Clark Howard]

Well, this is the Krista thing. In a 10 day trip to Europe, see seven countries. That is true.

[Krista]

True. Yeah.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah.

[Krista]

Sorry, go ahead, carry on.

[Clark Howard]

Okay. All right, so we're going to talk about the train. Also, every time I've been on a long distance train in Italy, the food is better than it is usually in restaurants. And then you go in other countries in Europe, the train food is not so great. Not Amtrak, but not so great. Anyway, so the question you asked about the fares you do want to do into Paris out of Milan, not necessarily on the same airline, but on the same group of airlines. The United States and Europe allowed airlines to fix prices and enter into these co ops where several airlines work together and they sell each other's flights and code share and they coordinate schedules and they fix fares. So you want to use the ability to shop all of them. You want to shop the. You've got Air France, klm, Delta, you've got Lufthansa, United together, American, British Airways, trying to think who else is in these. And so you want to shop all three of them. And they will come up in a multi airline search to see going into Paris out of Milan who is going to be the best combination of whichever co op you buy. So you're not necessarily, you don't want to limit yourself to a particular logo on the tail. You want to shop that co op, that price fixing group to come up with who's going to be your best deal and you want to buy that about April May is probably going to be the best time to buy that October fair.

[Krista]

Did you mention sas?

[Clark Howard]

SAS is kind of out there on their own?

[Krista]

Well, they're in the Delta. I know they're in that.

[Clark Howard]

They're kind of a junior member of the, the Star France, KLM thing. So SAS has been offering better deals than others in the cooperative efforts. And I forgot to mention Aer Lingus as part of the. And Iberia part of the British Airways, American price fixing. So you SAS may stand out there on its own. It will require you take two flights to get to Paris, two flights from Milan back to New Orleans. But that may be. And I didn't mention SAS because I don't think they fly to New Orleans.

[Krista]

Oh, okay, got it. Brent in Florida says I have two questions. First, how do you travel with just a carry on? We only use a carry on for a weekend trip. If you're going to Italy, for example, you would need at least one or two checked bags in my opinion, unless you plan on buying new clothes when you get there. Also, how can you consider yourself part of the cheapskate club when you travel so much? That's got to cost you a fortune even though you get good deals. Is it mainly for business travel?

[Clark Howard]

I used to do tons of business travel. Now most of what I do is just for fun. And yes, if you look at it as an efficient use of money in my life, no, it is not travel. Even on bargains, it's a real expense. But it's an experience that I value so much. So no, it is not an efficient use of money on the carry on that is efficient. And my wife and I were recently in Europe for 13 or 14 days and we each went with the carry on. And I said deline, she said, I don't think I can make it through the trip without going to Laundromatter wash and fold and I said oh, we'll go to a wash and fold. And then of course we got caught up in the trip and never made the time for it and we were on fumes with clothes by the end of the time period. But over and over again it made it so much more convenient that we were carry on only and so I packed very efficiently. You go on YouTube, you'll see video after video of strategies of experienced travelers who do carry on only even for long trips and what they do using those compression bags and all kinds of other strategies of rolling your clothes to get more space in your carry on. And yeah, it's probably an inflexible obsession of mine with doing carry ons, but I hate standing in lines and I hate a bag taking a trip somewhere and I go somewhere else Coming up ahead. You know something's gotten so much better is when you travel using your cell phone. But there are times it's a lot better to put that cell phone down or away. I want to talk about that Self

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[Clark Howard]

School Cell Phone bans or something I've been all about from when the first inkling of that taking place happened and this is based on life experience with my kids realizing they would be messaging me from class, not paying any attention to what was going on in a classroom. You watch and you see kids at the school bus stop. I don't know if you've ever noticed this with middle schoolers or high schoolers. They're not talking to each other like they would have in the past. They all have that cell phone stoop looking at their cell phones. I've been really happy by the spreading of the restrictions on use of cell phones during school hours with kids so they have to engage with each other again. They have to learn how to interact with each other instead of hiding behind their phones. And then I've shared with you in the past how much it disturbs me when you look around a restaurant and you'll see a group of friends together. You'll see family and instead of talking to each other they're all looking at their phones. And so I was so excited when I was in a restaurant that bans the use of Cell phones while you're in there. And a lot of people be like, I'm not going to a place that bans cell phones. But the advantage of it is you actually re engage with the people you're with. What a concept. And now there's something apparently going on where some concert artists don't want cell phones at their concerts. And so this is a device that is so fantastic in so many ways. Think of all the things these modern Swiss army knives do for us, what the apps do, the way they can save us money, the way we can get around, the information we can find instantly, the entertainment we can find. And it's become too much of a good thing. So what's the real answer? It's how we handle it ourselves. And I've got an app on my phone that tells me when I'm using it too much and shames me. And I love that. I love that it gets me to modify what I do and put my phone away. And so whether it's you and me who modify our behavior or places start saying, for quality of life, we're going to say, you can't do this right now. Whatever it is, it's better when we take control ourselves. But the phone thing, it's one of those things. Too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing. And I'm as guilty as. Listen to me with all the self shaming, okay? I am as guilty as anybody else pulling out that cell phone too much. And I know that's not a problem for you, Krista.

[Krista]

Well, I'm terrible at my phone, but when I'm out to eat with someone or talking to someone, I, I always leave it, I leave it in my purse or wherever because. And I do have a watch that notifies me. Like if one of my kids is calling, I think it's an emergency, then I would pull it out. But. And then concerts, man, it's brutal. I love it when they make people put their cell phones away because I feel like all you see are phones in front of your face. Recording the show.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah, it's funny how, how much people don't just enjoy the moment and they want to document the moment. And really you paid a lot of money because of what a rip off. So many concerts are paid a lot of money to be in there and you want to take a selfie, that's fine. But this whole thing with recording so much of it, when are you ever going to watch that again?

[Krista]

I mean, I think people do, but it's like to me it is, it's hard in the moment and it's just distracting for other people. To me, that's my opinion. Okay, we're going to go to questions. Rich in Ohio sent this in for you. Clark. I wanted to ask what we can do to protect ourselves from the increasing identity theft. We did the credit freeze. We're also working on the SIM telephone number lock. And we tried to complete the ACATS lock, but unfortunately Schwab doesn't have any mechanism for that. I'm asking this question as there has been an increasing number of events and I can only assume with AI there'll be even more. It seems our institutions are not learning for protection. And forget Congress. They can't agree on daylight savings. Let it alone our security. Any thoughts from you and your team?

[Clark Howard]

This Rich, you do the best you can and. And it can be overwhelming and you take the steps you should. And as for Schwab, I don't get it. I mean, they're such a sophisticated company, why they have not come up with a simple procedure like Fidelity? As best I understand, Schwab still has no procedure for protecting people's accounts through acat. So I'll say what ACAT says in a second. And Fidelity has a simple click. And if you're a Fidelity customer, if you haven't put in a cat's lock, do it Vanguard. Supposedly in the ether, we've heard so much feedback from people. Some of the customer service people seem to know how to put an Acatz lock in, others don't. This shouldn't be so hard. Okay, so acats. And if you've heard this and you're like nodding off, I'll be quick with the explanation. Used to be a problem in the brokerage business that companies would not comply with the law when you wanted to go to another firm. And they'd constantly say, oh, we lost the paperwork to try to discourage you from moving to another firm. So the industry was forced to develop an electronic method that very quickly and easily migrates your assets to another firm. Criminals being sharp and smart and looking for the newest way to steal money will set up a brokerage account somewhere they pretend to be you. They'll then have hacked into your account, set up an ACATS transfer and steal your money. So having an Acatz lock requires an additional step of proof positive verification of who you are as an account holder. And you want to move your money. And then once they verified you really are who you say you are, then the money moves. So you're doing the right stuff. We can't do Everything to prevent the problems that we're having with identity theft, AI being deployed as part of it and all that. So you just do the best you can. And let's face it, the federal government is not riding in on the cavalry to rescue us. They can't even do, as you said, figure out what time it is.

[Krista]

Okay. Renee in Florida says I have an upcoming phone meeting with our financial advisor and I received this request from them. I would love to get Clark's thoughts. And here's a quote from what they received. We're participating in a financial program that uses a secure transcription and meeting summarization tool. The goal is simple. Capture every key point from your conversation accurately so nothing is missed and follow ups are clear. When we can focus fully on our discussion instead of note taking, the quality of our meetings improves significantly. This approach is becoming common among other professionals such as doctors, therapists and attorneys because it helps them deliver better service and accuracy. We believe it can do the same for financial planning. And they explain how the transcripting service works through AI. So that's basically it.

[Clark Howard]

Okay, so I see here in your notes, Krista, who this is, they are not a fiduciary. They are a high cost commission based investment house. So I would be worried that this is not for you. This is for them that if later you were like wait a minute, you ripped me off and blah blah blah, and they can go to the AI summary of the meeting and say well you said this sounded good to you too and use it as a defense in the event that you later realize they weren't looking out for you. So I would not picture this as being a benign reason. And I'd also encourage you because it may be information you didn't know that this is a very expensive company to do your investing with that is not a fiduciary that you want to be with an organization where legally they are contractually binding themselves to do what they should be doing for you first before them. And I'm not casting aspersions on your commission salesperson there, they may have really good intentions. I just want you to know that they are an expensive company to do business with and legally they are not binding themselves to do the best by you.

[Krista]

But I would say in the general question, these AI transcription services are, are very common as it's very common for you to get this call be recorded for a customer. So that is going to be, you're going to be seeing that all over. Do you have an issue with that?

[Clark Howard]

Well, I'll tell you when I love it is when I'm dealing with an organization like cable company, something like that, and you can do the chat where you get a record of the chat and what they have told you. I think that's very valuable as a consumer because otherwise you get in he said, she said thing from a phone conversation and later it's like you got no proof you have the chat script. I think that is a useful thing. And that was more elementary AI before we even really talk about AI.

[Krista]

Right. Ed in Georgia says, I've retained my bank statements going back to the late 1980s. My goodness, I want to purge this stuff. Rather than keeping every statement, I'm thinking of only retaining the January and December statements for 1988 through 2020.

[Clark Howard]

Wow.

[Krista]

Please tell me what, what really should be my document retention policy. Thank you.

[Clark Howard]

If you want to keep any of it from that long ago, Ed, keep just the last statement of each year. It'll have on it normally a summary of what happened through that year. And that's more than plenty for you to keep. And Ed, when are you coming to my house to organize our records? Because that is unbelievably detailed that you have all that and is more than you need. I can't. I would think this way. When's the last time you needed to see one of those things from the 80s, the 90s, the. What do they call it, the aughts and the tens? I mean, you probably have not needed any of those things in recent times. But is the purge and the compromise last statement of every year more than enough? And I want to thank you so much for joining us on Today's podcast and YouTube show. I hope you've enjoyed it. If you don't normally check us out on YouTube, we have a lot of content for you on our channel with YouTube shorts where you got a bite size bit of information as a video. And it's something that our traffic on YouTube is growing quite fast. Is YouTube. Isn't it amazing? YouTube is now the most watched streaming service in the world. It has become such an important source of information. Teaching, propaganda, entertainment, you name it. And so our whole thing is to go wherever you are, whether it's on social media, traditional radio, television, podcasts, our newsletters, our websites, clark.com and clarkdeals.com wherever you want to be reached, we want to be there to provide you information you can trust. That's what we all work on every day, to empower you with knowledge so you can save more, spend less, and don't ever, ever, not ever. Let somebody rip you off. And you know what's coming up on the next podcast? Clark Stiggs. See you on Friday.