New tips for plane travel
Jul. 29th, 2002 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mattlistenerThis trip I noted lots of points for future plane travel.
-Bad news: long domestic flights are charging for in-flight movies. $5 on American. Bastards. Good news: rent a DVD player + a DVD for $12 and watch something of your own choice! inmotionpictures.com. If you have netflix too, they may combine well.
-Going through the security line takes much longer now (surprise!). More potential for bottlenecking as well. Everything that you would take out of your pockets to walk through the metal detector, remove while you're in line and put in your carry-on. If they select you for random search, be pleasant and routine about it.
-Check-in lines are longer too. Be aware that you can skip the departures counter entirely and check in at the gate if you have no bags to check. If you have an E-ticket, look for automated check-in computers near the departures counter. (They validate you by credit card.) United does this, American does not.
-Not checking bags is an even bigger win than it used to be. If your itinerary gets messed up, which may be more likely these days, you'll be able to reroute without worry.
-I got my Boston-San Diego tickets through travelocity.com, which is still one of the best airfare bargain hunting sites. I did Boston-Chicago on United and Chicago-San Diego on American. The two-airlines trick is one way Travelocity comes up with cheaper fares. If you do this trick, consider the following when deciding if it's worth it. An airline often can't check you in on another airline's flight, so in your connecting city you'll have to check in again at the next airline. If you checked bags they might make you pick it up at baggage claim and check it again (ie make your layover at least 2 hours). Also, if your itinerary gets messed up, it's harder for them to work out a new one for you.
-United has better equipment and less leg room. American has older equipment and more legroom. On the United flight, the guy next to me was using his laptop on the tray table, and when the person in front of him leaned back his seat, he found there was no room for the laptop anymore. He contorted to have his screen tilting into the aisle for a few minutes, then gave up.
-In general, avoid a connecting flight that's the last flight of the day (low fault-tolerance), and avoid making connections in Chicago. (My boss travels a lot and 5 times out of 6, she says, Chicago connections get screwed up.)
-Per the FAA, pay-lockers are no longer available in airports.
-When there is an announcement that causes passengers to mob the desk (eg "this flight has been delayed 2 hours"), make your mobbing vector go through the line-forming ribbons. This bit of on-the-spot cleverness got me served 2nd instead of 22nd because the counter people quite happily asked the other mobbers to get in line (now quite long, alas for them) and only offered assistance to people from between the ribbons.
-Nationwide cell phone service is very useful for dealing with the unexpected. In particular, sometimes the airline representative on the phone can be differently helpful than the one you get in person.
-Bad news: long domestic flights are charging for in-flight movies. $5 on American. Bastards. Good news: rent a DVD player + a DVD for $12 and watch something of your own choice! inmotionpictures.com. If you have netflix too, they may combine well.
-Going through the security line takes much longer now (surprise!). More potential for bottlenecking as well. Everything that you would take out of your pockets to walk through the metal detector, remove while you're in line and put in your carry-on. If they select you for random search, be pleasant and routine about it.
-Check-in lines are longer too. Be aware that you can skip the departures counter entirely and check in at the gate if you have no bags to check. If you have an E-ticket, look for automated check-in computers near the departures counter. (They validate you by credit card.) United does this, American does not.
-Not checking bags is an even bigger win than it used to be. If your itinerary gets messed up, which may be more likely these days, you'll be able to reroute without worry.
-I got my Boston-San Diego tickets through travelocity.com, which is still one of the best airfare bargain hunting sites. I did Boston-Chicago on United and Chicago-San Diego on American. The two-airlines trick is one way Travelocity comes up with cheaper fares. If you do this trick, consider the following when deciding if it's worth it. An airline often can't check you in on another airline's flight, so in your connecting city you'll have to check in again at the next airline. If you checked bags they might make you pick it up at baggage claim and check it again (ie make your layover at least 2 hours). Also, if your itinerary gets messed up, it's harder for them to work out a new one for you.
-United has better equipment and less leg room. American has older equipment and more legroom. On the United flight, the guy next to me was using his laptop on the tray table, and when the person in front of him leaned back his seat, he found there was no room for the laptop anymore. He contorted to have his screen tilting into the aisle for a few minutes, then gave up.
-In general, avoid a connecting flight that's the last flight of the day (low fault-tolerance), and avoid making connections in Chicago. (My boss travels a lot and 5 times out of 6, she says, Chicago connections get screwed up.)
-Per the FAA, pay-lockers are no longer available in airports.
-When there is an announcement that causes passengers to mob the desk (eg "this flight has been delayed 2 hours"), make your mobbing vector go through the line-forming ribbons. This bit of on-the-spot cleverness got me served 2nd instead of 22nd because the counter people quite happily asked the other mobbers to get in line (now quite long, alas for them) and only offered assistance to people from between the ribbons.
-Nationwide cell phone service is very useful for dealing with the unexpected. In particular, sometimes the airline representative on the phone can be differently helpful than the one you get in person.
