I log around 400,000 real air miles a
year (those earned in the air, not by credit card purchases) as travel editor
for CBS News, and if there's anything I've learned, it's that most airport,
airline, hotel, and other rules and policies are only misguided suggestions.
Here are my special tips on saving time, money, and stress, without breaking
any rules or ever cutting in line -- in fact, without ever standing in a line!
Pick the farm-team airports
Unless I'm flying long-haul international nonstop, I try to
forget O'Hare, J.F.K., San Francisco, and Boston. Instead, in good weather or
bad, I head from, to, or through Milwaukee, Islip, Oakland, and Providence.
Those are the alternative airports that function so much better than their huge
counterparts. San Francisco is often weather challenged, with low fog -- not so
Oakland. Milwaukee is actually Chicago's third (and secret) airport. Just look
in the parking lot: A third of the cars have Illinois plates, which tells you
everything you need to know. Providence allows you to avoid the congestion and
delays of Logan, and last but never least is the often forgotten gem of
MacArthur airport in Islip, N.Y. These airports have better parking and fewer
delays, and maybe it's just me, but people yell a lot less there. I save time,
I often save money, and I almost always save stress.
Avoid baggage blues
If you're like me, you believe that there are two kinds of
airline bags: carried on, and lost. And while the airlines are doing a better
job with baggage these days, I still don't check bags on domestic flights. I
FedEx them or UPS them (or there are 15 other courier services that will do
this job). And for $40 to $50 -- not much more than what the airlines want to
charge you for losing your bags or making you wait endlessly at baggage claim
-- yours get picked up from your home or office and will be waiting for you in
your hotel room by 10:30 the next morning. (Smart travelers send luggage two to
three days ahead and get a big discount on shipping. Same thing for the way back
home -- because who cares if your dirty laundry arrives three days after you
do?)