How to make air travel suck less? [Archive]

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Tradd

2-13-23, 9:25pm

Going back to the Yucatán in December for a week of cave diving. The travel in August sucked big time. I flew cattle class on Southworst. Hotel was nice but the smaller rooms were at the back of the courtyard, and a long walk for my knees.

This time I have a business class ticket on AA. I got a condo through Airbnb just for me. Elevator building and washer/dryer in unit. No more stomping my clothes clean while taking a shower. Grocery store close to condo building. I’m staying in Playa del Carmen again.

My hard sided spinner bag didn’t work well as it had no exterior pockets. Plus it was awkward to move with so much dive gear in it. I got a nice roller bag with external pockets from Rick Steve’s website. This time I will pack more in my checked bag. That will make it hopefully better with TSA as they were finger f*cking my regulators. Have to carry on my lights due to lithium ion batteries. Dive computer, both masks, and wireless transmitters will be carryon. I take minimal clothes.

Dive instructor/dive guide will drive me all over again as last time so I don’t have to worry about that.

My PacSafe purse was too heavy. This time I’m going with a smaller cross body bag. I’m not taking iPad or kindle, just iPhone. I do add a backup phone battery and charger cord in bag.

What else can I do to make air travel suck less? I do get to the airport 4 hours in advance. The people watching is great. I wish I didn’t have to check a bag, but I have to due to amount of gear I take.

I applied for global entry, but it takes so long to get an interview, I likely won’t have it done before I go.

catherine

2-14-23, 6:43am

Business class is a good way to improve your experience. In my experience as a million miler the things that improve the travel experience are:

Expedited TSA--You don't need global entry. You can just get TSA PreCheck which pretty much does the same thing, at least at the airport of origin. https://www.tsa.gov/precheck
Airline club: A must for optimized flying experiences. Unfortunately you can't really buy yourself into one of those. If you were flying United, I'd give you one of my passes. But any nice place to sit with a glass of wine and a magazine will do. ETA: I looked up the Admiral's Club and if you are flying internationally in business class you can get into the Admiral's Club. I'm sure there's a few at O'Hare, assuming that's where you're flying out of. Of course, the people-watching is limited there, but if you're there for 4 hours you can spend a couple of hours in the Club and a couple of hours out in the terminal.
Boarding: If you are flying business you will probably already have a good place in line for boarding. You should be in an early group
Flight: In business, the seats should be comfortable, and the amentities should make the flight pretty comfortable. In business, no one will be loud or want to chat you up.
Disembarking: nothing you can really do about that, except be happy you're at your destination!

Tradd

2-14-23, 10:22am

Catherine, yes, I am flying out of O’Hare. I will look into the Admiral’s Club. Thanks!

Teacher Terry

2-14-23, 10:57am

I am surprised about your pac safe purse. The one I bought is nylon and very light. My last trip to Europe I was offered a chance to fly economy plus for an extra 145 and I grabbed it. The extra room made all the difference in comfort. For my trip in April if I can upgrade reasonably I will. My kids said I got an awesome deal and not to expect it to happen again:)).

iris lilies

2-14-23, 11:29am

Does O’Hare have an airport hotel? I ask because that’s my new emphasis, cost not an issue. I fly so seldom yet the times there’s been a hotel with an easy walking distance of the terminal was a wonderful thing.

El Paso Texas was that. The airport in… Someplace in Florida (Orlando?) wherever that was, that I went was that. What luxury, staying overnight before my flight and getting up and walking a block to the terminal.

I contrast that with a shitty experience we had in Boston where I waited till the last minute to get a hotel room the night before a flight. Everything was super expensive. We paid hundreds of dollars for a crappy chain hotel, and then when the time came to catch the early shuttle to the airport, they almost didn’t have room for us. That was incredibly annoying because the shuttle was the main reason I chose that crappy expensive place.

my new mode of travel is going to be— if I’m flying overseas I’m going to stay at the airport the night before.

catherine

2-14-23, 11:37am

iris lilies

2-14-23, 11:46am

I agree. The closest the hotel can be to the airport the better.

At O'Hare you've got the Hilton that's connected to the building, and you just walk under the road and you're in the terminal. In Philly, there's a Marriott. In Detroit, a Westin, in Tampa a Marriott, in Houston a Marriott. On business, I always tried to stay in those airport hotels if the price was right.

that’s good to know because I can fly anywhere from O’Hare. At this point in my life I wouldn’t be looking for the cheapest flights I would be looking for the easiest flight and that would be St. Louis to O’Hare. Stay overnight. Fly from O’Hare to Europe.

if I remember, right, Edinburgh, Scotland airport had a hotel that was easy walking distance to the terminal.

sweetana3

2-14-23, 11:59am

Business class is the way to go. We have tried the lounge at Toronto, Tokyo, and Paris. All were stunning and made the wait so much more comfortable. Spent 12 hours in Toronto.

But even without that, the easy on and off were great benefits. In SF, our outgoing flight was 1am and we arrived at 8am the day before due to flights. We always rented a hotel room with a shuttle there and back and relaxed, walked to get a meal and coffee, and rested. Worth it. No lounge for these flights since only premium economy and we were not going to spend all that time in airport chairs.

Tradd

2-14-23, 12:57pm

I live 30 min from O’Hare. There’s no reason for me to stay at the Hilton on site.

littlebittybobby

2-14-23, 2:59pm

Okay---A littlebittybit of trivia, here---but here's a photo o' Butch O'Hare, Air Ace & War Hero, in his plane, where he is still buckled in at the bottom o' the ocean & just bones. So anyway-- He had a gun-ho' kill-and-be-killed attitude, evidently. Yup. But yeah---yer favrite airport is named after Butch. Here you thought it was after some entrenched Politician. But nope. Hope that helps you kids some. Bon Voyage. Ha. Thankk Mee.5194

littlebittybobby

2-14-23, 3:04pm

jp1

2-14-23, 9:31pm

A friend of ours just told us this weekend about how a friend of theirs managed to get global entry as they reentered the US. Apparently if you have an approved application you can do the interview on the spot as you go through customs coming back into the country as long as you're at an airport that can do this (I'm sure OHare is one of those) and that the global entry desk, or whatever it's called, is open when your flight lands. Our friend's friend actually submitted the application 15 hours earlier while in france, it got approved a few hours later and then at JFK, which has a 24 hour global entry desk, they got final approval and just cruised on into the country. Apparently it's the backlog for appointments because of covid that is causing the massive delay. The background check part of the process isn't delayed so you would probably get approved for that part of it fairly quickly since the slowdown on that side of the process is if you have LOTS of foriegn travel that they have to verify/get justified. (Friend's friend had literally left the US something like 2 or 3 times in her entire life, hence the quick approval of the background check part of it).