For Fun

A Frequent Flyer’s Guide to Reduced Travel Stress

My past eight years as a professional speaker has taken me to hundreds of cities and dozens of countries around the world. Last year alone, I presented in 60 cities, in twelve countries involving more than 140 days on the road.

In these travels, I have picked up a number of tips that make life on the road fun and much less stressful.

Here are a few of these tips:

General:

Consolidate your travel to one or two air-carriers. The goal is to qualify for at least the basic level of an airline’s frequent flyer program. The benefits (typically early boarding and increase ranking on standby lists) will have huge impacts on your ease of travel.
Join a frequent flyer club. The ability to get out of the fray at the airport in relatively quite seclusion, and where you can do work if the layover is long is well worth the cost.
Use one of the airline credit cards to build miles (they can be used for upgrades, free trips, and/or bringing a significant other along).
Know your passenger rights: http://www.rejoice365.com/webtravels/rights.htm
Always give your family your hotel itinerary and phone numbers.

Packing/Luggage:

Pack as lightly as possible.
Use interchangeable clothing that mixes and matches well (don’t pack more clothing than you need).
Black and dark clothing shows soil, spills, etc. less than light clothing.
Buy good quality luggage – it will last longer and is easier to use. Good quality rollers make all the difference! I have been very happy with my 21” roll-aboard made by TravelPro from Costco.
Check the weather at www.weather.com in order to determine proper clothing needed.
Always pack an umbrella – it is small and worth the space.
Pack “wrinkle-free” clothing.
To save space, roll your t-shirts and stuff your underwear and socks in the shoes you have packed. Leave no square inch unused.
Leave your suites in the dry-cleaners plastic bag and use them for your shirts as well. Tri-fold them in these bags to fit them into your carryon.
Unpack as soon as possible.
Hang wrinkled items in the bathroom while you shower to help steam out the wrinkles.
Make a “travel-only” toiletry kit that has everything you need (see my list below). You then only have to replenish and it is much faster than having to pack it every time from the medicine cabinet.
Make a packing checklist of all of your standard packing items and procedures.
Try not to check your luggage. Carry-on saves 20-30 minutes at the luggage pickup, the stress of dealing with lost or delayed luggage, and gives you much more flexibility with flight cancellations/standbys/etc.
Put a brightly colored ribbon on every piece of luggage to clearly distinguish your luggage from the many look-alikes. (Avoid red as many are already using this color.)
Make sure ID is on all luggage inside and out. Use the security flaps to cover your address from prying eyes. Burglars have been known to target homes of travelers and families obviously going away.
Use wheeled luggage to save the stress of lugging things around.
Hand carry all valuables and medicine. (Never check your camera, PC, jewelry, credit cards, travelers checks.)
If you must check luggage, remove any straps.
Avoid using luggage with expensive brand names – they are a more attractive target for thieves.
Bring lots of crisp $1 (or if you want to be remembered $2 bills from the bank) for tipping purposes.
If you must check your luggage, use locks that are TSA approved.
Bring along a plastic bag to separate your clean clothing from the soiled. If you forget, most upscale hotels rooms have plastic bags intended for their laundry services.
If you do check your luggage and it is lost, never leave the airport without filing a claim.
Wear slip-on shoes on travel days. They are faster to remove through security and are easier to slip on and off during the flight.
Wear a belt with a small buckle in order not to trip the metal detectors.
Bring both your drivers license and your passport and carry them in different places. If you lose one, you will still be able to board the plane.
Carry a power bar in your briefcase, purse or suitcase. You never know how long you will be stranded.
Buy some good quality earplugs. They can save your from noisy neighbors or when you want to catnap. Or from a crying baby in the row behind. They also help you preserve your hearing by reducing aircraft noise.

Ticketing

E-tickets are standard. If you have to change carriers, you need to exchange these tickets for a standard paper ticket. However, never stand in the long line at the gate to do so. Go to the frequent flyer club or to the service desk (with usually shorter lines).
Several carries allow you to print out the boarding pass up to 24 hours before your flight. Use this option to save time at the airport.
If your flight is canceled, never stand in line (with everyone else) at the gate. Call the airline toll free number.
I book almost exclusively online – it is more convenient in time, lower rates can often be found, and you can often see the seating chart and choose the exact seats you want.
Check multiple booking engines: my favorites are www.orbitz.com, www.sidestep.com, www.expedia.com, www.travelocity.com

Exit rows almost always have more legroom that other seats and, usually, the person in front can’t recline his seat into your kneecaps.
Window or aisle is a personal preference. I prefer a window seat for several reasons: it is more scenic, you can lean up against the wall to sleep, you are less likely to have things spilled on your computer, and you are less likely to be hit on the head with items falling from the overhead bins.
Seating toward the front sometimes has more legroom and you are off the plane faster.
Learn the seating plans of the carrier you most often use. Some seats are vastly better than other in room and comfort, but you need to know what to ask for. www.seatguru.com is an excellent site for this information.
Fly early in the day with fewer delays and more options if a flight is canceled.

At the airport

Arrive early – you have more flexibility and may be able to catch an earlier flight.
Always treat the ticketing agents courteously. Aside from being the right thing to do, they have the power to help you.
Never leave your luggage unattended – even for a minute.
Remove metal from you pockets (either put it in you coat that goes through the scanner, or in your carry on luggage).
Put your ticket and ID (I use my passport) in your front pocket for quick access when requested by security.
To speed security, hand your ticket out of the envelop and right side up and your passport open to the page of your photo ID to the security agent when requested.
Wear Allen Edmund shoes - they do not use metal lasts and don't trigger the airport scanners.

In the air

Drink lots of water
Stretch regularly
Greet your seat mates upon arrival (common courtesy).
Be helpful and courteous to others (you will reap what you sow).
If you are tall and/or strong, offer to help those that are not getting luggage into the overhead bins.
Put your seat in the full upright position during meals.
Don’t be a bin hog. Place your luggage in to minimize the space used. Make sure that the bin will close. If you have more than one piece of carryon luggage, put the smaller in the seating space in front of you.
Never drink the airline water (unless it comes from a bottle).
Befriend the people in front and behind your seat. You may need to ask them for a favor, such as not reclining quite as much or just helping you when something falls.
Stretch every 90 minutes. Or pay later.

Technology

Use noise canceling headphones – I like the ones from ProTravelGear http://www.protravelgear.com/ -- near the quality of the Bose at a fraction of the price. Headphone are the best protection against unusually chatty neighbors. However, I personally do not wear them during the few occasions when there are meals. Everyone you meet has something you can learn from. I will try to engage my seat mate in conversation especially during a meal. Some clearly give the impression that they do not want to talk, and I of course will respect this. But I have had many wonderful conversations in flight that make this small effort more than worthwhile.
Bring an MP3 player (I use the one in my Treo 600 phone). I use this in the air, while waiting at the gates, and during workouts.
I also use my Treo to check and manage my email. This is much easier than having to connect my notebook computer.
Bring DVDs to fit in your DVD player in your notebook computer. I use Netflix for the DVDs. With their self-return envelops, I can simply drop them off in a mailbox when I finish viewing them.
Bring a small digital camera – I like my 3-year old Minolta Dimage Z1. You don’t have to worry about film.
Tape your business card to the top and the bottom of your notebook computer – many computers look alike and the wrong one has been grabbed on many occasions going through security.

Abroad

When traveling abroad, always carry a photocopy of your passport and pack it separately from your passport.
Use a money belt (I like the bag that attaches to your belt and stuffs in your pants as the most convenient). In it I carry my passport, a credit card (a separate card from the one in your wallet), and my large US currency.
Get your foreign currency by using the ATM almost universally found at airports. There typically is no transaction fee and you get it at the best market rate. Know in advance what the approximate exchange rate is.
Print out a currency conversion "cheat sheet" from http://www.oanda.com/cgi/convert/cheatsheet to assist with currency conversions.
At the very minimum, know a few words of the language of the country you are visiting. Greeting people in the own language (with a smile) opens up many doors.
Travel with a sense of curiosity, wonder, and respect for the cultures you are seeing. Treat people with respect and they will more than likely do the same for you.
Use www.keyhole.com to get high-resolution aerial photos of you hotel and other destinations ($29.95/annual subscription).
Engage the cabdrivers. They are always fascinating. Especially the ones from foreign countries. They have all kinds of interesting stories about their lives.

Jet Lag

The night(s) before your trip, go to bed closer to the time zone your will be to get a head start on the time zone change.
As soon as you get on the plane, reset your clock to the time zone you will be in. Put yourself in that time zone, and eat, sleep and drink accordingly.
Depending on the direction, moderate alcohol to sedate or coffee/tea to stimulate can help.
With major time zone shifts, consider asking your physician for sleeping pills for the first couple of days.
Melatonin can be helpful for some to sleep as well.
The first day, resist the urge to nap. Stay awake as long as you can and go to bed at your normal bedtime in the time zone you are in.
If you arrive in the day, expose yourself of as much sun as possible.

Additional reading:
Another packing tip site:
http://www.thetravelinsider.info/info/packingtips1.htm#AboutYourLuggage

If you have any additional tips, please pass them along for inclusion in future artilces and newsletters.