The holiday season is rapidly approaching. I wrote this advice in December of 1999 when I lived in Philadelphia, and most of it’s still valid today.
Speaking of flying home to see my family… If you’re like me, you’ll be taking to the skies this year on your way to be with your family. Don’t think this is going to be easy. Airports will be crowded and flights will be delayed and cancelled. The airline will have just about every possible person working, and they still won’t be able to handle the volume as well as passengers would like. Here are a few of my travel tips to help you get through this mess.
Mike’s Holiday Travel Tips
Best Practices:
Get to the airport an hour and a half to two hours before your scheduled departure. Count on the fact that there will be very long lines.
Be patient. You have no other choice.
Expect delays.
Treat the airline staff kindly. If you’re cranky with them, they’ll be less quick to help you resolve a problem than if you’re nice to them. Make sure you thank them for working so you can go be with your family.
Call several days ahead of time to confirm your seat and reservation. You won’t have much of a choice in seats the day of your flight.
Thinking of upgrading? Yeah, right!
Every flight is going to be full. If your flight gets cancelled, it’s going to take them quite a while to accommodate you. Remember, the person who is rebooking you had nothing to do with the flight being cancelled. Allow them to quickly do their job and get the next person accommodated.
Avoid flying through Chicago, Minneapolis, Boston, or other cities that are prone to snow delays.
If you haven’t purchased your ticket by now, don’t even think about getting it at a low cost.
Carry-on items:
Don’t even think about getting on-board an aircraft if you have more than two items in your hands. If you have a bag of gifts, a carry-on bag, and a laptop case, the airline can refuse to allow you to board. In fact, they’re subject to a fine if they do. Federal regulations limit you to two carry-on items. This regulation also states that the airline can limit you to one. I’ve already seen Northwest and AirTran state that passengers on some flights will be limited to one item.
If every passenger has less carry-on luggage, you will be able to board faster, and you might not be as late.
Checked bags:
Most airlines limit you to three total items of luggage. This includes your carry-on luggage. If you have more luggage than this, the airline is permitted to charge you a fee for each item, based on weight.
Make sure you have your luggage well-labeled. My luggage has a side pocket where you slide in a business-card sized form. Strangely, I just put my business card in there. I also have a luggage tag attached to the top of each piece. It’s not a bad idea to put a piece of tape on the other side of your luggage tag that has the airline’s confirmation number for your trip. A Sabre locator code is easy to spot. It’s six characters that never spell out a simple word. An airline employee will know what to do with this in a heartbeat.
Gifts:
Make sure you bought one for me!
If you’re afraid the airline will lose your precious Christmas gifts, do the safe thing. Ship them via FedEx or UPS. I’ll probably be doing that this year.
Another alternative is to do your shopping on-line. Have your items shipped to your Christmas destination. Wrap them once you get there. Better yet, have them wrap it for you. I purchased several things from Amazon.com this year. I didn’t see the need to have them shipped to Philadelphia for me to wrap them and then haul them with me to Pittsburgh. I simply had Amazon.com drop-ship them to my parents’ house.
Mike’s Travel Secrets for Cancelled Flights:
Keep your cell phone well-charged. As soon as they announce your flight has been cancelled, call the airline’s reservations number. They can help you too! However, stay in line at the check-in desk. They might get to you faster.
If you’re delayed or re-routed, make sure the airline at least gives you a voucher to get something to eat.
When delayed, if you can’t be at your destination within three hours of when you were scheduled to land, you might be entitled to compensation. Ask why the flight was delayed. If it was weather, runway delays, or an airport shut-down, thank them and move on. These are things beyond the control of the airline and you’re not entitled to squat. However, if it’s a crew problem, equipment problem, or anything the airline can control, see what kind of accommodations you’re entitled to receive.
If you’re delayed more than three hours, you are entitled to a full refund of your ticket. However, you’re then stuck without a ticket to your destination.
If you have an unrestricted full-fare coach ticket (Y-Class), any other airline will accept your ticket for one of their flights without the originating airline signing it over first. However, if you have a restricted ticket, the originating airline must sign your ticket over to the new carrier first.