Lists Yule Love: Holiday Travel Tips

By WYDaily Staff Wednesday, December 22, 2010

If you haven’t spent much time on the road lately, it’s a new and different world, ever changing since 2001. And if you aren’t up to speed on the latest travel practices and code of behavior, you’re like to turn your holiday travel into a downer for both you and everyone you impact.

Below we have assembled the most important tips for travel for the three primary methods of transit. We might have missed a few, so don’t hesitate to comment on this story and add more good advice for everyone to benefit.

Trains
If America was Europe, where they understand the efficiency and comfort of well managed travel by rail, we would have more to say.  It’s not and we don’t, so avoid them if you expect to be on time.

Driving
Buy an EZ Pass
What’s holding you back? You hate change (whether it is in the form of coins or transitions)? You have a pickle jars full of pennies you have to get rid of in order to check that you’re your bucket list? You think this is socialized transportation (it is)? Or your first girlfriend worked at a tollbooth and this is your moment to reminisce? Get over it. Buy an EZ Pass. You are the last standing human not to do it and, as a result, we can’t convert those final two lanes into express and speed up traffic.

Get a cell phone earpiece
If you are going to drive and talk, do it responsibly. Then you’ll have the other hand available for appropriate gestures to the people who are talking on the phone crooked against their neck and alternating between 40 and 80 mph depending on which part of the conversation.

Drive in the appropriate lane
What is it with the Mid-Atlantic states? Nowhere but in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina do people get in the passing lane to pass the time? If you lived in Colorado, you would get picked up for slowing the traffic stream. That’s the truth.  Look it up. This holiday season; get over to the right lane. Do it for Old Virginia!

Invest in a portable DVD player
Scientific studies have shown that children who have a movie to watch during a long trip have to go to the bathroom less, need less frequent stops for junk food and reduce their whining by 78 percent. Only part of that is true; the scientific study part. The rest is gospel. DVD players make wonderful early holiday gifts, are very inexpensive and run off the cigarette lighter for hours of smoke free entertainment.

You may have a GPS and you don’t know it
Before you buy the seemingly inexpensive Garmin or Tom Tom, only to find that the real profit for these folks is when the roads all change and you have to buy an upgrade, check to see if your mobile phone has one. The Droid’s built-in GPS is far better, updates are free, and the lady who speaks the directions is ever polite. You can use the money you saved on that DVD player for the car.

Know alternate routes before you leave
Until there is a prison sentence for rubber necking, little things will happen that will slow traffic to a crawl. Sometimes it is simply faster to travel farther just to get around a congested area. The squeeze play on I95 between Fredericksburg and Washington is a perfect example. Furthermore, any trip through a congested area that requires a water crossing (like here, for instance) is a parking lot waiting to happen. It’s good to know where you are going so you can consider going a different route.

Listen to the radio
In New York, you can listen to 1010 WINS for “traffic on the ones,” which means you can know ahead of time which bridge or tunnel to use to get across the river if you are heading to the northeast. Every city has a traffic report and it is good hear about a backup before you are part of it.

Planes
Changes in security procedures at all airports are changing constantly, as the government implements the latest detection equipment, revamped policies and new ways to both get you from the ticket counter to the gate before your plane takes flight without you. If you don’t fly very often, you are in for a big surprise when it comes to all the changes.

Buy a smaller suitcase
Any time you can board without having to check your bag, the benefits are multiple.  First, you remove the risk of the lost bag. The odds are better than you think.  Second, with most airlines, you will save about at $25 fee for every bag you check.  The top 20 airlines collected over $900 million in checked bag revenue from June to September of 2010. Good for them, but not for you. Finally, you will find that no one but you will know that you wore those same jeans more than once, packing light is really very satisfying.

Buy some 1 quart plastic bags
You may have heard that you can often get that full-sized bottle of shampoo your hairdresser sold you for $57 through security? Not anymore. TSA agents are vigilant and impatient with anyone who doesn’t abide by the 3-1-1 rule:  3.4-ounce bottles or less, all placed in a clear 1 quart plastic bag with a limit of 1 bag per customer. They will make you pull it out of your suitcase and place it in one of those plastic bins. If you leave it in your suitcase, they will stop the conveyor belt, pull your bag out, announce to the 87 people in line behind you that you failed to take your plastic bag out, and let everyone watch and steam while you fetch a plastic bin and place your plastic bag in there for a second screening. If you haven’t flown in years – there are great instructions and pictures at the TSA website.

Print your boarding pass now
I learned this the hard way while traveling to a funeral. Unexpected traffic resulted in my arriving at an airport later than I had hoped, but still with 40 minutes until my flight departed. But when I went to the little ATM-looking machines (called kiosks) where you can print your boarding pass, it told me that the flight was now closed and I had to go to the gate. Of course, you can’t get to the gate without a boarding pass. When I arrived at the ticket counter, they told me it was too late to make the flight and I would miss it. Urgent pleas of the extenuating circumstances resulted in them overriding the system and getting me on the plane, but I would not advise that as a travel strategy. It’s easy to print your boarding pass from home – so do it as soon as you can. Boarding passes are typically available for printing within 24 hours of your flight.

Avoid the bling line
Want the quickest line through security? It’s not the shortest line, it’s the line where people are wearing the least amount of jewelry. It astounds me to see people dragging their bag along to the security conveyer belt with six necklaces, double bracelets on each wrist, four or five rings, earrings the size of pie plates and anklets just for flair. All of it has to come off before you can make it through the detector. Even if you would rather get one of those intimate pat-downs from a TSA agent to avoid the screening machine, you will still have to take off the jewelry. So look for the person who sounds like a traveling flea market as their gems collide while walking and go to the other security line if you have that option.

Loosen your shoelaces and take off your belt
You will have to remove your shoes, no matter what. If you aren’t wearing socks, you will walk barefoot through security. Don’t worry; I’m sure you could eat off that floor, if you’re a dog. Nothing is more amusing than watching someone hop on one foot while they try to force a tightly laced shoe back on their foot so they can get out of the way of the rest of the passengers without leaving their wingtips behind; unless it is you. Loosen the laces; slip the shoes back on and go to the gate.

Take your license out of your wallet and keep your boarding pass in your pocket
Some airports want to see your boarding pass again after you pass through the electronic detector, some don’t. But all airports require you to give them your license our passport so they can hold it in their hand and shine a little light on it that tells them it’s not fake. Keep them with you just in case all the way through the process.

Don’t rely on the beverage/snack cart unless you don’t want anything
You might get a beverage if the flight is long enough and the attendants are in a decent mood. After they put ice in the cup, you’ll get about the same amount of liquid as fits in those TSA-approved shampoo bottles. And you can’t bring water or anything else with you, you have to buy it at the airport after you pass through security. So, if you tend to be thirsty or hungry, bring some cash and prepare to overpay.

Flying is still the most efficient way to cover a long distance over the holidays.  But the process is more arduous than ever. Pack accordingly and be sure to include a very large amount of patience. Just remember, it stinks for everyone.