How SC travel reporter avoids the airport chaos he writes about
I’ve been on 22 flights so far this year, but I actually hate flying.
Everything about airports — rental car lots, waiting at baggage claim, TSA lines, food lines, getting on the plane lines ... more lines — is a recipe for causing me to contemplate every decision I’ve ever made up to that point.
Airplanes themselves are their own source of stress, including the pain that I get from my ears not popping for days after I land. (Yes. I’ve tried chewing gum and everything else.)
Yet, I fly all of the time, and I’ll fly on eight more planes by the beginning of the new year. I’ve got family all over the nation. I like to visit them. So, I’ve figured out how to manage. After flying so many times this year, walking through so many airports and writing about travel chaos, I’ve fallen into a few pitfalls and seen a whole lot more.
It’s been a chaotic year for flying, from endless flight delays and cancellations due to flight crew shortages to COVID-19 seeming to pop up every time we’ve taken a breath. (And, yes, masks are still required at all public transit hubs in the nation, including airports.)
But, for every missed flight, for every stressed minute of running through the airport, I’ve realized it doesn’t have to be this way. Despite my dislike of flying, I’ve had exactly one major problem flying this year, and I’ve never missed a flight. It’s been relatively stress-free, and I want it to be that way for you.
Low expectations
So, how do I avoid all of the chaos that I’ve written extensively about? It starts with one main principle:
Plan for the worst, feel lucky when you get the best.
Call me cynical, but when it comes to traveling, I generally prefer to assume that everything possible will go wrong.
After seeing the Myrtle Beach International Airport crowded with hours-long TSA lines stretching the length of the building exactly once, I finally went and got TSA PreCheck. I didn’t fly enough before now to need it, but that $85 program that lasts five years (less than 5 cents a day) has been a godsend.
The Monday after Thanksgiving I got to Love Field in Dallas at 5 a.m. and the place was already packed. Thanks to TSA PreCheck, it took me just 20 minutes to get to my gate from the moment I got out of my dad’s car, including dropping off two checked bags.
TSA PreCheck also just saves me a lot of headache. No pulling small liquids, my two laptops, Nintendo Switch or anything else out of my bags. And no taking my shoes off to walk barefoot on the nasty airport floor, either.
Since Southwest Airlines doesn’t have many direct flights from Myrtle Beach to Dallas, every time I visited this year I needed a connecting flight. I’ve spent a whole lot of time in Nashville, Atlanta and Chicago despite never having actually set foot in those cities for more than a couple hours at a time.
I have to be careful with connecting flights, and you should, too. I never take a connection with a layover of less than an hour unless I’m desperate.
This week, I was thankful for that. My plane from Dallas to Nashville was half an hour late leaving, and my next gate when I landed was at the opposite end of the airport. When I landed, I still had 20 minutes before boarding. Plenty of time to walk (though I’m anxious so it might have been a light jog) to my next flight.
Preparation: packing, arriving early and otherwise
Let’s get the collective groan out of the way: I’m going to remind you just once that it’s always a good idea, no matter what airport, to arrive at least two hours early. (I’m looking at you, fellow Myrtle Beach fliers, I know some of you still arrive 45 minutes before your flight expecting everything to be fine.)
When I say two hours early, I mean pulling up to the airport — or better yet, walking in the door to the airport — not checking out of your hotel two hours before. I know all too well how traffic sneaks up on us on Myrtle Beach. One second, everything is fine. Next, the entirety of Highway 17 right next to the airport is shutdown. Traffic in everywhere else I’ve been — Dallas, Austin, Houston, San Diego — is just as unpredictable.
I get it. Maybe you’ve always done it this way. But think about it differently, wouldn’t it be nicer to not have to run through the airport? To not feel frantic as you’re stuck behind that one slow car in the drop-off lane? To not be praying people move faster through the TSA line or you’ll miss you’re flight? I hate that kind of stress. I refuse to deal with it.
Speaking of TSA, let’s talk about your bags. There are different schools of thought on this — check or not to check.
I almost always check a bag, or two. I’m usually traveling for awhile, and that travel-size toothpaste won’t cut it. And, my moisturizer doesn’t come in less than 3.4 oz anyway. Plus, if you check a bag, that’s one less thing to carry through the airport! Yes, sometimes your bags end up in a weird destination or never left your home airport, but that’s a rather uncommon occurrence. Just because it happened to your friend once, think about how many times it *didn’t* happen to them, or anyone else. Those odds are thousands to one in your favor.
That doesn’t mean I walk through the airport with nothing at all. I have a small shoulder bag that I put all of my medicine in. I need that stuff to live. I’m not letting it more than three feet from me until I reach my destination.
Flight cancellations
There was a period this summer, amid fuel supply crunches, computer errors and flight crew shortages, when it seemed like each major carrier was taking turns canceling thousands of flights in a single week. No one was immune.
I wasn’t immune, either.
The week of my brother’s wedding, Southwest delayed a flight of mine so far into the evening that I’d miss my connection, and the rest of the options weren’t great, either. American itself was going through a flight migraine that week, as it canceled hundreds of flights.
However, I was flying in almost a full week before the actual wedding to visit some family in California. We picked a new, direct flight for the following day. I lost a little bit of time with my aunt and cousin, but all in all, it was relatively painless.
The pandemic has taught us how important moments with family and friends are. I sure wasn’t going to miss my only brother’s wedding for a flight cancellation and choosing to go well ahead of time ensured I never thought for a moment that I might not be there. I realize that not every situation can allow for as much breathing room, but whenever you can, do it. It’s worth it.
Flight cancellations also mean engaging in what can be one of the most horrific parts of travel — calling an air carrier’s customer service.
Both of my parents have flown for work for my entire life, so we always have our carrier’s customer service number on hand. We also know that hold times might suck, a lot. Remember that every time your flight is delayed or canceled there are at least 160 other people who will also be calling about the exact same problem. And, if one flight has problems, others probably do, too. Multiply that number by a lot, and you might be waiting a minute.
There’s no magic solution I can give you for dealing with airline customer service. But, what I can say is that chaotic customer service wait times, and struggles to find new flights, underscore the importance of adding breathing room into your flight plans whenever possible.
Oh, and remember how I always bring my medicine with me in a carry-on bag? My rule is to always bring a minimum of 10 days worth of medicine with me on top of what I need for the trip. Every year, I run across heartbreaking stories about someone who had their flight canceled but only brought enough medicine to last the trip. Please don’t let that be you. There is probably no area of travel that my principle of “plan for the worst” is more important.
COVID-19
Eek! COVID. We’re all tired of talking about it. I’m tired of talking about it, but it’s still a problem. This new “omicron” variant isn’t making things any easier.
When flying, we have to deal with COVID because of the federal mask mandate that lasts until mid-March. Yes, wearing a mask can be tiring. Yes, wearing one at the airport and on planes is a requirement under federal law. Both of these things can be true.
The other thing to remember about masks is that they aren’t a “follow-the-leader” issue. You’re going to walk through airports and see maskless passengers — even maskless police officers, if you fly through Myrtle Beach. They are not an example to follow. Federal law and widespread, well-studied health recommendations are.
That said, masks aren’t the only form of protection.
I didn’t get on a plane until I was fully vaccinated in early April of this year. You’re in a confined space — airports and planes — with a lot of other people you don’t know for a long time. The risk of catching or spreading COVID if you’re unvaccinated is high. Plus, it appears we’re are getting closer by the minute to having a vaccine mandate for domestic air travel.
Deep breaths
Hopefully, all of this will help make your upcoming flights a little less stressful.
No, you can’t do much about the passenger who takes their shoes off during the flight, but you can eliminate a whole lot of other frustrating elements of air travel that are within your control.
Flying isn’t just about making your travel experience good, however. Please try to not make it worse for anyone else: passengers, airport workers, flight attendants, etc.
Every moment you think about snapping at another person, bite your tongue if you can. You don’t know what’s happened in their day so far. If it’s me, there’s a 100% guarantee that I wasn’t trying to irritate you. I’m just trying to get to my destination in one piece.
I try to see life from everyone else’s perspective when I’m flying. They are in a rush, too. They just want to get a good seat, too. They can’t wait to see their friends and family, too. If they do something irritating, it’s probably an accident. Even if it isn’t, do you really want to start an argument on a plane? Remember, we’re all trapped in this tin can together.
Have a safe flight.
This story was originally published December 8, 2021 at 10:34 AM.
