Survival Tips From the Pros

Our inbox clogs up with travel survival tips this time of year, most of them of the "duh" variety. Don't pack expensive or essential items in your checked luggage. Go easy on the alcohol when flying. Make sure your carry-on will fit in the overhead. Ho hum.
But the new employee travel tips section on American Airlines' Web site actually contains some genuinely useful advice from flight attendants, reservations agents and the like. Here are a few tips I liked:
* Instead of jotting your parking location on a scrap of paper, which can get misplaced, take a picture of the parking location sign with your camera phone or digital camera.
* Hot water with a slice of lemon helps to relieve congestion, prevent dry throat, and helps you get to sleep.
* Don't tie ribbons to the same handle that holds the baggage routing tag; ribbons often confuse the automated baggage sorters and can cause a baggage delay.
* Scan important identifying papers such as your passport, driver's license and birth certificate and email them to yourself. If you find yourself in a position where you need a copy, simply access your email and print them out.
How about you? Any hard-won travel tips you'd like to share? The way airline travel is shaping up this summer, we need all the help we can get out there . . .
By K.C. Summers |
June 29, 2007; 10:08 AM ET
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K.C. Summers
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Travel Survival Tips
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Posted by: Frequent International Traveller | June 29, 2007 12:32 PM
Checkpoint / Metal Detector Tip:
Especially for men - carry an (empty) clear ziplock bag in your pocket. When emptying pockets of coins, keys, wallet, cellphones, wrist-watch, rings, etc for the X-ray - dump all into the ziplock bag. Eliminates standing there at other end of the X-ray fishing coins and other small items out of the little provided buckets/bins - just grab your zip-lock bag out of the bucket and off you go.
Posted by: Frequent Flyer | June 29, 2007 3:41 PM
I love this suggestion: "I normally bring an empty water bottle through security and fill it from a water fountain in the gate area."
Thank you!
Posted by: mizbinkley | June 29, 2007 4:00 PM
Ear plugs! Bright colors are best for keeping chatty seatmates at bay.
Posted by: Janet | June 29, 2007 5:13 PM
Don't assume that other countries follow the U.S. standard for passenger screening, like carrying liquids 4 oz or smaller bottles packaged in ziploc. They chucked mine in the trash in Berlin's airport, saying they have their own standards for protecting their planes. They also gave every passenger a good frisking, which TSA agents have told me in this country they are politically unable to do and as a result which is not metal or explosive is carefully concealable.
Posted by: greg | June 29, 2007 6:07 PM
In response to the tip urging readers to scan their passport, driver's license, and birth certificate and to email them to themselves - readers should be aware that email is not secure. It may pass through several servers on its round-trip, possibly allowing others to see your sensitive identification documents, making you vulnerable to identity theft. If you follow this tip, make sure to encrypt the documents, for instance using Acrobat's Password Protection feature.
Posted by: Mark | June 29, 2007 6:13 PM
- Write down your parking space in the notes section of your cell phone
- Take everything you'll need during the flight out of your carry on before you get on the plane
- Clip your cell phone to the seat pocket in front of you, for men, it will give you more room in the seat and it won't fall off your belt
- Wear shoes that you can easily slip on and off at security
- Don't wear flip flops on the plane. If there is an emergency, you'd have to run in them. Can you?
Posted by: Dan | June 29, 2007 8:55 PM
- Write down your parking space in the notes section of your cell phone
- Take everything you'll need during the flight out of your carry on before you get on the plane
- Clip your cell phone to the seat pocket in front of you, for men, it will give you more room in the seat and it won't fall off your belt
- Wear shoes that you can easily slip on and off at security
- Don't wear flip flops on the plane. If there is an emergency, you'd have to run in them. Can you?
Posted by: Dan | June 29, 2007 8:55 PM
"Don't wear flip flops on the plane. If there is an emergency, you'd have to run in them. Can you?"
In an emergency, you're not supposed to run. And just how does one run on a plane with the rest of the hysterical people? Just curious.
Back to the topic...
Let the people that have the max size allowed carry on bag put their bag in the above bin before you try to squeeze by them in the aisle. If you want to get on the plane before me, get to the airport earlier. Note -- this is for SWA flyers.
My flights are less then an hour, I don't check bags because once I waited longer for my bag then my entire flight.
Posted by: WDC | June 29, 2007 9:58 PM
Wow. This website really needs an easy way to report problem comments. Flagging, anyone?
Posted by: h3 | July 2, 2007 12:23 PM
Hey, they went away! And some of them had been there for days. Ok, but I still think you need flagging.
Posted by: h3 | July 2, 2007 12:26 PM
To clarify my "flip flop" comment, when I said "you'd have to run in them", I was referring to when you go down the slide from the plane and have to get away from the plane.
Another hint....be careful with laptops. Besides the obvious (crushing, etc.), someone going through an overhead (looking as if they are looking from something from their overhead bag) can take your laptop out of its case and slip it into theirs. I have heard of this happening.
Posted by: Dan | July 3, 2007 11:40 AM
Wow. This website really needs an easy way to report problem comments. Flagging, anyone?
Posted by: h3 | July 6, 2007 9:57 AM
About flip flops: I am in total agreement about not wearing them. If there is an emergency, such as the plane is on fire, or metal is sticking out in your pathway, at least your feet will be protected as much as possible instead of vulnerable to burning and getting cut up.
Posted by: Kay | July 6, 2007 11:52 AM
If you're checking a suitcase with wheels, put tender items on the bottom, or in the middle of your suitcase at the very least. Your suitcase will spend most of its time in transit "upside down" to ensure that the wheels don't make trouble on the luggage belts.
Love the Ziploc bag suggestion for people going through security with change in their pockets. For me, flip-flops on planes aren't even a possibility: planes are chilly, and the temperature of my toes has a lot of influence over how the rest of me feels!
Posted by: boston liz | July 6, 2007 2:46 PM
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Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency.
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On long flights:
- Wear long sleeves and long pants, and bring a sweatshirt. Airplanes stay relatively cool, and when you're trying to sleep in the airplane's "night", you will want to be warmly dressed (yet layered, for when you leave the flight at the other end)
-Assuming you checked baggage, pack light for your carry-on. Everyone else on the plane will thank you for not wasting their time by struggling down the aisle with a huge carry-on, taking forever to fit it into a bin... and then using only one or two items from the bag during the entire trip.
-When making a connection, be aware in advance of the layout of the terminal you'll be passing through, especially if the connection is short.
-If you have a long layover, use the airport website to find information on food options. Think about what time you'll be there, what is likely to be open, and bring food accordingly.
-Even if your airline offers seat-back televisions on a flight, bring a book or other entertainment. It's not uncommon for the TVs to break and you don't want to be stuck for 8 hours with nothing to do.
-Keep a small container of hand-lotion and a small bottle of water with you on the plane for long flights to help combat the dry air. I normally bring an empty water bottle through security and fill it from a water fountain in the gate area. You will appreciate having your own water supply if you're in an interior seat and the guy on the aisle is sleeping.