Question: What is your No. 1 tip for holiday travel, especially for a novice traveler?
Answer: Book early. Even though sometimes closer to the date you’d like to travel the airlines have fare sales, if you wait until (the desired travel date) gets closer, you may wait too long and they may not have the space.
College kids are going back and forth from Dec. 20 to Jan. 1 or 2. If you pay $1,000 and the fare goes down to $500 — before, you could get the difference back. But now the airlines are charging a $150 fee out of the difference, and you get the difference back in a voucher. In every kind of way, they’re charging, to get money.
Q: How can one avoid paying checked-bag fees?
A: If you have (an airline’s) credit card and buy your air ticket with it, you may be able to have baggage fees waived for yourself and a companion. Other credit card companies may offer a similar benefit.
A lot of people also just use carry-on luggage, but some planes are too small to allow for roll-on bags to fit in overhead luggage compartments or under the seat. Your winter coat you can take on, but on the smaller aircraft you can’t hold anything on your lap.
Q: What other important tip should a novice travel-booker know?
A: Short layovers are not necessarily a good idea. Dulles, Houston, Chicago and other airports are so big that you may not make it to your connecting flight in time. Then you’ll have to stand in line to rebook. Jetways take time to connect to the plane, people can be slow getting off the plane, they don’t seem in a hurry. I try to warn people, especially families traveling with children and all their things, to allow for lots of time. If you forget something on the plane, you can’t go back on to retrieve it.
Q: What’s another important timesaver?
A: Print your boarding pass(es) from your computer. Give your bags to the porter, pay them a tip and just go to security. You don’t have to check your bags, the porter can do it, so you avoid that one more stop. Often you can just have the boarding pass on your smartphone and pass it over the scanning machine.
Q: What advice do you give your clients about dealing with the TSA?
A: Check the TSA website before you start packing. If they find something you’re not allowed to have in your baggage, they will throw it away.
Q: What happens if you’re traveling with a person who has a disability?
A: They’ll give you a stamp to get into the gold lane; it’s a shorter line. You’ll go in with the flight crew, and one accompanying traveler can board with the person in a wheelchair. They are boarded first, as are families with small children, to give them time to get settled.
