Six Holiday Airport Travel Tips

It’s almost the holidays, which means the airports will soon be flooded with families on their way to grandma’s house or to spend their annual week at the timeshare. Depending on your past air travel experiences you may or may not have reservations about traveling during the holidays. Yes, delays, long lines, lost luggage and unexpected weather are a few things that come to my mind, but just being prepared can help things go a lot smoother.

Here are a few tips from a well-traveled gal:

1. Pack your cell phone, DVD and laptop chargers in your carry-on bag. It makes life easier if you accidentally forgot to charge your phone before traveling or find yourself with a three-hour delay and your DVD battery is running low (or heaven forbid the airline loses your bag!). And don’t forget to use an item recovery service just in case you lose your electronics.

2. Have your airline and hotel phone numbers with you and keep a hard-copy of these numbers in case you do lose you phone/PDA or need to rebook your flight due to a cancellation.

3. Stay within the carry-on limit – security will call you on it. When I was in Kansas City a few months back, I pulled a souvenir bag out of my laptop bag and I thought the TSA lady was going to tackle me until I explained I had just removed it from one of my legal carry-on bags.

4. Ditch the “over-sized” stuff. When I say over-sized, I do mean regular sized. Toothpaste, hairspray, mouthwash… all those toiletries will be tossed as you pass through security if they are over 3 oz (read Christopher Elliot’s toothpaste/security experience). I recently witnessed a situation where a mom had to dump almost her entire makeup bag and her crying baby’s bottle because the items were one to two ounces over. Bummer. (Oh, and don’t forget to bubble wrap the holiday snow globe in your luggage – they won’t let those through either.)

5. Pack those meds. Holiday season is also sick season. Airport gift shops rip off travelers as it is, but when you need something as simple as nose spray the prices are exuberant.

6. BYO. I’ve always been a big fan of bringing-your-own-food since airport food vendors can cost more than an amusement park. One of my favorite travel foods for the kids is Smucker’s Uncrustables. They come in various flavors: grape or strawberry PB&J, peanut butter and honey on wheat, grilled cheese or just peanut butter. They’re individually wrapped and ready to go. The kids love them! And they’re great for those long airport delays when you don’t want to surrender your seats at the gate and fight the holiday travel crowds.

We hope you enjoyed these holiday airport travel tips. Try and stay sane out there.