On some accounts, travelers rant on why the airport security and management is so strict, but they don’t have the effort to come in earlier as to avoid problems. This is a post to remind all travelers that it is better to be early.

I have one travel tip (if you’re going abroad) that works well when you’re in the planning phase:

Browse the Internet for references in hotels, places, and tips.

If you get around London, there are a lot of guest houses that offer you great service and you get more privacy since it feels like you’re staying at your own home. You can try a Blackpool guest house.

As far as jet lag, my crucial suggestion is that you never ever ever go to bed off schedule. When I flew from Dallas to Denmark, I’d usually get in about 2p. I’d immediately checkin and take a cold shower to wake me up. Then I’d force myself to stay awake until at least 10a that night, then go to bed, wake up on time the next morning. I might be a little groggy, but the jet lag would be gone.

The only other tip for Europe that I’d add is that everywhere you go it’s cig smoke saturated. Don’t expect to reuse clothes without washing them.

As for jetlag, best is to put yourself on the destination time before you leave – the biggest part of jetlag is getting accustomed to when the sun is up and when you have natural light, so you should stay indoors before you leave and nap in the afternoon if you have an evening flight across continents. The new airbus a380 will actually adjust the internal lighting in the cabin to match the light levels at your destination to help reduce jetlag. The other thing is to knock yourself out using a sleep aid to force your body into your destination time. With my SydneySFO flights I can work on both days at either end of the flight and only feel a little bit laggy

As with germs in the cabin – it is a common myth. The air in the cabin is much much cleaner than if you were at a common restaurant or anywhere else with a group of people. This is because of how frequently they cycle and clean the air out in the cabin (IIRC the whole cabin is cycled once every 9-10 minutes). I have sat next to sick people on flights many times and never caught anything

As for the best seats – I use seatguru.com (I know it by heart now) and most airlines in their online FF section can let you pick a seat. If you are a FF, depending on your level, you can usually get middle seats ‘blocked’ where they will be allocated last

http://dealarchitect.typepad.com/deal_architect/2006/12/all_this_techno.html

I did 30K miles in April, have another 30K in June…I would give up on travel if I did not live in Tampa. From my door to airport gate, I can still on a good day make it in 30 minutes (and we live in a quiet neigborhood, on a canal, so enjoy the reason to live in Tampa – not in an apartment right next to airport). Only on certain times like Monday mornings, the TSA crawls. Certain terminals like that of Southwest seem to move more efficiently than Delta’s. I print my boarding pass at home. I have the security routine down – the quart bag and all. And Tampa airport has free WiFi.

Yes, I am bragging about our airport. It is consistently rated in the top 5 airports in the country. Because they constantly innovate and are always investing in new screening, baggage and other technology.

But also to point out other airports, TSA and airlines can do much better…

…and that each of us can make a difference. Once at LAX only 2 X-Ray machines were open when 4 should have. I called for the TSA supervisor and showed him the $ 2.50 charge on our tickets and said there was no reason the other lines should not be open given the money we were all paying for the additional security. He opened another line. Another time the line was so long that I called SW reservations and had them connect me to their airport ops and told them half their planes would be delayed if they did not investigate what was wrong.

I was recently at Heathrow and the process is so broken – they only allow one hand bag (so add even more time at the arrival airport), you go through 2 passport checks, and 2 X-Ray’s (one specifically for shoes). Last year I transited through Paris Charles de Gaulle twice – flew in on Delta, flew out on Delta. Ended up, we flew out on same equipment. Yet we were bused to a satellite terminal 25 feet away, made to go through security again, then walk back on tarmac onto same plane. Tell me that busing, and worse the walking back adds to security.

I am all for better security. But most airports the actual security takes a minute or a minute or a half. I wish it was 5 minutes. The rest of the lines can be fixed with better process and technology. But till us customers scream, all the waiting around will be sold as “security” time…

BTW – there is plenty of technology that can be deployed – see link below (and I wrote this 15 months ago, so things have evolved even more..at San Jose this week, I saw the Clear program machine but hardly anyone was using them.SFO has had it for a while now)…

http://dealarchitect.typepad.com/deal_architect/2006/01/technology_in

Finally, the photo above shows a plane without a wingtip (otherwise it would have blocked the sun). That’s another thing us customers need to push for. Most planes in the last few years have wing tips (and the 747-400 has had it for over 15 years). If you are flying a plane without one, it is probably too old and should be retired…us consumers should push for visibility on age of equipment (like we can see average data on delays on specifric flights) in reservation systems…the airlines will bitch and moan but that data is readily available to display as they have to log maintenance detail even more than delay detail…

Another invaluable tip for packing: you will always pack your luggage as full as possible. So, if you want to take less, buy a smaller bag. It sounds simple, but it’s extremely effective.

Also, on health: when I’ve been travelling recently, I’ve been popping the Cold-fx (http://www.cold-fx.com/) as a preventative measure. So far, so good.