Ten stress-free travel tips for people who hate to travel

by Chris Owen on

To many people, traveling is a joy, something to look forward to, plan for and have fun with. Those who travel a lot have their routine down pat and often keep luggage packed, ready for the next trip. Those who do not travel much probably don’t because they don’t like the whole business of traveling. Aside from people with really challenging handicaps, people in prison or celebrities, most people should not have a lot of trouble with traveling.

Lets take a look at some great travel tips from those who don’t travel much but enjoy travel and have figured out how to make it as stress-free as possible.

  1. Get a passport. Duh. Unless your trip finds you walking through a National Park, you need a passport. Cruise travelers that are U.S. citizens slide under the law by booking closed-loop cruises that begin and end in the U.S. The problem is that the birth certificate they use for identification to get on the ship will not get them on a plane. Flying? You must have one. A U.S. passport is simply the best identification you can have.
  2. Buy the largest carry-on sized luggage you can find and keep all the most important things you need with you on the plane, train or bus. To arrive at your destination wondering if your luggage made it is probably one of the biggest stress-inducing moments of any trip.
  3. Huddle for space is a game we play when traveling with our two kids. On airlines where seats are not assigned, find a row with three vacant seats, I sit on one end, put a kid on the other end, leaving the seat open in-between. Quickly, we stow carry-on luggage above and take our seats with what stuff we will have with us during the flight between us. Now we huddle over that center seat, pretending to discuss something very important and remain that way until the cabin door is closed. You would be surprised how many people will walk on by, even on a full plane, looking for a different seat. It does not work all the time but it’s worth a shot.
  4. Have a backup plan on flights that includes airlines, flight numbers and times in case your flight is late/canceled/diverted. You will be the prepared person at the airline ticket counter with complete information, asking good questions that require a direct answer. “OMG what am I going to do?” is not going to get you on the next flight out. People that say anything remotely like that are politely told to take a seat and they’ll “let you know”.
  5. Buy travel protection of some sort. You may not need travel insurance but travel assistance that provides emergency evacuation might be the ticket for you. A cheap travel insurance company with basic medical coverage and cancellation insurance is a good idea that will keep you from kicking yourself for not buying better coverage later.
  6. Line it all out in an itinerary you make for yourself. I mean type up every detail of your itinerary on your computer with your own hands, not something you get from a travel agent or company. The physical act of organizing it all in a document you have created organizes it in your mind as well.
  7. Do everything ahead of time that you can. Boarding passes, luggage tags, joining frequent flyer clubs, anything that can be done ahead of time online do that. While you are there, on line, on those travel service provider sites, copy important information you might need down the road like emergency numbers, baggage weight and size requirements and the line. Alaska Airlines suggests to use kiosks for check-in and to print boarding passes ahead of time too. Most airlines have a page of tips that hold good information for those who don’t really like traveling but are trying to make the best of it.
  8. Be prepared for security checks. You know they are coming at various times throughout your journey. Use a carry-on bag with outside pockets you can put stuff you want to have readily accessible, contents of your pockets and anything else you would have to take off to go through a security check.
  9. Go early to critical places like airports before flights. You want to be seated close to the gate (the door people walk through to get on the plane) and close to the gate’s ticket counter (the place people go when there is a problem) so that you can respond to airline announcements quickly and efficiently. Procrastinators lose big time on this one.
  10. Be alert by doing whatever it takes to stay that way. If you are traveling with others you can take turns being alert OR being plugged in to whatever devices amuse you but you can’t do both effectively. Banking sleep the week before traveling helps more mentally than physically but find someone who knows about stress reduction and “sleep” will be a hot topic with them.

Do you have tips along these lines that work for you? Tell us about them below. Give us the secrets, we won’t tell anybody. For more travel tips, check Gadling’s Travel Tips in 100 Words or Less.

Flickr photo by TheSeafarer

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Alaska may ban the use of Tasers on wildlife (Yes! Wildlife!)

by Kraig Becker on

Alaska may become the first state in the U.S. to ban the use of Tasers on wildlife after the state’s Board of Game passed a proposal that would prohibit the use of “electronic control devices” for hunting. That’s a rather generic term to describe a Taser, a device that uses electricity, delivered by two electrodes on the end of wires, to incapacitate its victim. The weapons are often used by law enforcement to safely subdue a person without doing permanent damage.

Park Rangers and wildlife management officers in Alaska have been carrying Tasers for a number of months now, and the devices have proved quite useful, particularly with bear and moose. Rangers on the Kenai Peninsula for instance, equate carrying a Taser to having an “electric fence in a person’s hand,” using them regularly to scare the animals out of areas they shouldn’t be in. The weapons have even been used, from time to time. to stun an animal to assist it in some way. One ranger recently Tased a moose for instance, so that he could remove a chicken feeder that had become stuck on its head. Before letting the moose go, he was also able to check the overall health of the creature as well.

Now, the fear is that private citizens may start using Tasers to subdue an animal in order to get a picture taken with downed creature. Since the devices can be unreliable at times, especially without proper training, this opens the door to all kinds of potential problems, including permanently injuring or even killing the animal. The hunter could find themselves in trouble as well if the animal were to shake off the effects of the Taser while they’re standing next to it for that photograph.

If the new proposal becomes law, then only properly trained law enforcement officials would be able to use Tasers on wildlife. Perhaps we should rethink this plan however, as anyone who is crazy enough to try to use a Taser on a grizzly bear, just to get close enough for a photograph, may need an introduction to a little concept known as “survival of the fittest.”

Tracking devices in hotel linens thwart thievery

by Laurel Miller on

In case you wondered, Big Brother is watching. In your hotel room. A Miami-based company, Linen Tracker, has patented a radio-frequency identification chip that keeps real-time inventory of frequently misplaced or stolen items such as hotel linens. Like, you know, that plushy robe you planned to take as a souvenir, or that Egyptian cotton pillowcase that sent you into such blissful slumber. The chips are also designed to help hotel managers and maids stock rooms and order supplies.

CNN reports that three hotels, in New York, Miami and Honolulu, are using Linen Trackers, and the company’s executive vice president, William Serbin, sees a bright future for the devices. “Any given month, [hotels] can lose five to 20 percent of towels, sheets and robes. That gets expensive with the rising cost of cotton.”

Serbin was inspired by the sensors used on toll roads that he drove on in Florida. “We tweaked the technology, went through trial and error with different types of chips and put them in the correct place,” he explains. “Now, chip life exceeds 300 wash cycles.”

So far, the chips appear to be working: a handful of linen thieves have been apprehended, and asked to return the pilfered items to the hotel. Shame, it seems, is also an effective deterrent.

[Photo credit: Flicrk user C Ray Dancer]

American Airlines and Orbitz tangled in antitrust battle

by Tom Johansmeyer on

The online travel agency battle continues … and it’s getting ugly. The latest move comes from American Airlines, which is suing Orbitz and Travelport for alleged anticompetitive behavior. So, what started in November as a battle over fare distribution has escalated into an antitrust war.

Through the end of the year, Orbitz and American Airlines fought it out, ultimately winding up in court, where American emerged victorious. Along the way, the two sides in this commercial combat – travel suppliers, such as airlines, and online travel agencies – found other fields of battle, with Expedia, Delta, CheapOair and BookIt among those entering the fray.

American is claiming that Orbitz is trying to “control the distribution of airline tickets,” according to a report by legal magazine Corporate Secretary. The article gives some insight into the legal aspects of what’s happening:

‘The lawsuit raises innovative but real questions about market power and behaviors in the current airline structure,’ says Spencer Waller, professor and director of Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies at Chicago-based Loyola University. ‘But I don’t think this lawsuit will get to a resolution on the merits of antitrust claims. I view this case primarily as a continuation of the dispute and negotiations over fees in the online travel agency.’

For American, the disintermediation of online travel agencies would lead to direct ownership of the consumer, as well as wider margins on each transaction. Corporate Secretary continues:

‘The dispute raises real antitrust concerns because firms have substantial market power, and higher fees are being generated that are being passed on to consumers,’ Waller adds. ‘The antitrust law is looking at it from a consumer perspective and in the end, this law would want the airlines to produce lower fees.’

We hit a period of calm earlier this year, but the war in the travel industry is heating up once again. The parties are back in court, only a few months after American’s last victory, and it looks like we’ll all have to wait for the judge.

You can read American’s filing here.

You’re going to book travel online this year

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Business travel isn’t the only category on the rise these days: everyone else seems to be spending more on travel too.

I ran into an article on eMarketer’s blog this morning that shows leisure and unmanaged business travel is on the mend, after what’s been a tough couple of years. After falling in 2009, the sector ticked upward in 2010.

Leisure and unmanaged business travel spending are expected hit $107.4 billion this year, according to eMarketer’s estimates. That would be a gain of 8.5 percent over last year’s $99 billion.

People are traveling more, it seems. But, there’s more to it than that. We’re also spending more for the privilege of being bumped with the beverage cart and scolded for not turning off our Kindles and iPhones.

And, we’re increasingly likely to do our homework online. This year, more than 114 million would-be travelers will research their options on the web, says eMarketer, and 93.9 million will pull the trigger and actually book online. The average online travel buyer is likely to spend $1,213 this year, up from $1,145 in 2010.