From time to time, people send travel and airline related websites to me and inevitably I’ve already seen them.  Well, for the first time in a long time, someone surprised me. 

http://www.luggagelimits.com/

It looks helpful, particularly to the infrequent traveler.

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If you followed the blizzard that clobbered the Northeastern United States, you may have noticed that airlines began suggesting that you could change your flight and leave *early* to avoid the disruptions and without penalty.  While I believe this has been done before, airlines clearly got the message out much better and in a much more timely fashion than in the past. 

The new DOT rule limiting tarmac delays to 3 hours or less (with exceptions for safety or in the event  a return to gate would massively disrupt airport operations) was announced Monday and takes effect 120 days after being published in the Federal Register. 

The movements against the airlines for these lengthy delays on tarmac have gained considerable momentum and airline have taken a real hit publicity-wise over these disruptions.  Combine that with the message that the DOT sent by fining Continental, ExpressJet and Mesaba over the lengthy delay in Rochester, MN earlier this year, and you’ve got a lot of pressure on the airlines to do the right thing in advance of problems.

Take advantage of it and be creative.  If you see the potential to be delayed or stuck in an unfamiliar city trying to travel somewhere, call the airline and re-book your travel through cities likely to be unaffected by the weather.  If you were in Virginia and scheduled to fly to Europe via a northeastern gateway city such as Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., New York City or Boston, you could have re-booked to travel via Atlanta, Miami, Chicago, Dallas or Houston.  Now, that seems like going out of your way but is it?  Not really.  Travel to any one of those other gateway cities would take about as long as it would to go to your original gateway city.  Travel to Europe from one of those other gateway cities isn’t substantively longer than traveling from the northeast.   Yes, you’ll spend, perhaps, another hour or two in the air in total time but you’ll get to your destination and you won’t lose the use of that valuable vacation time. 

Flexibility is the number one solution to problems that arise from weather.  With the airlines’ willingness to accomodate you that much earlier with a change in flight plans, you can beat the odds and still make your trip.

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What if you have to re-schedule your travel while in the middle of it?  Any regular flier dreads any changes to their flight schedules before leaving on their trip but needing to make a change in the middle of a trip is positively terrifying.

But should it be?  Perhaps not.  Legacy airlines are charging exorbitant fees to change flights with some reaching $150 just for the privilege of ringing the airline and asking to return a day later or two days earlier.   On American Airlines (and most legacy airlines are similar), if you change your ticket, you’ll be liable for the new one way fare plus a change fee ($150 in most cases for domestic travel) which, if you bought a non-refundable advance fare, could be exorbitant.    But you do you have options if you are willing to work a bit.

Recently, a friend traveled to the Northeastern US for Thanksgiving.  While visiting family, one of his parents was injured and he decided he should stay over a while longer to help out.  Changing his ticket cost him a small fortune and, unfortunately, he didn’t think to look outside the box.   If he had abandoned that ticket and simply shopped for a new ticket on Airtran, jetBlue or even Southwest Airlines, he would have saved hundreds of dollars.  Ironically, there were sudden last minute fare sales for immediate travel instituted on the very day he chose re-ticket.  

Flexibility, as always, is the key.  Yes, you may have to accept 1 or more connections or even explore ticketing on two different airlines but the savings is often far greater than what your time is worth.  If you feel intimdated by having to do battle with the airlines or pressured by the need to resolve the issue quickly, I highly recommend trying the Cranky Concierge service that I’ve blogged about HERE.    Airline geeks are creative thinkers and the fee you’ll pay Cranky for thinking for you will be paid for in huge savings in most cases.    What could take you 3 or 4 hours to explore (even if you’re relatively sophisticated at searching for airline fares) can be solved by someone like him in a matter of an hour or less in many cases.

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You did book your air travel a couple of months ago, right?   Don’t expect to find much available at this point for holiday travel because airlines are now either blocking their sale fares for those dates or adding a premium to them for certain days.   In short, they intend to maximize the income from peak demand days any way they can.

That said, there are a few strategies you can employ for a less expensive trip.  Traveling with a family?  If so, see if you can send your family ahead of you on a non-peak day while you travel on a peak day later so you can finish your work week.   Look for early departures to your destination.  A 6:00am flight might not sound attractive but if you save $100 per ticket, that’s a tidy sum for a family of 4.   Look for connections through a non-traditional city that might take longer but cost less. 

What if you have a lot of air miles and you want to use them?  Again, you’re likely out of luck but there are some thing you can check into.  See if your frequent flier program has any partners that travel the route you want.  They may have availability.  The Star Alliance now has not 1, not 2 but 3 partner airlines in the US (United, Continental and US Airways) and Sky Team has the rather huge network of Delta/Northwest.  Oneworld, I’m afraid, is limited to American Airlines but if you’re traveling to an international destination, you may still have a chance.

International destinations require some creative thinking for a cheaper fare.   Perhaps if you are traveling to the UK you might ordinarily use American Airlines but they’re rather expensive for the dates you wish to travel.  It might be possible to fly via one of the Oneworld partners using a different hub.  You may make 1 or 2 connections instead of flying non-stop but, again, the savings may be worth it particularly if you have a family.  It might be possible to fly Iberia to Spain and connect via Madrid or Barcelona for instance.  Or if you ordinarily use Northwest Airlines, you may have better luck checking KLM or Air France’s schedules for connections via Paris or Amsterdam. 

Holiday travel is also the time when checking luggage is certainly more of a risk.  Try to send gifts ahead of you via UPS, FEDEX or the USPS.  Consider what you are taking along for clothes.  Maybe you need to wear nice, dressy clothes once on your trip.  If so, considering wearing them for the flight so you can pack an extra shirt and tie into a smaller suitcase that you can carry on instead of checking.   This is a good strategy for taking along a bulky sweater or coat too.  

Finally, consider where your flight(s) may be connecting through.  Try schedule your holiday travel connections through southern hubs such as Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Memphis, Charlotte or Phoenix.   This doesn’t completely eliminate the risk of bad weather but it does help mitigate it considerably.  Try to leave as early as possible in the day as delays only get worse through the day when weather is involved.   Check your flight status the day before your trip.  Is there weather affecting one of the cities you are traveling to or through?  If so and you find your schedule flexible, try calling the airline and seeing if you can change your schedule to something better without penalty. 

If you find yourself stuck at a connection, look for opportunities to fly to a nearby city instead.  For instance, if you’re traveling to Chicago and weather has massive delays being experienced, perhaps your airline also flies to Milwaukee.  If so, they may let you change your destination to Milwaukee where family can pick you up or you can rent a car to travel down there.   Even if your chosen airline doesn’t fly to someplace nearby, perhaps a partner airline of theirs does.  Suggest that as a option to the gate agent if you are trying to re-book.

Have a strategy.  See what your options are *before* you leave and have a couple of backup plans you can suggest to an airline agent in the event of a cancellation.  Yes, they are supposed to have more resources than you in that situation but they also have limited time to think a problem through.  If you have a suggestion or two they can try, you may make your life and theirs much easier since you are signaling some flexibility and trying to work with the system instead being in war with it. 

I’ll also suggest this service.  It’s Cranky Concierge found HERE.  It is a travel service offered by Brett Snyder of the Cranky Flier blog.  For a low price, you get an ultimate airline geek who will help you with all those strategies I named and more.    I think for holiday travelers, this could be a huge value in the event something goes wrong with your flight(s).    I myself do this kind of thing for friends and family but chances are you don’t have an airline geek in your circle.  The Cranky Concierge can be your own personal airline geek and help get you there more reliably.

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The CrankyFlier and the Delta blog have both alerted me to some new features coming on board with Delta.  Delta has added the ability to see status on upgrades and standby lists for flights to their main website and they intend to add these features very shortly to their mobile website for PDA Phone users.

Adding the ability to make these checks via cell phone or phone/PDA is a huge advancement for airlines and I suspect we’ll see more of these feature additions to most mainline airlines over the next year. 

For those of you interested in accessing Delta’s mobile site, you can go HERE for instructions.  I’ve already blogged about Continental Airlines’ system HERE.

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Maybe.  News media yesterday and today have been full of stories about various airline fare sales.  A friend of mine managed to book a business class fare from Raleigh/Durham to NYC for just over $100.  He also booked two round trip tickets on Airtran to Las Vegas (for travel in May) for just $198 / ticket.  American Airlines has sent me not one but two emails in the last 24 hours advertising fares as low as $39 / each way.

Reading over the AA email, that low price of $39 each way is to fly from DFW to Tulsa.  I’m pretty sure that is a fairly small market but let’s give them credit for drawing us in to read the email.   Here is a sample of some of there other teasers:

• Chicago to Detroit:  $43
• San Jose to San Diego:  $49
• Boston to NYC (LGA): $59
• Chicago to Kansas City:  $63
• Dallas to New Orleans:  $64
• Chicago to Orlando:  $78
• Washington D.C. to Miami:  $101
• Atlanta to Dallas:  $104

Now, all of these fares are one-way based on round-trip purchase.  I’m sure that most of the other airlines are advertising similar fares on similar routes with similar restrictions.   The part that interests me is that some of those fares AA is advertising are primarily business routes (DFW to TUL, ORD to DET, ORD to MCI) and those aren’t customarily the routes you discount that much.  Some of the others are to leisure destinations and that makes a bit more sense. 

When there is a fare sale, I like to price DFW to PDX (Portland) because American Airlines dominates this route with non-stops and has exceptionally high fares for those flights.  If those prices have dropped, then I know they’re hurting.  I did so today and AA is proud to offer me a $278 roundtrip (with taxes, $320) which is actually pretty good.  A year ago that fare was being offered for over $400.  But there is a catch.  AA wants me to fly from DFW to LAX,  change planes to either Alaska Airlines or Horizon Airlines, and fly to Portland.  Transit times range from 7 hours to more than 9 hours.   Would I do it for the fare?  Perhaps.  I’d certainly think about it. 

A quick check with Travelocity.Com shows fares for that route at $327 and up and AA advertises the non-stop routing for $378.  The $327 fares on Travelocity are those same AA fares I found at AA.Com so the next non-American Airlines best price is actually Continental Airlines for $356 changing planes in Houston and with approximately the same transit times that AA has through LAX.

Would I go?  Probably not.  Why?  Because the cost to me in vacation time, actual flight costs (more than $40 more than the advertised price once I pay taxes) and the sheer agony of spending about 8 hours making the trip just isn’t worth it.  What would be worth it?  A fare of about $200 to $250 (taxes included) I suspect. 

The point of my analysis is that while those fare teasers are interesting and very attractive, they really aren’t all that good for where most of us want to fly in the next 3 to 4 months.  If you want to fly from DFW to TUL, you’re set.  If you want to fly from DFW to just about anywhere else, the prices really haven’t come down much if at all.  These sales are, I suspect, airlines scrambling around and yelling “Look At Me” but without much substance.  If I were going to shop for a mid to late spring flight, I’d probably wait a few weeks.  The reality of spring / early summer bookings will be more clear to the airlines and then I think you’ll see some real discounting. 

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I have a family member who will be flying to the DFW area on December 24th.  She lives in the PDX (Portland, OR) area and it has been snowing for several days now.  A weather forecast check reveals that it might still be snowing there on December 24th, her departure date.

Now, I first inquired as to whether or not the PDX airport ever closes for snow.  It turns out that they do not do so very often.  You see, PDX is nearly at sea level (next to the Columbia River) and it remains pretty warm down there so it’s quite easy to keep the flights moving.  However, this family member lives in the Southwest hills of Portland where the altitude is much higher.  In Portland, it is quite possible for the street conditions to be much worse in the hills than it is down by the river.  In fact, this family member has seen more than enough snow at her altitude that she hasn’t been able to drive her car both because of the snow as well as the icy conditions on steep roads.   PDX Airport has had little or no delays during that same time.

So, she might need a backup plan.  That might be simply taking a cab (most cabs will have chains or traction devices or at least be of sufficient size to navigate the roads safely) or an airport shuttle.   Another backup plan might include having someone drive her to an airport hotel the day before when it is possible to navigate the roads.  The real dilemma, however, is that it may be quite possible for her to be snowed in but for airplanes to continue to take off.  How do you think an airline might treat her non-arrival for the flight? 

Most likely, they may let her change her travel date but with a substantial charge.   She is flying a legacy airline (Continental) and they do charge for changing travel dates and that change is subject to availability *and* the difference in the cost on that leg.  Such a change could quite literally run to several hundred dollars more.

Not many people are faced with such a situation around the country.  At least few do in most major cities.  Yet, watching the weather and having a backup plan can save you hundreds of dollars too.  Airlines don’t have a lot of sympathy for the reason of your delays.   Their outlook is most likely to be determined on whether or not they could take off, not how the weather might be affecting your ability to get to the airport.  Plan ahead and save money.

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Dress comfortably but not slovenly.  Too many people travel in sweats and sweatshirts and then wonder why they aren’t taken seriously.  If you want to be taken seriously when you have a problem, don’t look like you just got out of bed. 

That doesn’t mean you have to wear a suit.  Wear comfortable but attractive clothes that imply you are person who means business.  Jeans are OK but not jeans with holes for instance.  Wear a comfortable pair of shoes but not sneakers or a sweater not a sweatshirt.  Going someplace that requires a dressier look?  Try wearing your sportcoat or jacket while traveling which will save room in your luggage and make you look professional at the same time.  Women should not wear pajama bottoms and men should not wear t-shirts.

Layer your clothing with a nice shirt, comfortable sweater and a jacket.  Getting a blanket on an airplane is unlikely these days but if you have layered your clothing, it becomes easier to adjust to the temperatures on airplanes.   Believe it or not, pilots control the temperature on most airplanes and they may well be unaware of how cold or warm it is in the cabin.  Flight attendants will often ask them to raise the temperature in the cabin so that people will feel drowsy  on flights they expect to be problematic.   Yet, if it is the first flight of the day leaving from a very cold destination it could take as much as half of the flight to warm the cabin to a comfortable temperature. 

Keep your clothing loose and of natural fibers such as cottons and wools.  You’ll feel less constricted and confined as you sit in that economy seat.  If you have to wear a winter jacket and it has zippered pockets, use them to carry the things you might take in a small bag such as a small snack or an MP3 player or gloves. 

If you do experience trouble at an airport, the right clothing can help a lot.  By dressing well, gate agents are more likely to take you seriously when there is a problem.  Agents are humans too and they will tend to respect those who are dressed respectfully and they will tend to ignore those who are dressed carelessly.   The bottom line is that if you are comfortable enough for a long airplane trip, you’ll be comfortable enough for an extended airport wait. 

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Every year I have someone in my circle of friends and family decry how risky it is to check baggage and everyone has an unsubstantiated story of lost luggage.  While it is true that luggage can get lost, it happens far less often than is ever portrayed.  I have been traveling by airline since I was 2 years old and my luggage was “lost” twice.  At one point in my life, I traveled more as a teenager than most seasoned road warriors of today.  Statistically, you are very unlikely to have a misplaced bag and if you do experience lost luggage, it generally can be available in as little as 6 hours. 

Some time ago, I wrote this POST about luggage.  It is a collection of strategies to mitigate against lost luggage.  Read it and practice it and you’ll be in a far better position to experience a happy holiday trip.  Because of baggage fees on most airlines, many recommend shipping your gifts rather than checking a bag.  In some respects, I agree.  However, it may be *cheaper* to take a bag along with gifts one way.

Many people have nesting suitcases.  Take a large one with your gifts and pay the fee to carry all your gifts.  Pack your clothes in the smaller one.  Once you get to your destination, hand your gifts out and pack your clothes suitcase inside the larger one and then check that back to home on your return trip.  You can also use a softside duffle bag that you can compress to fit inside your clothes suitcase for your return.   If you travel with someone else, see if you can pack one suitcase to check, one bag to carry *both* of your carry-on items and use one other small bag to carry gifts as a carry on. 

If you are carrying gifts, it is best to leave them unwrapped.  The TSA may well want to look at the item, especially if it is an electronic gift and you don’t want that gift wrap messed up do you?  Do yourself a favor and put them in your luggage in a manner that lets the TSA look at them and put them back neatly.  Use a TSA luggage lock as recommended in this post.  Such a lock allows the TSA to open your baggage, do their search and relock your luggage.  Most theft actually occurs while the airline is handling your bags, not the TSA.  A TSA lock keeps people honest.  Let’s face it, it’s a lot easier to just move to a bag without a lock than it is to defeat yours where you might be spotted.

Identify your luggage.  Put tags on the inside and outside of the bag.  If you’re using one of the Ubiquitous Black Roll On suitcases, mark it with a colorful strap of some kind so you *know* it is your bag coming into the baggage claim and so others know it is *not* their bag.  

Best of all, if you know you’ll be checking your bag, get to the airport a bit earlier than usual so that the bag(s) have time to move through the system and to the aircraft.   If you must connect to another flight in another city, try to schedule those connection with 1 1/2 hour of connection time or more.  That gives you some lee way to make a flight if you are late and it lets your bags make that same flight if you are late.   Isn’t it better to spend an hour in the airport reading than it is to have to return to an airport to claim a lost bag a day later?

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Remember, the holidays have this nasty habit of scheduling themselvs at a time of year when weather is a major factor in air travel.  Now, if you’re flying from the northeast to the northern midwest, you don’t have many options.  But many of us do.

If you are traveling transcontinental or ir you are traveling in a way that requires transiting through a hub, consider very carefully your choice in hubs.  I have written about this before but its worth covering again. 

Let’s say you’re traveling from Albuquerque to Richmond Virginia.  You know you’ll have to transit at least one hub but which is the better choice?  Denver, Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, Atlanta, DFW, Houston, Charlotte, Cleveland and Cincinatti are all choices.   Now, many people choose the cheapest and fastest routing for such a trip but the real question during the holidays is this:  do you want cheap and fast or reasonable and certain?

You could safely eliminate Denver, Minneapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinatti and Chicago from the list of good choices.  All are subject to severe weather and most have a bad reputation for operating in severe weather (the exception really being Denver.)   Now, routing through one of those cities might be cheaper, but, is it really?  If you were stuck in Chicago with a flight cancellation, how much would you have paid to avoid that problem?  $50?  $100? 

And is time really of the essence or is getting to your destination with as little potential for trouble more important.  In most cases, I’m sure most of us would accept a slightly longer travel time in exchange for being much more certain of our arrivals.

Better hubs to search would be DFW (very rarely affected by weather), Houston (same as DFW) and to a lesser degree Atlanta and Charlotte.  Atlanta is always congested and while not subject to a lot of weather problems, it is a hub heavily impacted by operations at other Atlantic seaboard airports.  Charlotte is a minor hub but one that can be impacted by winter weather although not often.

Most likely, you could book through DFW or Houston for the same price (possibly less) and have a very high degree of likelihood in getting where you are going on time or reliably at the least.  No airport is totally safe and no airline is completely certain.  No connection is free of weather related problems either. 

Even if you were flying from Portland, Oregon to Virginia, your best bet is still via those southern hubs.   Yes, the flight may well take 1 to 2 hours longer but how does that stack up against the potential of being stranded for 5 to 8 hours or even days because you went through Detroit?  In most cases, that flight path would take no more than the same time to transit and sometimes less than it would routing through a northern hub.   The listed times might be shorter but the *real* times are often the same or better. 

Furthermore, it is far better transit a warm hub feeling secure about your flight and in no hurry to catch your next flight than it is to bet that Minneapolis will be snow free and you’ll save 1 to 2 hours on your travel.  It’s just not worth the hassle to you or the people you are visiting.

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In honor of the holiday season approaching, I thought I would start offering a series of tips on how to cope with holiday travel.  No doubt, some will be well known but I also hope to offer a better strategy than often supplied.

First, boarding passes and check-ins don’t have to be a battle.  Or, at the least, there are strategies to win the battle instead of limping onto an airplane with the pain of defeat.   Most everyone knows they check-in and get their boarding pass with most airlines online.  But having a strategy is important.

First, find where you should check-in and print your boarding pass from a couple of days before your travel.  This is sometimes buried inside the website and if you find yourself unable to locate it at midnight on Tuesday night for a Wednesday departure for Thanksgiving, you’ll be sorry.  Find it ahead of time and if you can’t, then you have time to call and get directed to it.  Oh and make sure you have ink in your printer. 

Second, plan your airport check-in.  In other words, know your airport and know where you *can* go for check-in.  If you have baggage to check and there are long lines inside at the ticket counters, consider a bag check at a check-in kiosk.  If that looks extremely busy, consider going outside and having a Skycap check your bag.  This may cost you $2 per bag plus a gratuity per bag but if you’re just checking a couple of bags and it costs your a few dollars, isn’t that better than sweating things out inside the air terminal?

There may be multiple areas to check bags at certain airports.  For instance, DFW airport has numerous check in areas for several airlines such as American Airlines.  Often all you have to do is go down about 8 gates, check in and walk back to your actual gate area.  A quick check in / bag check combined with a light walk is far more preferable to long lines and crowd, no? 

This same strategy will work for going through security.  Some airports funnel everyone into a central area.  If this is the case, show up extra EXTRA early.  This kind of setup will often be overwhelmed and can’t be relieved easily.  Still other airports make it possible to go through security at a variety of points.  Know where security is and how to transit through it.  It can save time and aggravation.

If you aren’t a frequent flyer member of the airline you are traveling on, become one and get the phone number that the offer for reservations.  If you arrive to check in and find your flight delayed or cancelled, that phone number could make it much easier to reach a reservations agent.  Write it down and put it in your wallet or, better yet, program it in your cell phone. 

Get someone to drop you off or pick you up at the airport.  Traffic is always murderous but parking is even more murderous.  Arrange for the person dropping you off or picking you up to have access to flight tracking (FlightAware.com or FlightStats.com are both good) so they know when they have to leave.  Make sure you have exchanged cell phone numbers.  If you can’t get someone to do this for you, consider leaving a bit earlier and taking public transportation where possible.  It sounds bad but it can be much easier to navigate and much more reliable for arriving at the airport on time.

Most important, get some sleep the night before you travel.  This is always the time when people stay up late packing.  You really can avoid that problem.  Pack early, get to sleep early (even if your flight leave in the afternoon or evening of the next day) because starting the day off with rest always keeps you calmer in the face of challenges. 

Eat.  Eat something good for breakfast (again, even if you’re leaving much later in the day) and eat prior to getting on the airplane.  Avoid sugar or massive carbohydrates.  Try to have some protein such as a hamburger and avoid alchohol.   A hamburger will keep your temper more under control than, say, a candy bar and a cup of coffee. 

The central point is to leave early, know where you are going, have a back up plan and have enough information about your airline and the airport to deal with a problem.  Leave time for yourself to accomplish the tasks of check-in and if you have a chance to save sometime, even if it costs a bit of money, take it.  You may need that time later.

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My brother brought this site to my attention yesterday.  It is Continental Airlines’ PDA website and it has some handy features in a simplified format that make checking reservations and flight status, for instance, very easy.

http://pda.continental.com

Every airline should make it this easy.

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Airlines have begun making it possible to have a boarding pass using a 2D bar code to check in via PDA and/or Cell Phone.  Here is Continental Airlines’ website regarding this new innovation.

In principle, this is a great innovation for many travelers but it comes with some warnings not mentioned by any airlines at present.  If you are a true frequent flier then you are likely aware that sometimes your mileage isn’t credit from a flight now and then.  Airlines require that you send a copy of your boarding pass to prove the credit. 

Airlines such as Air Canada and Continental have not figured out how to give you credit when you have a PDA/Cell Phone boarding pass.  So, if you try out this option, buyer beware for now anyway.

Ultimately, this is a great innovation and choosing this option does not prohibit you from having a boarding pass printed at check-in (generally by swiping a credit card) so if your cellphone / PDA isn’t working, you’re still covered. 

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Yes, flying from point A to point B is a challenge these days.  Particularly if you are connecting through a hub or traveling to or from one.  Arm yourself with phone numbers.

Are you a frequent flier member of the airline you are taking?  If not, join right away and you usually can do it online.  If you are a member, good.  Why?  Because most frequent flier programs have dedicated phone numbers you can use to access a reservations agent.  Get that phone number and access to those agents. 

If you are flying internationally, get the phone number of the alliance (OneWorld, Star Alliance, SkyTeam, etc) your airline belongs to.  Frequently member airlines will cooperate with you when you are having trouble with a connection. 

Look for codeshare partners on flights you want to save money.  For instance, when I was traveling to Moscow from Dallas, I saved over $200 by calling Finnair and booking the flight through them instead of American Airlines and the very same route using the same flights on American Airlines flight numbers was really that much more.  In addition, because I was flying as a Finnair passenger, I got priority boarding *and* frequent flier points on American Airlines.  I should also mention that when I called Finnair, I got a nice reservations agent immediately instead of an automated system hopelessly trying to recognize my voice.  Sweet, huh?

When you are going to be in a foreign city, leave prepared with the booking phone number of your airline in that city.  Even better, travel with a cell phone that you can access service globally if possible.  That way, when you are stuck at London Heathrow with 20,000 other passengers, you can call the US and get a hold of your airline there.  I use ATT (Cingular) service myself which is a GSM system that is compatible with most systems around the world.  Yes, the fee to call the US can be a bit expensive but it is a lot cheaper than battling your way through problems locally . . . sometimes.

Consider traveling to a different hub than London or Amsterdam.  The truth is, it takes about the same time to fly from DFW to Frankfurt and then on to another destination in Europe as it does to fly to London and use their preferred partners.  There are plenty of hubs to choose from such as Frankfurt, Munich, Madrid, Brussells, Rome, Zurich and many others.  Try a foreign airline that offers Frequent Flier points on your plan but which uses a less crowded hub to connect their traffic through.

That same strategy can be used domestically as well.  Look for less congested hubs.  Instead of Chicago or Detroit, consider St. Louis or Cleveland.  Instead of Atlanta, consider Charlotte.  And choose on the basis of seasonal weather.  You do *not* want to fly into New York City in the summer unless it is your final destination for instance.  Likewise, Chicago and Detroit can often be affected by weather in the oasisnaturalcleaning.com summer.  DFW or Atlanta airport hubs can often be much more reliable because they eperience drier weather in the middle of the summer.   

Check Weather.Com and see what the seasonal weather is like at your choice of hubs and plan accordingly.  It usually doesn’t cost more to go through a different hub and you can save a great deal of time connecting through a hub that is slightly out of the way as opposed to trying to connect through a busy, weather affected hub.  It isn’t a guarantee against problems but it does greatly mitigate against potential problems.

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If you are worried about losing your luggage on a trip, here is a travel hint that virtually everyone can do easily.

Got a digital camera?  Take a photo of your suitcase (front and side view) in the sunlight.  Make a note of the brand and, if available, model of your suitcase.  (You’d be surprised at how few people know this stuff.)  Then print out your luggage photos on a piece of paper with your luggage make and model.  Put something that will help identify it visually on the outside of the bag.  An odd coloured strap or tag would do.  Put a copy of your travel itinerary in a plastic sleeve INSIDE your luggage.

Buy a TSA luggage lock.  Almost everyone thinks you can’t lock your luggage anymore.  Wrong.  Many stores such as Brookstone, The Container Store, etc sell a TSA Lock.  The TSA luggage lock can be opened by TSA personnel only with a special key.  This makes your luggage less of a target for dishonest baggage handlers.   I own 3 of these locks and I’ve noticed that when I use them, it seems like the TSA very rarely goes through my luggage as well. 

Carry your luggage info with you on the airplane.  When you land, particularly in a foreign country, if your luggage is lost, a baggage agent will kiss you and praise you for having  photos, description and identifying marks for him to go by as well as a tag sd airport transport.  Make their job easy and they’ll find your bag quickly.

Tens of thousands of pieces of luggage that were separated from their owners at London Heathrow Airport last spring have been either sold or burned beause there was NO WAY OF IDENTIFYING THE BAG AND RETURNING IT TO THE CUSTOMER.  This luggage had no bag tags and nothing inside the luggage to tell anyone who it belonged to. 

Filed under: Travel Hints by ajax
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