WATER HINTS
- Bring a empty thermos or water bottle to the airport. Fill it with water from the water fountain after your TSA check. to save money.
- You can also bring a frozen bottle of water to the airport to get through TSA — since it’s not a liquid. But you need to be sure it is totally frozen; possibly hard to do.
- Don’t hoard water from your long international flights, since you will probably have to go through a security check at the airport at which you arrive for your transfer to your next flight, and will just have to pour it out (or drink it fast).
BATHROOM HINTS
- If you are flying into the U.S. from a foreign country, that country is doing a check/search required by the United States. They can be very picky. So if you see you must go through a security check/passport check in order to get to your airport gate, GO TO THE BATHROOM BEFORE YOU GET IN THAT LINE. Once through security, there may be no bathrooms for up to 1-1/2 hours.
PACKING LIGHT
- Don’t take full bottles of anything with you. If you have twelve items (creams, gels, toothpaste, sunscreen, shampoo, etc.,) and they are 8 ounces a piece, then you’ve just added SIX uneccesary POUNDS to your suitcase. Buy some small empty travel-worthy bottles and fill only what you will use on the trip.
- Pay attention to your suitcase. The same sized suitcase can weigh a difference of 3 to 5 pounds. You want your poundage to be your STUFF, not the suitcase weight. I often use a very cheap and almost flimsy light suitcase and it has stood up to the TORTURE the airlines give it.
EASE OF TRANSPORT (OF YOUR SUITCASE)
- Be sure you have a suitcase with spinner wheels where all four wheels spin in all directions. It is also helpful for the wheels to be substantial. My favorite suitcase wheels spin, but are small and makes the entire suitcase tippy.
- BE SURE you carry-on has wheels and a telescoping handle. No matter how light you think your carry-on will be, it gets heavier by the hour — you add your salad, and then the souvenir and the extra bag of chips, and the sweater and pashmina you are currently too hot to wear and that extra bottle of water, etc. It must have wheels. Spinners are better, but mine only have two wheels.
- The telescoping handle is a must, especially for fast walkers. I had a wheeled carry-on with a strap and every time I needed to pull it, I had to bend over to get it and it wobbled all over the aisle — more wobbling, the faster I walked.
- DON’T BE FOOLED by ads telling you the carry-on is “under the seat”. Even if you are lucky enough to get a seat that really can house that thing, you have no place to put your purse. Sometimes, I can’t even wheel the thing down the aisle of Economy Class!
- Get a double zipped (important) smashable packing cube and keep almost the entire contents of your carry-on inside the carry-on. When you get to your seat, pull out the packing cube and put the carry-on overhead.
- The good thing about a carry-on size is that the airlines can’t MAKE you check it on to your last destination, like they can a 21″ suitcase.
- Be aware your suitcase can sit outside IN THE RAIN for long periods of time. I’ve had most my stuff wet inside my suitcase. There are covers you can buy for your suitcase and there are places at the airport, for a fee, that wrap, wrap, wrap your suitcase in saran wrap for protection. I play the odds and don’t use them.