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Last year’s holiday travel season made news for all the wrong reasons, as delayed flights caused frustrations for many travelers. Heather Poole, 52, a longtime flight attendant and author of the insider book Cruising Attitude: Tales of Crashpads, Crew Drama, and Crazy Passengers at 35,000 Feet, offers some advice on how to make your trip more pleasant, even if all doesn’t go according to plan.
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Allow for screw-up time
The only thing consistent about air travel today is inconsistency. Fly two days early if you’re heading to a special event. Schedule connecting flights with layovers of at least 90 minutes. Book early morning flights so you have all day to deal with whatever might go wrong. And then, when nothing goes wrong, consider yourself lucky.
Download before you go
The airline’s app is where you’ll find flight info, your boarding pass and in-flight entertainment, so make sure you have that. I also like the FAAwait app (for iPhones); one tap shows which airports are experiencing delays, how long they are averaging and why. I get more accurate information using this app than I do relying on the gate agent. MyRadar is great for uneasy fliers. You can see the weather and turbulence in real time, and the information is color coded to show you how severe conditions might be. Also use social media. I’ve found that contacting an airline via Twitter to rebook a flight is much quicker than using the airline’s app or standing in a line to speak to an agent.
Pack like a pro
Checking a bag makes travel more stressful than it needs to be. We travel with just a rolling carry-on and a tote bag, even when we’re packing for days at a time. Just pack black clothes and be done with it. Bring only two pairs of shoes. If you leave something at home, use this as an excuse to buy something new. Or get to know the locals at a laundromat.
Scan the security lines
A short line may not be the quickest path. A long line of frequent fliers (look for solo passengers holding laptops) will move much faster than a line with a family that includes a baby. One more quick security-line tip, for women: Travel to the airport with your jewelry in your carry-on bag. Then put it on after you go through security.
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