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10 Incredibly Simple Travel Tips to Take Stress Out of Flying

Air travel is back. More people boarded commercial planes in the U.S. this past holiday season than the comparable same pre-pandemic days in 2019. If you plan to travel by air this year, one thing is for certain: You won’t be alone! TSA estimates we’re about to beat all records in summer air travel.

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It goes without saying that you need to get to the airport early. But, as things return to normal, plan to double the time you might otherwise allow to arrive, get through security, and to your gate. TSA is experiencing delays due to being understaffed. The TSA rules are frequently being amended and changed, so stay current.

Beyond that, check out these tips and tricks to make your experience less stressful. After all, you do want to arrive with joy in your heart and kind words on your lips.

Seat Selection

When it comes to travel, few things are worse than getting stuck in a seat that doesn’t recline or ending up in a row next to the lavatory with people hovering over you for the entire flight. I avoid these kinds of mishaps by checking SeatGuru before I choose my seat on flights.

SeatGuru is fantastic and free. You can find the seating chart for every airline, every aircraft in that airline’s fleet, and the specific chart for the aircraft scheduled for your exact flight. Once you have that chart, you can see the pros and cons of every seat.

 

 

Turn Left

When deciding which security line to get in, keep this in mind: Most people, without thinking, tend to always turn to the right when there is an option. That makes those lines to the right longer in length.

 

 

Bag the Change

In 2020, the TSA collected $926,030.44 in unclaimed money that passengers left behind at airport security checkpoints in U.S. airports. In the containers provided while going through the security checkpoints!d

 

 

Wear a Watch

The secret for minimizing jet lag is to gradually trick your body into making the time adjustment when you know you’ll be crossing time zones. For a day or so before departure, wear an old-fashioned watch and stop depending on your phone for the time. Set the watch to the time zone of your destination, then start wearing your time-adjusted watch for around 48 hours before departure to make your brain adopt the local time and reset your circadian rhythm ahead of your arrival.

 

 

BYO Disinfecting Wipes

Airplanes are a lot cleaner than they used to be pre-pandemic. Back then, about all they did between flights to clean the restrooms was to restock toilet tissue and spritz into the air with Lysol. That tray table? The armrests? Rarely, if ever, were they cleaned.

While the whole sanitizing and air filtration protocols have changed, it’s not perfect. You don’t know what passengers before you have done on that tray table and stuffed into the pocket. It may have been emptied, but that’s about it. This is especially true on connecting flights where some of the passengers disembark and new folks board. I’ve sat there observing and I assure you: Do not assume.

 

 

Fight Back

AirHelp, a for-profit organization that helps air passengers around the world get paid for delayed, canceled, or overbooked flights (they do all the work and take a 25% cut of the amount awarded), says that on domestic flights, passengers may be entitled to up to twice the cost of a one-way ticket if a flight arrives two hours late and up to $1,350 if it is more than two hours late.

 

 

Don’t Drink the Coffee

Seems pretty foolproof to order a cup of coffee during the flight. Well, don’t. The dirty little secret of flying is that the water used to make the coffee and tea is dirty. An NBC investigative report confirms what flight crews have known for years—bacteria persist in the tap water on an airplane. Also, if you ask for water, make sure it’s bottled.

 

 

Don’t Get in Line

Stuff happens, and flights get canceled. And when they do, everyone gets in line to get rebooked. But not you. Don’t follow the herd. Turn the other way. Find a seat, pull out your phone, and call the airline. The operator can do everything the gate agent can, and probably much sooner than for all those people standing in line.

Unless you are flying Frontier Airlines. The company has just announced: No more live humans by phone. You must show up at the airport counter in person or use Frontier’s online chat tool.

Should you opt for online chat, skip all the niceties the robot will throw at you and let your very first message be this: Connect me to a human agent. Repeat that until you are successful. It may take 5, 10, or more tries, so just copy and paste. This has always (eventually) worked for me. Yes, from time to time, I do fly Frontier.

 

 

Change Your Mind

There’s nothing quite so discouraging as buying an airline ticket and then your plans change. Sure you can change your ticket, but it will cost you a lot in change fees—likely as much or even more than what you paid for it Airlines’ change fees vary, but none are as awesome as Southwest Airlines.

Its change-your-mind-fee remains at $0—and right up until 10 minutes before the time to board. This is the only airline without a change fee across the board. (Some airlines changed their change fee policies during Covid, but they are tied to specific limitations; make sure you check the airline’s change fee policy before you make a purchase).

 

 

Luggage in 20 minutes

Only Delta offers such a fantastic guarantee on checked luggage. It goes like this: If you’re flying domestic and your checked bag doesn’t arrive at the carousel within 20 minutes or less, you get 2,500 bonus SkyMiles (but you must be a member of the Delta SkyMiles program at the time of your flight).

 

 

 

Question: Got a favorite air travel tip? Share it with us below.

 

Updated and Republished 6-22-23

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2 replies
  1. Patricia Goff says:

    I fly to Germany to see my mother at least twice a year (My brothers fly too). I always come back with more items than I leave with (my mother sends us home with everything from Christmas ornaments to dishes etc.) I pack a small suitcase with my clothes inside a bigger suitcase and check it (overseas only) all the way through to Stuttgart. I have a bag with me with books and search word books etc and emergency clothes in case we have to stay in a hotel. When I come home I have a bag I take on the plane and one that I check all the way through to my destination (again only overseas flights). It is so easy and the empty suitcase fills up fast. Candy, Chocolate, Kinder eggs (the real ones) and other German foods that I bring back with me. Customs always laughs but I never have a problem. I have been doing this for decades. My mother has most of my toiletries there from my last visit so I usually just have small samples with me in case I need them. I also have some clothes in my bedroom. LOL

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  2. Trudy Lund says:

    Flew from Anchorage to Sea-Tac last summer. Just before boarding the plane (Delta Airlines) we were told the overheads were crowded and we were free to leave a bag just outside the door of the aircraft and we wouldn’t have to pay a fee to have the bag put in the luggage compartment. When we got to our hotel, my husband showed me an empty DVD player case and all our DVD’s were gone. It’s was about $800 worth. Delta told us they’d refund our $ if we had the original receipts when we bought everything. (There was no way we had the receipts.) Now Delta knows who took those bags to the luggage compartment. And the overhead compartments were about 1/2 empty. We’ll never leave our bag there again!

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