Tips For The Intrepid Traveler

It seems when you have figured out how to get the most out of travel. A monkey wrench was thrown at it. Now travel is harder, longer, and more difficult. What to do? Heaven help us.

First thing, being creative in the past would have saved you lots of money. Now, with overnight delays and unreliable connections. The goal is not to find the cheapest airfare, but the shortest and surest way to enjoy our vacation destination and get back home. Traveling for three days, through several airports, and being sleep deprived and hungry, defeats the purpose of the vacation. What good is the holiday, if after recharging your batteries, you come home exhausted from your return flight?

Here’s the new Game Plan.

Get a direct flight, non-stop to your destination. For most people, easier said than done. Many people don’t live in a large metropolitan city, home to an international airport hub. Most of us live miles and miles from an airport, and the airport is a small or regional hub. There may be two or three flights to an international airport. It is what it is. Get a flight with the least amount of stops. If you have stops, chose stops in a major hub, that have several flights to the airport close to your home. Consider flying through connecting hubs in cities where you have family and friends. If stranded in a connecting city, then you can call someone to pick you up and stay with a friend overnight if hotel accommodations are not offered by the airline or, worst case scenario, there are no hotel rooms available. At least you can enjoy some family time with your loved ones while you wait for your rescheduled flight.

Try to schedule a connecting flight close to home. Worst case scenario, if you have to be home by a certain day, a one-way car rental may get you home quicker than the next available flight. I had been offered the next available flight that included another overnight stay at another connecting airport. I was promised to fly out the next day, but it was late in the day and it involved a connecting flight on the following day. In the end I would finally be home not the next day but in two days. The option offered was worse than just waiting and getting a direct flight back home. The airlines must think that going through security and checking in luggage for two consecutive days wasn’t an inconvenience. Or maybe I’m a passenger that is stupid enough to forget the pain and inconvenience. Don’t worry, the next time I make airline reservations, I won’t repeat the mistake.

Leave days in between travel. When you fly out, stay and rest at your destination for one or two days. Don’t go from the airport to the cruise ship. If you have to go to the islands or drive off somewhere once you land, it's not worth the rush and aggravation. Take a shower, have dinner, and sleep in once you land. Recharge your batteries. Then go off and start your vacation. After my recent misadventure while on holiday, I am glad I chose to return on a Friday. because of all the flight delays and cancelations, I finally arrived home on a Sunday.

Frequent flyer miles put a target on your forehead. The airlines will scrape at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to finding connecting flights. If the vacation or trip is important to you, or you absolutely can not afford missing work upon your return. Pay cash. I have been burnt several times on this issue, and I have learned my lesson. I have even shunned the credit cards that offer frequent flyer miles. I can never use them the way I originally intended to use them. Over the years, the airlines, have rewritten the terms and conditions of their use, I get nausea when I hear airlines pitching them to me. I’d rather use the cash back credit cards.

Very important. Buy your ticket from the airline. Don’t go through a third-party vendor like a travel agency or online site. Trying to contact an online vendor’s customer service site is a nightmare when trying to coordinate any issues with your itinerary. Online vendors prefer emails and virtual assistants, i.e. bots, to communicate. If time is critical, you need a human agent on the phone or at the check-in counter.

If there is any glitch in checking in online or filling in your passport and contact information, then call customer service ASAP. That may be a sign that your flight has been canceled or that one of your connecting flights has been changed or canceled. The change may result in missing the subsequent connecting flight because of a tight layover time. Some connecting hubs are massive and unless you are an Olympic athlete with a diplomatic passport, I cannot imagine anyone flying through security check-in and passport control and making it in time for boarding your next flight. A good rule of thumb for domestic and international is one to two hours for layovers, respectively. Ask the airline agent if the layover is adequate; airlines have minimum requirements for layovers for each of their airports.

Be wary of texts and notifications asking for volunteers to take a later flight. The flight may be overbooked, or the flight is delayed and the airlines want to minimize the rescheduling that will ultimately occur with your delayed flight. It’s a good idea to check the flight status of the plane a few hours before you board. Apps like Flightradar24 and FlightAware are the more popular. Know where your plane is before you get to the gate. You may need to hustle to catch an earlier flight. The few seats left go to the swift. This leads to my final tip.

Check for alternative flights online on the day you travel. Come prepared with alternative options if there is a hiccup in your travel plans that day. This way, you can suggest alternatives to the airline agent, if a delay or cancelation occurs.

In the last two years, the travel industry has taken a body slam onto the mat. Airline employees and passengers have been hit hard by Covid. It is hard to adapt to all the recent changes. It may take a year or two for things to settle down and get back to normal. But I hope these travel tips will help you with your future travel plans. Bon Voyage!