Gen-Z travelers reveal how they vacation so often but experts caution against this hack: Dont do it

With summer right around the corner, Gen Z vacationers have begun touting their travel tips.And among the top recommendations? “Buy now, pay later” services like Klarna, Afterpay and Affirm.Those tools have slowly expanded across different platforms, giving consumers the option to schedule out incremental payments for practically anything: sneakers, burritos — and now, even airplane tickets.For young, single or financially-limited Gen-Z travelers, covering airfare and other travel expenses with BNPL methods has become a popular — if concerning — trend.“I didn’t want to drop the full price [straight away],” 29-year-old Najee Mcfarland-Drye told Thrillist of a recent vacation.By choosing to pay the entire fare in small installments, “I still got to do the fun stuff I wanted to do in the time beforehand instead of the normal ‘Oh, I spent $800 and now I have to lay low for a minute.’”But Gen-Z’s travel spending habits have become a frequent source of online outrage — take Coachella’s shocking stats, for example.A post-2025 festival study conducted by Billboard found that more than 60% of concertgoers used BNPL options to finance their tickets, compared to a minuscule 18% when the choice first became available in 2009.While spending smaller increments of money may appear initially attractive to prospective travelers, experts advise against it, citing potential interest payments and credit repercussions as a result of constant loans.

“The short answer is, don’t do it,” Clint Henderson, a travel expert at The Points Guy, recently told NBC10 Boston.“All the airlines offer some form of ‘buy now, pay later’ now, so they’re all getting in on the act.

You know, this is free money for them.“You’re much better off opening a credit card that’s going to give you a statement credit and a big signup bonus,” Henderson added.If those tried-and-true signup bonuses and rewards aren’t a big enough incentive to avoid the BNPL method,...