08.08.25 Clark Answers His Critics on Clark Stinks / Airline Pricing & Booking Strategy

Summary

The Clark Howard Podcast – August 8, 2025 Episode Summary

Title: Clark Answers His Critics on "Clark Stinks" / Airline Pricing & Booking Strategy
Host: Clark Howard
Release Date: August 8, 2025

In this engaging episode of The Clark Howard Podcast, host Clark Howard addresses feedback from his segment "Clark Stinks," where listeners critique his advice, and delves into the complexities of airline pricing and booking strategies. The episode is structured into two main sections: responding to listener criticisms and exploring the evolving landscape of airline ticket pricing.

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I. Clark Stinks: Addressing Listener Criticisms

Every Friday, Clark Howard opens the floor to "Clark Stinks," a segment dedicated to receiving and responding to listener feedback. This week's episode features a series of constructive criticisms from various listeners, which Clark thoughtfully addresses.

a. Medical Bill Advice – Feedback from Jennifer

Timestamp: [02:07]

Krista: "Clark, you stink like the bottom of my garbage can in a heat wave. This is regarding your answer about the person struggling to pay their medical bill..."

Clark's Response:
Clark acknowledges Jennifer's points, emphasizing the importance of utilizing hospital social workers and state healthcare advocates to negotiate medical bills. He states, "There is an individual like that... You also mentioned something that's wonderful for people who have actual traditional health coverage regulated by the state."

b. Credit Card Fees at Gas Stations – Feedback from Micah

Timestamp: [03:56]

Krista: "Clark, I can smell the petrol fumes all over you. You spoke of gas stations charging far more in credit card fees than the 3 or 4% it costs them to take a credit card..."

Clark's Response:
Clark explains the varying state laws regarding credit card surcharges and cash discounts, noting, "The idea that more and more businesses now offer two prices, a cash price and a credit price." He highlights the disparity between surcharge amounts and credit card rewards, aiming to clarify the economic impact on consumers.

c. Airline Credit Cards – Feedback from Bob

Timestamp: [06:02]

Krista: "Clark totally missed the mark on airline credit cards. My wife and I always check one bag each..."

Clark's Response:
Clark agrees with Bob's critique, recognizing the value of baseline airline credit cards that offer free checked bags for a modest annual fee. He states, "So, Bob, you're 100% right that there's no doubt that the baseline credit card that's a captive card of a lot of airlines is right at 95 or $99."

d. Tariffs and Auto Purchase Decisions – Feedback from Jim

Timestamp: [07:33]

Krista: "Clark, you stink like what 100,000 sheep recently left on Idaho Highway 55..."

Clark's Response:
Clark concedes the difficulty in predicting tariff impacts on auto prices, affirming Jim's observation: "The tariffs have been so difficult to navigate... So what you have said is completely spot on that it's so hard to predict how the tariffs are going to settle."

e. CD Ladder and Retirement Advice – Feedback from Tom

Timestamp: [09:08]

Krista: "Jim, I've been listening to you for over 20 years and you definitely do not stink... What to do with the funds after each CD matures."

Clark's Response:
Clark appreciates Tom's additions to his CD ladder advice, detailing the process of reinvesting matured CDs to maintain liquidity and maximize returns. He reiterates the strategy, "The reason five-year is that there can always be exceptions like right now, but five-year CDs tend to have a higher earning rate."

f. Costco Peak Times – Feedback from Richard

Timestamp: [11:28]

Krista: "I'd like to add a little cologne to Clark's usually pleasant odor. He mentioned asking long-term Costco employees about which days are the least busy. But did you know that Google will supply this info for you?"

Clark's Response:
Clark acknowledges Richard's tip about using Google Maps to determine peak shopping times, stating, "And it's terrible. I neglected mentioning it because I use that chart all the time. Do you use it? No. Oh, I absolutely do use that."

g. Teaching Credential Advice – Feedback from Tracy

Timestamp: [12:39]

Krista: "A caller asked for advice about quitting his lucrative job to go to grad school for a teaching credential. I think Clark missed the mark on this one..."

Clark's Response:
Clark concurs with Tracy's assessment, emphasizing the feasibility of obtaining teaching credentials while maintaining full-time employment. He advises, "I love when people have a full-time job if they can earn a credential that gets them to what they'd like to do next."

h. Sunscreen Ratings – Feedback from Michael

Timestamp: [14:00]

Krista: "When you praised Coppertone Water Babies Lotion SPF 50 as Consumer Reports top-rated sunscreen with a perfect score of 100, you failed to mention that Coppertone Kids Lotion SPF 50 was the lowest rated sunscreen lotion with a score of 17."

Clark's Response:
Clark admits the oversight and emphasizes the importance of specifying product details: "The Water Babies no longer gets 100. It's still a very high rating. But that's why I'm so specific about naming with sunscreens."

---

II. Airline Pricing & Booking Strategy

Shifting focus from listener feedback, Clark delves into the intricate world of airline pricing, highlighting how airlines employ advanced data analytics and AI to tailor fares based on individual consumer behavior.

a. Loyalty Index Scores and Price Discrimination

Timestamp: [20:20]

Clark introduces the concept of Loyalty Index Scores, explaining how industries, particularly insurance and airlines, leverage big data to determine pricing strategies based on customer loyalty. He articulates, "A lot of businesses ... offer two prices, a cash price and a credit price."

b. Delta's AI-Driven Pricing Strategy

Timestamp: [24:30]

Krista: "Probably correct."

Clark's Insight:
Clark reveals Delta Airlines' strategy of using AI to price discriminate, aiming to offer higher fares to more loyal customers. He warns listeners to employ tactics like browsing in incognito mode and using third-party websites to avoid inflated prices linked to brand loyalty. "The more you shop around... the more you're going to be able to avoid what Delta and others are quietly doing."

c. Third-Party Booking Sites

Timestamp: [27:34]

Krista: "We're not recommending that a third-party site that sells the tickets on their site that you should book. It's just one of these sites where you could shop and then it brings you through and you always purchase on the airline's website."

Clark's Caution:
Clark advises against booking through third-party platforms to prevent complications with service and support, stating, "The number of complaints we're having about people booking at UFO third-party sites or even well-known third-party sites."

d. Thanksgiving Travel Tips

Timestamp: [31:14]

Krista: "Bobby in New York says ... Should we buy now or wait a few months?"

Clark's Advice:
Clark provides strategic tips for booking Thanksgiving flights, emphasizing flexibility in travel dates and airport choices to secure better fares. He suggests, "Look at all the airport choices in the Seattle area... flex days, you flex airports, and you flex airlines."

---

III. Additional Discussions

Throughout the episode, Clark and Krista touch upon various other topics, offering practical advice and sharing personal anecdotes to enhance listener understanding.

a. CD Ladder Strategy Explained by Clark

Timestamp: [10:07]

Clark breaks down the CD Ladder investment strategy, explaining how dividing funds into staggered Certificates of Deposit ensures liquidity and maximizes interest earnings. "The idea of the CD ladder is you start with five CDs... every 12 months by taking the CD that now is ready to be re-saved."

b. Sunscreen Usage and Ratings

Timestamp: [14:00 - 16:14]

The conversation transitions to sunscreen effectiveness, with Krista highlighting discrepancies in product ratings and Clark reinforcing the importance of specific product knowledge to avoid ineffective purchases.

c. Airline Coffee Safety – Feedback from CJ

Timestamp: [28:24]

Krista: "CJ In Alaska says ... Is coffee safe to drink on a commercial airliner."

Clark's Response:
Clark reassures listeners about the safety measures airlines implement for beverage preparation, debunking myths about unclean water tanks: "At least with the airline that you're with, that it's safe to fly."

---

Conclusion

In this comprehensive episode, Clark Howard exemplifies his commitment to empowering listeners by addressing criticisms with thoughtful responses and unraveling the complexities of modern airline pricing strategies. By fostering an open dialogue through "Clark Stinks" and providing actionable advice on navigating the tumultuous landscape of airline bookings, Clark continues to solidify his role as a trusted financial and consumer advisor.

Listeners are encouraged to visit Clark's resources at clark.com and clarkdeals.com for more tips and daily deals aimed at helping them save more, spend less, and avoid being ripped off.

Transcript

[Clark Howard]

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[Krista]

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[Clark Howard]

It's my pleasure to welcome you here to the Clark Howard show where our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you so you make better financial decisions in your life. Can you believe it's already time for another Clark Stinks? That's right. Friday is the day I get to hear where I've gotten it wrong. It's funny about Clark Stinks. There are days we have to just do the entire podcast. Clark Stinks because I've been stinking it up so much. So get to see how I'm doing today and later I need to talk to you about if you buy airline tickets, there's some newer developments you need to be aware of and how airlines are playing games with you and me on prices. But right now, it's time to find out where I didn't deliver for you in Clark Stinks. I should have never encouraged you to speak. You almost think I'm pretty stupid.

[Krista]

You should be ashamed of yourself.

[Clark Howard]

Well, maybe I'm wrong.

[Krista]

Maybe I'm wrong.

[Clark Howard]

Maybe you're right, pal.

[Krista]

Clark, you stink like the bottom of my garbage can in a heat wave. This is regarding your answer about the person struggling to pay their medical bill. The facility would at best allow your caller to make monthly payments. Please tell people about the health care advocate that is usually on staff at every hospital. Often they can assist in you getting a lesser payout. In addition to that, you can negotiate a lower amount by offering to pay your balance in one lump sum. We did that last year and saved $700. Granted, this was a $6,000 bill, not $50,000. We also asked for this in writing and we got it. Furthermore, the office of the health care advocate in each state is an invaluable resource. If your insurance company ever refuses payment on something, be well. Jennifer.

[Clark Howard]

Jennifer, thank you very much. And I do talk from time to time about if you do have a problem with the bill, talking with the hospital social workers. It's called in some facilities patient advocate. You refer to as healthcare advocate. This is a common practice that there's an individual like that. You also mentioned something that's wonderful for people who have actual traditional health coverage regulated by the state. Talking to the health care advocate in each state is great. A lot of people think they have though traditional health coverage from an employer and it is not a state regulated function. If it is what's known behind the curtain as a health reimbursement plan, even though it may be administered by an insurance company.

[Krista]

Clark, I can smell the petrol fumes all over you. You spoke of gas stations charging far more in credit card fees than the 3 or 4% it costs them to take a credit card. That can be very true, but also can still be a better deal with a 5% credit card reward such as the Sam's Club card. Additionally, you've never mentioned that some states do not allow for credit card fees to be charged to a consumer. In Maine, for example, when you can be given a while you can be given a discount for cash, you cannot be charged an additional fee for using a credit card. Businesses must post the cash discount if they wish to offer it and the attorney general of Maine strictly enforces this rule if a business is reported. At one time New Jersey had a similar law, but I'm not sure if they still do. When you talk about credit card fees, you should let your listeners know what state states have these laws in place so they don't get ripped off by some disreputable businesses. Micah.

[Clark Howard]

Micah, thank you very much. And it is true that in some states it's called a cash discount and in others there's a credit card surcharge. The impact on a consumer, though, in my opinion, Micah, is the same. The idea that more and more businesses now offer two prices, a cash price and a credit price. The Sam's Club MasterCard 5% off on gasoline is so great and it's all over the place. The Surcharges I was talking about have been these extreme cases where people are being charged up to a dollar more a gallon using a credit card. In those circumstances, the 5% cash back on the Sam's Club card is not enough to negate that much, much higher price for paying with a credit card. And again, the retailer, as you pointed out so well, depending on state law, it will either be presented as a cash discount or as a credit card surcharge, depending on which state law permits.

[Krista]

Clark totally missed the mark on airline credit cards. My wife and I always check one bag each. Now the bags no longer fly free. It's a minimum of $35 a bag. A round trip costs a minimum of $140 in bag fees. We have an airline credit card that costs $95 a year and that gets us one free bag each. If we only fly once a year, we save $45. I'm only using the airline credit card for the air tickets. Isn't that a deal? And note, don't suggest not checking a bag. I don't consider anything less than two weeks of vacation, and there's no way I'm doing that using only a carry on. Bob, you know what you're going to say.

[Clark Howard]

So, Bob, you're 100% right that there's no doubt that the baseline credit card that's a captive card of a lot of airlines is right at 95 or $99. And they tend to offer the free checked bag. One check bag per person each way. No doubt. The baseline card is a beautiful thing. Those aren't the cards the airlines are pushing, however. The airlines are heavily pushing the cards that have annual fees of 500 to $1,000. And those cards, you really, really, really have to travel a lot to make it work. But in your example, paying the $95 annual fee works with only one round trip a year.

[Krista]

Clark, you stink like what 100,000 sheep recently left on Ohio Highway 55.

[Clark Howard]

Ohio.

[Krista]

Idaho.

[Clark Howard]

Idaho.

[Krista]

Idaho. Sorry, Highway 55 as they crossed into their summer pastures. Stop giving people advice to change their financial behavior based on something that has not happened yet. I'm speaking of tariffs. Most, if not all of the tariffs are still under negotiation. You recently gave advice to a listener to base an auto purchase decision on something that might not ever happen. Jim.

[Clark Howard]

Jim, thank you. The tariffs have been so difficult to navigate, and as I talked on a recent podcast, the expectations of what they were going to do to prices for Christmas are not going to happen overwhelmingly for this Christmas because the implementation of tariffs was delayed, the tariffs keep moving around and all the rest. So what you have said is completely spot on that it's so hard to predict how the tariffs are going to settle. And that's why the car market went from being overheated when the tariffs were first announced to being very quiet lately because people pulled forward purchases that they might not have made or would have made later because they were worried about the tariffs. And so now dealers are discounting more than they were before because the market has slowed down. So what you said has turned out to be completely accurate.

[Krista]

Jim, I've been listening to you for over 20 years and you definitely do not stink. You answered a question from George in Massachusetts about building a CD ladder. It'd be helpful for your viewers and listeners to mention what to do with the funds after each CD matures. Bob from South Dakota then asked about what to do if he moved outside of the US during retirement to ensure he had access to his retirement funds. Your answer was spot on. However, I'd add two items. 1. Ensure you maintain access to your primary phone number if you use for multi factor authentication. 2. Get and begin using a VPN if you don't already use one. My family and I lived in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates for five years as part of work and loved it. My elementary and middle school kids loved the experience too. We kept a T mobile line just for authentication and critical purposes. Your beloved Google Fi would be an outstanding choice for this today. For the vpn. Sometimes you just have to use a US IP or things won't work. Thanks for all you do. I switched to the Clark side years ago. Tom to Tom.

[Clark Howard]

Thank you very much and let me go back to the thing you said up front. Building the CD ladder. So the idea of the CD ladder is you start with five CDs. Classic ladder. Take pile of money, divide it by five and you use it to buy a one year CD, a two, a three, a four and a five. What happens one year out is that one year CD you then take the money and you put it in a new five year CD. The idea is that 20% of your money is available to you every year. When that two year CD comes due you then put it into a new five year CD. So again every time you rebuild the ladder every 12 months by taking the CD that now is ready to be re saved because it's not an investment. Rerunged, rerunged, rerung. Down the ladder you take that 20%, it goes into a five year CD. So the reason five year is that there can always be exceptions like right now, but five year CDs tend to have a higher earning rate than you're going to have with a shorter term cd and so that's why the latter is done the way it is.

[Krista]

I'd like to add a little cologne to Clark's usually pleasant odor.

[Clark Howard]

Oh boy.

[Krista]

He mentioned asking long term Costco employees about which days are the least busy. But did you know that Google will supply this info for you? Just look up any good sized business including Costco and Google Maps. If you click on the business, then scroll down, you'll see a little chart that shows you the busiest and least busy times of day for each day of the week. It's very handy. Richard.

[Clark Howard]

Richard, thank you. And it's terrible. I neglected mentioning it because I use that chart all the time. Do you use it? No. Oh I absolutely do use that. And the patterns are really interesting because they're not the same at every restaurant, every retailer. They each have their their shoppers patterns that are really good to identify.

[Krista]

Yeah, I just know if I don't want to be at Costco anytime on the weekend.

[Clark Howard]

Well, that's a true story. Except do you know that if you go just before they close on a Saturday or Sunday, like 20 minutes before closing, something like that, they tend to be less crowded at the very, very end of a weekend day? At least my experience.

[Krista]

But probably no samples.

[Clark Howard]

No samples.

[Krista]

A caller asked for advice about quitting his lucrative job to go to grad school for a teaching credential. I think Clark missed the mark on this one. There are many colleges, both online and physical, that make it easy to obtain a credential while working full time as I did, I was able to get mine just a year beyond my bs. Had I wanted to add my Master's, it would have taken another year. Still working full time, Clark mentioned a Master's. A credential for teaching grade school is not a master's. In grade school situation, Masters would move one up to the pay scale and possibly open the door to teaching alternate courses, but it's not required. So as far as professorship goes, I'm not sure that the caller gave adequate info to answer the question. Most four year colleges prefer a PhD while community colleges will accept a teacher with a master's many times. Tracy.

[Clark Howard]

Tracy, thank you very much. And yes, I love when people have a full time job if they can earn a credential that gets them to what they'd like to do next so that it's not an either or of quitting work for a period of time to then do the next thing. Yeah, that's obviously best. It requires a potentially exhausting schedule for people. Some people aren't game for that.

[Krista]

You smell like a pile of rotting horseshoe crabs on a Cape Cod beach in August on this one.

[Clark Howard]

Whoa.

[Krista]

I love that reference. When you praised Coppertone water Babies Lotion SPF 50 as Consumer Reports top rated sunscreen with a perfect score of 100, you failed to mention that Coppertone Kids Lotion SPF 50 was the lowest rated sunscreen lotion with a score of 17. That would have been nice to know when shopping for sunscreen. Come on, Clark. Michael.

[Clark Howard]

Michael, thank you very much. And update. Update. The water babies no longer gets 100. It's still a very high rating. But that's why I'm so specific about naming with sunscreens. And we follow up with the information on clark.com because one company can have the best sunscreen out there and one that's really mediocre or poor. A lot of very expensive sunscreens that you think because you're spending so much money, it's going to be just awesome. Could being not protective at all. And I really appreciate it.

[Krista]

Does get 100, by the way. It was. It was the Trader Joe's. That was 100 before.

[Clark Howard]

Oh, I'm sorry. So the copper tone is still 100.

[Krista]

The water babies. Just the water babies.

[Clark Howard]

Right.

[Krista]

But the. But this is so interesting. I didn't even notice that. That the. The Copper tone kids same spf50 is the lowest rated. So that's kind of crazy.

[Clark Howard]

That's why, again, the very specific stuff. Water babies, best kids, very low rate. So I didn't realize it. I thought it did not get 100 again.

[Krista]

No, the water babies did.

[Clark Howard]

Water babies did get another hundred.

[Krista]

Second.

[Clark Howard]

The TJ's.

[Krista]

Yeah.

[Clark Howard]

The trader Joe's down in rating.

[Krista]

Yep.

[Clark Howard]

Okay.

[Krista]

But they're still good. I recently used TJ's lotion and spray on a vacation.

[Clark Howard]

TJ's for people not familiar. That's Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's.

[Krista]

These are just lotions I pulled out for you.

[Clark Howard]

Okay.

[Krista]

Just so we could see the score on that. But. Yeah. And that worked really well. I was in a very hot, sunny place and I did not burn.

[Clark Howard]

That's right. I mean, I was talking with Christa while she was on her fun beach getaway in the tropics, and I was expecting. I was imagining you were going to come back looking like a lobster.

[Krista]

No way. I reapply. Reapply. I'M so pale that I cannot take any chances because I will burn quickly. My friend got a bad burn, a really bad burn the first day, but I stay in the shade if I can. I wear a hat. I reapply sunscreen and it was fantastic.

[Clark Howard]

Well, I'm so glad you had a great time.

[Krista]

I did.

[Clark Howard]

What's the one thing that happened, though, on Christa's trip that she regrets? She spent more money than she thought.

[Krista]

She would, of course. Of course.

[Clark Howard]

So how about spending as little money to go where you're going to go? I'm going to talk about that straight ahead.

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[Clark Howard]

If you're a longtime listener or viewer, you're aware of what I've talked about called loyalty index scores. Remember, there was a time, not that that many years ago, where the big buzzword was big data, that companies were able to use supercomputers to crunch a huge amount of data, figure out what's going on in our heads as best the big data could come up with and price accordingly. And if you're not familiar with loyalty index scores, it's where the industry that I'm most familiar with using it is the insurance industry, where they develop a loyalty index score for you. And the higher your index score is, the higher the premiums they're going to charge you because they know you are so brand loyal that you're coming back year after year even if they raise your premiums on your auto insurance or homeowner's insurance through the roof. It took the cycle of inflation from the auto and homeowners insurance industries over the last several years for people who had never been shoppers to shop around. But the industry would use this loyalty index score as a way to price discriminate where the more loyal you were, the more you paid, the least loyal you were, the least you pay. A perfect example of people getting punished for loyalty, rewarded for disloyalty Think about dealing with your Internet connection at your home or your business. If you stay loyal to your Internet provider, they just raise the rates again and again and again and again and again. But on the other hand, if you play free agent and let's say you only have two or three choices where you live is now having a third choice become more common and you go to another one, you say hey what do you have for Internet? And they offer you a deal. You go back to who you're with and they say oh yeah, yeah, we'll give you this great deal we wouldn't offer you before being disloyal pays. Now another industry has decided to enter this same territory that never did it and is putting aside what economists often refer to as fair pricing. Fair pricing is when everybody's charged the same thing. Now the airline industry is noodling around testing ways to charge down to the individual where to this point there was price discrimination. You buy ahead, you get a lower price and somebody buys last minute. You go on flights that people aren't as interested in, you get a lower price than people want to go Friday evening, Monday morning, right. Or Sunday night. But now Delta came public to Wall street was something that airlines have been keeping really quiet. Now Delta is the one that's exposed, is taking the heat or something. That is something industry's testing using beyond big data. They're using predictive analysis with AI to try to drill down to the individual what they're going to offer you in a price. Delta right now one out of every 30 tickets is doing it. Their goal by the end of this year is to be at 1 in 5 tickets that people buy will be price discriminated based on how much money they think they can get out of you. So Krista and I could both be going on the same exact flight shopping at the same exact minute and she will be offered a higher fare than I will be offered.

[Krista]

Probably correct.

[Clark Howard]

And the reason she'll be offered a higher fare is she is much more brand loyal to a particular airline than I am.

[Krista]

How would they know that you're, that you're not brand loyal to them and that you don't just travel infrequently. So because you go to look at tickets and you don't purchase.

[Clark Howard]

So what all Delta itself is doing behind the curtain they've been coy about. But there are things that I'd want you to do. One is even if you are like you brand loyal to a particular airline, I want you to go into an incognito Mode, do not sign into your.

[Krista]

Account or just use a separate browser. I do that a lot.

[Clark Howard]

But if you sign into your account, that's not right.

[Krista]

I don't, I don't sign in because.

[Clark Howard]

What do the airlines try to do? They always try when you first get there, sign in, log in, log in, log in.

[Krista]

But remember also a lot of companies look at if you're on Safari, if you're an Apple person, you want to download a different browser because sometimes you can be charged more with that.

[Clark Howard]

So, so there's been a lot of arguing whether people really are charged More money using MacBook or using Safari browser. But what Delta is up to is tracking your habits and what you're doing with your travel. An example for me is I fly a lot and I only buy one way tickets. So that's a tip off to an airline. And, and I'm going on a trip in a few weeks for Habitat for Humanity and I'm going one way on, on that trip, I'm going one way on Southwest, one way on Delta. And that was what got me the cheapest combination of fares. It ended up saving me. It was $220 on the round trip. It was a lot of money. The more you are brand loyal to a particular airline, the more they're going to gouge you using AI the more you go straight to their website to shop. That's why I always want you shopping at third party websites, Hopper, Google flights, that kind of thing. The more you shop around and remember for domestic tickets, the more you shop one way, the more you're going to be able to avoid what Delta and others, Delta publicly, others quietly, what they're doing with trying to rip you off by charging you more for being loyal. And there are people, I gotta have my points, I gotta have my points. What are you going to do with your sky pennies anyway? I mean, come on. Well, what do you do with sky pennies? You just look at them and say.

[Krista]

I save them and dream I save them and dream you can use them when they have a deal. I do want to say you just mentioned third party looking on there but, but we're not recommending that a third party site that sells the tickets on their site that you should book. It's just one of these sites where you could shop and then it brings you through and you always purchase on the airline's website.

[Clark Howard]

The number of complaints we're having about people booking at UFO third party sites or even well known third party sites.

[Krista]

Man, because they point fingers at each.

[Clark Howard]

Other if there's a problem or no service.

[Krista]

Yeah. So you don't want to do that.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah.

[Krista]

Okay. Speaking of flying, CJ In Alaska says a while back someone asked a question regarding coffee being safe to drink on a commercial airliner. As a pilot who flies these planes, I've wondered the same thing. So I decided to ask one of the mechanics about the procedure. Procedures. It turns out it's quite an extensive process. Every six, he thought six, maybe three months, the tanks are drained and scrubbed. Water is refilled and tested until it comes out clean. Those results are logged and tracked. As an operating pilot, I often have a cup of airplane coffee, but I prefer Frou Frou coffee bought in the airport only because it tastes better. I hope that helps.

[Clark Howard]

CJ thank you very much. Because there's been such a buzz that it's not safe to drink hot tea or hot coffee on an airplane because the water tanks are filthy. And thank you, CJ for saying at least with the airline that you're with, that it's safe to fly. And flying in the Alaska airspace means you are one incredible pilot because those are tough conditions you fly in a lot of the year.

[Krista]

Okay. Catherine in North Carolina says, I know Clark doesn't usually recommend the airline branded credit cards for most people. I fly one airline one to two times a month for work and I'm not self employed. My employer pays my corporate Amex bill. But I am able to earn points through the Amex membership rewards program. I currently have the airline's Platinum card, which I do like for the upgrades and higher status. However, I'm thinking of switching since they took away lounge access. Would you recommend the. I could just. I must say this is Delta, the MX Platinum instead of the co branded card. I also have a cashback card for everyday purchases and a Chase Sapphire preferred card which I plan to cancel if I upgrade to a different card. What's the best card assortment for a corporate traveler to earn? Rewards to use for personal travel.

[Clark Howard]

So my bias for the last couple of years has been the Capital One Venture X and I keep waiting for the shoe to drop where they're not going to make it as good a deal as it is. But what's great about that one is you do have the lounges that Capital One doesn't have nearly as many as the airline programs have, but their lounges are to me, the best out there in the airports, domestic, you also have the priority Pass lounges which vary in quality through the Capital One. But the thing that makes it such a winner I always hold my breath talking about this because I know at some point they're going to say we're going to giving people too good a deal is it has a $400 annual fee. 395, you want to be specific, they give you back automatically 300 of that 395 with you being able to book travel through them, they just pay for. Then they give you 100 each year equivalent and automatic points added to your account, making the equivalent value of the card essentially free with all the benefits. And at some point they already cut back lounge access for people you're bringing with you. And at some moment they're going to raise the fee. I mean Chase raised their feet high as the sky. AMEX is going to raise theirs high as the sky. But that's my favorite of the programs. And you have the points you can transfer to a variety of partners.

[Krista]

Bobby in New York says I'm flying five of us directly from New York City to Seattle for Turkey Day. We plan to fry approximately from the Tuesday before to the Monday after, I. E. Not peak peak. Should we buy now or wait a few months?

[Clark Howard]

So Bobby, first of all, I need to tell you something terrible. The Tuesday, Wednesday before Thanksgiving, the Sunday, Monday after are the four peak of the peak day days at Thanksgiving. If you can come up with any flexibility in the days you travel where you get out of the Tuesday and out of the Monday coming back, that's when you're going to really see the fares better. You don't want to wait a lot longer on Thanksgiving travel. Thanksgiving is such a tight specific window. But as an example, okay, you're flying New York to Seattle. You pick up three of those hours flying out to the west coast from the East Coast. Would you consider just maybe taking a morning flight Thanksgiving morning, the cheapest day of the Thanksgiving holiday period to fly and go Thanksgiving morning. You'll be there in time for for lunch and festivities beyond on Thanksgiving and then come back on Tuesday or Wednesday of the following week if you do the shopping. I talk about looking day by day one way instead of round trip. You'll see how much the fare drops if you'll flex on the flights into Seattle. In addition, in the New York metro area, look at all the airport choices in the Seattle area. See if there's anything going to what, Everett Field or Bellingham. It would be a lot cheaper than flying right into sea Tac New York area. Got Newark, LaGuardia, JFK, White Plains, Krista, what's that airport called? The Hudson River Valley. Right by where?

[Krista]

Stuart.

[Clark Howard]

Stuart Field, Newburgh, New York. Newburgh, Right. So you flex days, you flex airports and you flex airlines where you go one way on one, one way on the other. That will probably get you a better deal. But the tradition, typically with Thanksgiving, along with the one day a year that a lot of people is the only day a year they eat turkey, it is tradition that the airlines, the closer you get to Thanksgiving, the steadily higher they make the prices on Thanksgiving travel. But you can fight back by picking different days both ways. Let me know what you end up deciding to do. And have an absolutely wonderful, fantastic weekend. I hope that you do something really fun. If you want to save some money over the weekend, look at Clark Deals or get our daily Clark Deals newsletter because it's free. We'll give you one of the hot deals of the moment that are available to you. I mean, we're here for you whenever you want us in so many different ways, on social media, our newsletters, our websites, clark.com and clarkdeals.com My thing is I want you to have good information. It helps you make good decisions in your life with your goals, with your wallet and with your future so that you can save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. I'll be with you on Monday.