I love planning trips and going on grand adventures. Both fortunately and unfortunately, I travel a lot for work. Even so, everyday I look up random flights and hope that I am one of those lucky people to get a computer-glitch cheap ticket. Oh, to dream. However there are times when the travel adventure part includes crazy airport and flight mishaps. I have had some scary moments. I have had some frustrating moments.

I still have not figured out if it is worse to experience these horrible moments on a business or on a personal trip. Either way, those past moments still haunt me at times.  Through these many travails I have learned some key lessons and travel tips ranging from pack everything into one carry-on bag to making sure you have a smart phone with travel applications on it.  Further, a key lesson learned is to never judge your fellow traveler when they are having a cocktail at 8am.  Seriously, even if it is 8am at New York’s LaGuardia airport it is happy hour in Japan. When traveling time is a fluid concept. Thus, don’t judge.  That’s my first tip. Next…

Every travel site will advise you to travel light. If possible, fit everything into a carry-on bag. Let me provide you with a concrete example of why you should travel light. Here is what I refer to as the “horror of leaving Las Vegas” incident.  I was in Las Vegas with a colleague for a set of trainings and presentations we had to provide.  It wasn’t hard work. We knew our stuff, did great presentations and then partied hard. My mantra is work hard, party hard. No better place than Vegas for that.  As some of you may know the airport is really close to the strip; yet somehow we managed to arrive late to the airport and TSA made us ask every single person in the security lien if we could move up the line. We made it on the flight and it was rather uneventful until we hit the Minnesota airspace. Then turbulence started to occur as we were coming across a storm. We then hit New York airspace and the turbulence was unreal. The lady across from me was near tears. Then we had a major drop and another and another. The pilot tried to land three times; with each attempt ending in a sharp upturn back into the 7,000 foot mark or so. I had wi-fi access and was in touch with my family detailing my harrowing experience as it was happening. Maybe not the wisest of things to do. Even the flight attendants were crying and praying. There were people vomiting. Eventually, the pilot did an emergency landing in Philadelphia. I got up and started to grab my carry-on bag. Others started doing the same as well. However, the flight attendants noted that we would just stay in Philadelphia for a few minutes and then attempt to fly back to New York. No way, was I having that. But at first they refused to let me and a few others go. At the end they only left those leave the plane that only had carry-on bags with them; meaning they had not checked bags. And that folks is why I travel light! In case of an emergency you can quickly leave.

My next tip, which is fairly common sense, is: arrive to the airport with enough time to get through security.   Besides my Vegas ordeal, I encountered a long security line in Rome that nearly drove me bonkers. After what had been a glorious ten days touring Italy, it was time to go back home. We had been advised by the locals that we didn’t need to leave very early for the airport. Yet, something in my gut told me that we should still arrive early enough. We arrived three hours early to the airport and almost missed our flight! The security line, which was specific to Americans and Israelis, was unreal. The first line we went through was just for us to answer security questions. It was a psychological profile of sorts.  That line was two hours long. Then we had to check into our flight in another line. Then we had to take a shuttle and then walk a long winding way to our gate.  What a way to end our trip.

Speaking of ending a trip on a low note.  I had to attend a professional conference in the Bahamas. I know. I know what you are thinking: boo hoo!   Seriously, I didn’t want to be there and I was part of the opening plenary. So, I had to bring my A game.  Yet, I was very ready to leave at the end of the conference. I had just one carry-on bag and believed that I could fit everything into the bag, including conference materials.  Unfortunately, my zipper broke and the luggage was not holding together very well. I walked down to the front desk of this well-known resort and they really couldn’t care less.  Although the resort had tons of shops none were open at that time.  Eventually a male worker took pity on me and I suggested that I call the engineering department. I called and the woman who answered asked me to tell her who had suggested that I call her so that she could fire them.  I gave up. I had packed  extra ziplock and small green foldable bags and I was able to redistribute my items. I also threw out all the conference materials. Seriously, never bother to take them home.  Then I also used the dry cleaning bag that is in all hotel closets. I made it to the airport and the officials were a bit weirded out by the appearance of my “luggage” but they helped seal it up when I explained the nature of my distress. They took pity on me. Although, going through US customs in the Bahamas airport was a bit odd and they questioned me a little more intensely because of the nature of my luggage.  When you go through customs there, they pull up an image of your luggage so that you can identity it. I managed to keep a smile through it all. It really does help.

Remaining calm and pleasant to airport and hotel personnel, got me through my stranded in Curacao incident when hurricane Irene hit a few years back. No flights were taking off back to the United States.  When we eventually got the call that flights were resuming we headed out early to the airport, like 4am early, to see if we could get a direct flight back. When we got there the lien was a mile long. All ahead of us, I kept hearing people were being re-routed through all parts of the US. Some people were having to take three flights just to get back to New York.  While waiting, I developed a game plan. It was our turn at the counter and they wanted to send us via Texas, to Philadelphia and then to New York.  I was not going to do that with a four year old. I asked if they could fly me to an alternative airport in the surrounding New York metropolitan area. Those were all booked. She noted that she could get me to Miami but it would be another two flights. When she mentioned Miami, my ears perked up. I asked about landing in Miami’s airport and then flying out of Ft Lauderdale to New York. She looked at me oddly and asked “would you really be able to do that?” Absolutely, all my business travel gave me a leg up.  I knew exactly how long it would take to go from Miami to Ft Lauderdale and how to navigate that airport. Lo and behold she not only got us on a flight out of Ft Lauderdale but we ended up in first class. She was grateful that we had been pleasant and not yelling like everyone else and that we knew possible travel routes.   Thus, always consider alternative airports and be nice to the airline agents.

Although with all the gadgetry there exists now, you often do not have to wait in those rebooking lines. A few months back, I was in Nashville for a business trip. Our flight was delayed two hours. We eventually boarded and waited and waited. After two hours, the pilot announced the flight was being canceled due to high winds in New York.  We had already taxied so we had to head back to the gate. We were told to turn off our cell phones but many passengers refused prompting warnings from the frustrated flight attendants that the police would be meeting us at the gate. I shut my phone off as requested but the second we returned to the gate I turned back on phone. I opened up my Delta Airline Application and within 30 seconds rebooked my flight for the next morning and ended up in first class. I then opened up the hotel app saw no availability and decided to call the hotel. I thanked them for a lovely stay the last few nights and explained my situation. I got a room immediately and they still had all my personal information on file.  I was off the phone in one minute. When they allowed us to leave the plane, I sailed past a long line of angry individuals waiting to be rebooked. Lesson here: travel with a smart phone that has travel applications loaded onto the phone with your information already inputted.

Lastly, this is a no-brainer. Always travel with snacks in your bag.  I was flying out of San Francisco on my way to Atlanta. It was a 6am flight. Now those of you that have been to San Francisco know that just because it is a city in California it does not mean that it is always warm.  As a matter of fact there is a famous Mark Twain quote “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.”  We boarded our flight and noticed there was a lot of action outside the plane. A lot of machines were moving to and fro, round and round. We were on board for about an hour when the pilot finally spoke to us. He noted that the airport had no-deicing fluid and there was frost on the plane. The mechanics had been trying to “wipe “it down but to no avail. The pilot advised us “we were going to wait till the sun rose and melted the ice. ” I kid you not!  Sure enough, we waited till about 9am. Meanwhile, there was no food service on board. There were kids that were crying. I was hungry. I took out my candy and my sandwich and started eating. A flight attendant hurriedly came over and advised me to hide my food as many people were hungry and my eating could cause a disturbance.   I took my sandwich, stuffed it in my jacket pocket and went to the bathroom to eat. Yuck, but it tasted so good.

Ah, the joys of travel. It’s great to see a new land, experience a new culture and new foods.  However, the getting there (or the leaving) can at times be a bit rough. Be prepared by packing lightly, wisely with extra foldable bags, carry a smart phone and snacks and most importantly of all keep a pleasant attitude. Being nice will help you out of many travel jams.

Happy travels!