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An air travel guide for the newbie or first-time flyer PACKING YOUR CARRY-ON BAGS: Although the airlines usually allow you to take 2 carryon bags per person, I highly recommend you get everything into one bag. First, you don't want to have to carry two bags all around the airports; secondly, having only one bag to scan at the security is faster than two, and three, it's easier to manage. The size of the bag is limited; it has to fit into the overhead bins on the plane. Generally speaking, this is the size of a school backpack or a gym duffel bag. Anything larger than that and you might have problems. Things to Pack in Your Carryon Bag: Don't Bring: Don't pack anything more than you need in your carryon bag. You want it to be light and easy to carry otherwise it will become a huge hassle when you are trying to get around the airport. PACKING YOUR CHECKED LUGGAGE: This is the luggage and bags that will go underneath the plane and that you will hand over to the airport at the beginning of the trip and (hopefully) pick up at the end. The rest of the time the luggage will be moved from plane-to-plane for you. You are limited to 2 bags per person, both under 35 kilos (65 lbs) apiece. If you have them heavier than that, you might have to pay a fee when you check in. Weight requirements often vary by airline or location -- check with your travel agent and/or airline prior. This is the luggage that you will hand over when they ask, "Do you have any luggage to check?" or they might ask, "How many pieces would you like to check?" They will weigh them and put tags on them that designate where they will be going next. This luggage WILL be abused, so you might as well have that in mind right away. Some airlines handle luggage well; some airlines do everything but run it over with a truck. If you have breakable things, you must pack them VERY carefully otherwise they will get broken or ruined. Try to avoid glass or other breakable things if you can. If you can't, pack them in the centre of the bag and pad them with your clothing. Put hard, unbreakable things on the outside of the bag and fragile things on the inside. Anything that has glitter or dust or sand or liquid inside of it, pack inside a ziplock bag first before you put it in the bag. That way, if it breaks open, your clothes won't get covered. Pack the bags as tight as you can. You don't want things rattling around. Use plastic bags or paper or foam if you have extra space; we can always throw that away later. Things to Pack in Your Checked Luggage: Lost Luggage: It happens very rarely, but every so often your bags don't get put in the right plane. If this is the case, you want to make sure that your bag has a label with your names, addresses, and phone numbers. You can get tags from the airport or you can get them at a store sometimes. Here's a hint: Make two tags for each bag. Put one inside, and one outside on a handle. That way, if the one on the handle gets lost, there's one inside. Do NOT lock your luggage or otherwise tape, string, or seal it shut. It will be forced open by the security people so it's just better to zip it up and call it good. DO tie a piece of coloured yarn to a handle of each bag. Remember what that color is and what your bag looks like. When you're trying to find your bag on a carousel and there are 300 other bags, you want something on your bag to be unique so you can pick it out. If you get to an airport and can't find your luggage on the carousel, DON'T panic! There are plenty of people around that will be happy to help you find it or talk to someone who will help. Security guards are especially handy in a case like this. Identification and Papers The first thing to take care of is to make sure you have all your papers and identifications. You will need several of them as you go through the airports so you should have them easily accessible. You'll also want to keep your tickets and such handy. I carried a folder with me with everything inside of it I needed -- my passport, my driver's license, my itineraries, and my tickets. When I got to the checkout counter I only had to whip out that folder and I could easily check in or do whatever I had to do. I also found it was easier if I organized the next flight inside my folder while I was on the plane before I got there. That way I didn't have to shuffle papers at the counter while everyone else was waiting...I could just pull out my itineraries and hand them over. Copy Your Papers: Before you travel, make 3 copies of all your papers, including passports, driver's licenses, itineraries, and emergency phone numbers. Keep one copy at home in drawer where you'll remember where it is. Give one copy to a friend or family member. Put one copy in your big luggage. These are in case you lose your carryon bag and need to get your information or someone has to contact you or find you. What to Wear For short trips, clothing isn't very important. However, for long international trips, clothing makes a lot of difference. You will be mostly sitting for 12 to 15 hours at a stretch, possibly napping, sleeping, or wide-awake. The last thing you want to be wearing is something that's horribly uncomfortable. The key word with travel is COMFORT, not fashion. Nobody will care if you look trashy on the plane because after 12 hours, everyone will look trashy. Things to wear: Airports and How They Work If you've never flown before, or if your experience in flying has been limited to short flights, you may not have had to deal with large-scale airports before. They can be intimidating at first but if you understand a few simple principles about them, they are easy to navigate. Layout Airports are either one large or a collection of large buildings called terminals. Planes land out on the runways and drive up (taxi) to the gates that extend out to line up with the doors of the planes. Then passengers can get on and off. A terminal can have just a few or many gates. Some airports will only have one terminal; larger ones will have many. Gates are where you leave (get on the plane) or arrive (get off the plane). They are usually lettered or numbered or both so you know where to go. Gates are located down hallways in the airport, sometimes called concourses. It's just a fancy name for 'hallway', really, and is only a feature at larger airports. Abbreviations Airports all use a three-letter abbreviation for themselves. The abbreviation is unique to that airport and that airport only. It is handy to know the abbreviations for the various airports you will be going through as it might help you identify where you need to go or if flights are on-time or not. Here's a short list of some airports and their abbreviations: Directions and Getting Around Airports are designed with the traveler in mind -- they want you to be able to get from one place to another quickly and without getting in the way of all the other half-million people trying to do the same thing. Therefore, they have LOTS of signs that give directions or at least tell you where you are (or aren't). But you have to read them...you will spend most of your time looking UP as you try to read all the signs while walking. Some signs you might see: TV Monitors Airports make a lot of use of TV monitors to display a whole bunch of stuff, so make sure you try to read them when you're looking to find things. They are often labeled ARRIVALS and DEPARTURES and those are the ones displaying incoming and outgoing flights. They'll display the flight number and the city it is going to or coming from and what its status is. And if they can, they'll estimate a time. So you might see: ARRIVALS QF159 Sydney 04:30 ON TIMEThat means that Qantas Flight 159 from Sydney is expected to arrive at 4:30 and is currently on-time. The other place that they will use a lot of TVs is above the baggage carousels. Those TVs will show you what flight's baggage is being unloaded on the carousel at that time. It'll help you find the right carousel for your baggage. Tickets, Itineraries, and Boarding Passes Before each flight that is unique (as in, your stop isn't a connecting flight), you will have to get to a check-in (or ticket) counter. There you'll hand the person behind the counter your paper ticket and/or itinerary (basically, you give them what the travel agent gave you). They'll check you in and hand you a boarding pass. A boarding pass is your "ticket" to get on the plane...if you don't have it in your hand when you try to get on the plane, they won't let you on. Hang on to it. The boarding pass will have lots of VERY USEFUL INFORMATION on it. You'll need to read them thoroughly, especially in the larger airports. A few things you're looking for: You'll want to make sure that the flight number and the city you're going to is correct on the boarding pass -- you don't want to get on the wrong plane. Make sure your name is correct. Also, it will state a gate number. That is the gate you'll have to look for. They won't tell you the gate for your flight until you get the boarding pass. Ask the person behind the counter who is checking you in where you go to find the gate, they'll point you in the right direction. Also, you'll want to find your Seat on the pass. It will usually be a letter and a number. The number is the row back from the front of the plane, the letter designates which seat is yours in the row. So, if there is 4 seats in a row, they'll be lettered: A, B, C, D. You'll be able to tell which is which because they print the letters on the luggage rack above the seats -- you'll see them printed there. They also print a window on that sticker, so whichever letter is near the window picture, that's the window seat, and so forth. People Most of the people in airports are just trying to get someplace else. The fact that they might push past you or rush by without glancing in your direction isn't that they're being rude, they just have places to go, planes to catch, etc. Larger airports tend to be a bit different, however. First, there might be people wandering around handing out pamphlets. Ignore them. Or they might be trying to sell you something. Ignore those, too. There are all sorts of crazies in the world, and many of them are at airports. Helpful people are the ones in uniform or working behind counters. Food vendors can be helpful or rude, depending on how busy they are. Shopkeepers are nicer. Just make sure if you have to ask questions, ask someone behind a counter. Everyone else can be dodgy. Security Airports have two areas -- secure and non-secure. When you first get to the airport, you're in the non-secure area, meaning you haven't gone through metal detectors and so forth. Anytime you go into the secure area you have to go through the metal detectors. Once you are inside, though, you don't have to keep doing it...they assume you're already secure and just let you go anywhere as long as you don't leave the secure areas. Security checkpoints are getting tighter all over, but especially in the U.S., so expect to spend some good time going through the checkpoints. They make people remove their shoes for most scans, so you might as well get used to it. Most people are now just having their shoes off by the time they get to the scanning machine so they don't have to take long. You put your shoes and carryon bag onto the conveyor belt and put your change, watch, and such into the bowls or containers they have stacked there and put them on the belt, then walk through the metal scanner gate. You pick up your stuff on the other side. You may get selected for a random search of your bags. If so, an officer will pull you aside and take swabs and wipe the inside and outside of your bags and then put them into a machine looking for drugs and/or explosives. If they find anything "fishy" (sharp metal objects) they will also search through your bags. Therefore, it's best to not take them along and save yourself the time. After the checkpoint you can put your shoes back on and go your merry way. If it seems confusing, just follow the other people and watch what they're doing and do the same thing. Your checked luggage is scanned by different machines that you'll never see and never have to deal with. That all takes place somewhere else after you hand the baggage over to be checked. Getting On the Plane Getting on the plane sounds easy, but it can be scary the first time. You'll be waiting in the area outside the gate...usually there are seats, sometimes on the international flights there aren't. Watch the gate and what's happening around it. They'll announce over the intercom when your flight is ready to begin boarding. Listen carefully...they'll often call seat row numbers of the people they are boarding. It usually goes something like this: "Now boarding first and business class passengers." "Now boarding rows 35 to 60." "Now boarding rows 15 to 35." "Now boarding all rows." So if your row is 42, you'll get to go in the second group. Go up to the gate and they'll be forming a line. You'll have to hand over your boarding pass for them to check. Also, on most flights, you'll have to have your passport out. They are checking photo IDs now, so make sure you have that handy as well. I usually put my boarding pass inside my passport and put the whole thing in my hand, ready to go. They'll check your ID. Then they might give you a security check. This happens to some people and not others. They choose a few random people from the flight, and even though you've already gone through the metal detectors, some security guards'll check you again. Don't worry, it's easy. They might ask you to take off your shoes so they can check them, too. Just do what you are told and it'll be over quick. Then you hand your boarding pass to the person near the corridor of the plane and he/she will scan your pass. Then you walk down the corridor and into the plane. Someone there will likely check your pass again and direct you to your seat. Find your seat. Once you have, stuff your carry-on bags above the seat in the overhead compartments. Don't worry about getting things out right away; you can always stand up later in the flight and get something. You don't always have to put your stuff up there, you can also put it between your legs or on your lap. Just make sure that you don't have something huge on your lap or they'll ask you to put it up above. Sit down in your seat and buckle your seat belt. Don't bother adjusting your seat or anything; you have to leave them alone till the plane gets in the air. Once you get going, then you'll be able to lean your seat back and so forth. Food and Drink On almost every flight you have, they'll serve you food and/or drink at some point. Accept it even if it doesn't look good. Eat what you want and leave the rest. They'll take awhile to get to you if you are a long ways away, but they will eventually. On every flight except the international flights, alcohol will cost money. On international flights, it's free. (Although I don't recommend having more than two or three or you'll get sick -- alcohol absorbs into your blood faster when you're high up.) Generally speaking, you might as well eat as there's often not much else to do. Turbulence When a plane hits odd pockets of air in the sky, either colder or warmer air than it is flying through, it'll "bump" a bit or a lot -- that's called turbulence. This is perfectly normal but it almost always freaks out people who have never experienced it before. Planes are definately designed to handle this sort of bumping around and you don't have to be scared of it, even though at times it can get quite nasty. Also, it can be very disturbing to look out the window and see the end of the plane wing flapping as though it were a bird. However, it is designed to do that. In fact, many plane wings are designed to flex up to 16 feet. Incredible, isn't it? I remember once at about 4am, over some piece of ocean, where the plane lurched about 10 feet downwards in a single move. I had to balance my neighbor's wine glass plus all my bottles and stuff to keep it from flying all over the cabin. It only lasted a half a minute, but it was exciting for that short bit. When turbulence hits, hang on. The captain might ask everyone to sit down and buckle up again depending on how bad it is. International Flights Let me explain a few things about international flights as they tend to be different beasts: Here follows my observations of various aiports that I have personally been in around the world. DSM - Des Moines International Airport, Des Moines, Iowa, USA - As you might expect in smaller-city Iowa, a nice smaller-city airport. Only two wings to the whole thing so it's pretty easy to find your way around. Parking is in a ramp and is easy and convenient. You check in on the ground floor and then take an escalator up to security to pass through. After that are a few shops and so forth and the gates themselves. Small, friendly, and horribly navigable. MSP - Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA - A large but not too intimidating airport. Two terminals provide service -- Lindbergh for mostly domestic flights and Humphrey for mostly international flights (although it varies by airline -- Sun Country Air is in Humphrey, for instance). A free shuttle service and underground tram provide a link between the two terminals. I've always found MSP to be comfortable despite it's large size. Things seem to be very easy to find, lots of people-movers to get you to places, the shops are numerous and accessible, and signs are well-posted and easy to follow. I've never gotten lost there yet. CID - The Eastern Iowa Airport, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA - While I have never flown from CID, I have dropped or picked up many people from its clean, simple setup. CID is one large, circularish room with the gates on the outside. It is bright and clean and friendly and frankly, a joy to visit. A nice old guy checks your trunk before you park in their nice lots and then you walk up a few steps and into the terminal. A great airport. MCW - Mason City Municipal Airport, Mason City, Iowa, USA - MCW is nothing but one large pain in the ass. It's a small, dirty airport that hasn't been updated in ages and is run by cranky, disgruntled people. I've never gotten a smile out of anyone while I was there. It's so very tiny that each employee has to do the work of 20 people to get you on a flight. (which I'm sure contributes to their attitude) Their ticket counters are open for about 20 seconds, exactly an hour and 33 minutes before your flight. If you miss that window, good luck getting checked in. They do, luckily, have a cafe which provides coffee. Other than that, I can't think of many amenities. Oh...the parking is free if you're a visitor. $4/day if you're not. Fortunately, ticket prices from Mason City are usually so high that it is never practical to fly from there or into there, so I almost never do. MCI - Kansas City International Airport, Kansas City, Missouri, USA - My limited exposure to MCI has led me to believe on thing: Whoever laid out the road to get there was seriously drunk. Other than that, the airport is nice. Oh, and it's located in the Middle of Nowhere™. The place is clean and setup in a round, doughnut shape with the gates in the middle and the hallway to get to them on the outside. Easy enough to pick people up or drop them off provided you are up to some walking. DFW - Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Dallas, Texas, USA - Large, complex, and annoying are the three words that come to mind about DFW. I've flown there once and that was once too many. All I remember is how much I wanted to leave. Then again, I felt that way about Dallas/Fort Worth, period. LAX - Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, California, USA - Imagine a city. Then make that city into an airport, and you have LAX. It's incredible, it really is...HUGE, with its own transportation systems and seemingly culture. It's big, and it's busy. You have to have your mind turned on 100% of the time to get around without getting lost. They've tried really hard to make it easy to navigate, but don't fool yourself -- it's not. That being said, you can get where you're going provided you're not an idiot. If you remember that the airport is layed out in a horeshoe shape, it'll help. 8 different terminals serve about every airline known to man and then some. The International terminal is simply incredible and you'll never have a more cultural experience than the massive amounts of foreigners wandering around. Know where you're going long before you get there and you'll be ok. SYD - Sydney (Kingsford-Smith) International Airport, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia - In typical Australian fashion, SYD is a fun place to visit. Clean and friendly, I spent two nights sleeping on the floor there as well as many hours wandering the halls. While a large city airport, it doesn't feel too large and things are fairly easy to find. The one difficulty that takes new visitors awhile to understand is that bus/rail/cab transportation is required between Terminals 1 (International) and Terminal 2 & 3 (Domestic). Once you have that slight understanding, the rest falls into place. Bright and cheery, I still enjoy the memory. ADL - Adelaide Airport, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia - Adelaide Airport is a rather large place considering the size of Adelaide. They have a brand-new airport that is terribly easy to deal with. Ticketing and gates are all on the upper level, baggage on the lower. You walk into the place on the one side, and the planes are on the other side. How simple is that? One long line of gates along the building is the layout, which makes it super-simple to get to where you're going. Bright, cheery, friendly. WYA - Whyalla Airport, Whyalla, South Australia, Australia - A small-town airport, WYA generally acts as a place for hobbyist pilots and connection service to Adelaide. The same guy checks you in, weighs your baggage, loads it on the plane, parks the plane, and everything else. It's cute...2 gates which sit about 10 feet from each other so nobody gives a damn which one you go through. A nice place in general. Flying is a lot of fun and a convenient way to travel if you have the money or there is a long way to go. The first few times are scary but after that it's just fun. You'll get to know parts of the flight you enjoy and parts you don't. Some people like takeoffs (like me) and some people hate landings or the food or whatever. You'll get to be an expert at navigating around airports, even if you've never been to one before. Enjoy yourself; you'll have usually paid a fair bit of money to take the trip, you might as well have fun. |
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