Traveling can be stressful, as an avid traveler I'm always looking for tips and tricks to improve my experience. As I was browsing around yesterday, I came across an infographic that I felt like I had to share. Mart Virkus created quite the cool infographic with some simple yet powerful airport hacks to make part of your journey easier.
Let's break it down:
Check In
Check In: A few of these are pretty straight forward, however some may not know just the power they hold. If you can check in online, if you don't have any checked baggage, you can skip the line.
Custom Luggage: Having something unique on your luggage makes it easily identifiable and less likely to get lost or have someone else take your bag.
Stay Close to Business Check In: I'm not sure if I fully agree with this one as most of the time the non-business line is usually a singular line and agents will pull from both lines as needed.
Security
Don't Be That Guy: Just don't. When you join the security line, be ready with all of your belongings and if you need to take anything out of your luggage, do it. My biggest pet peeve is people not being ready when they get to the x-ray scanner and have to dig through their luggage to take computers or liquids out or have to practically undress before going through the line.
Know The Rules: Another straight forward rule, but still we have those people who will bring all sorts of illegal things through the checkpoint.
Thirsty?: Underrated as far as hacks go, bringing a reusable water bottle is essential if you don't want to pay sky-high drink prices at the airport.
Empty Your Pockets: Closely associated with "Don't Be That Guy," make sure you take everything out of your pockets. That is, unless you like getting groped by security.
Queue Left: This is a hack that I use constantly and very much agree with. I've made it a habit of always going left, and it seems to work out decently well with queue times.
At The Gate
Offline Survival: Another travel hack that I adhere to, download anything you need before getting to the airport. I can't tell you how many times I've encountered bad reception or no reception at airports. At the bare minimum, I suggest downloading your itinerary with confirmation numbers and take pictures of any relevant maps you might need.
Bring A Power Splitter: I highly recommend bringing some way to distribute power. Most of the time you'll be lucky to find one power outlet, as most devices are USB powered, lately I bring a splitter with multiple USB ports to cut down on what I pack.
Use Headphones: This is less of an airport hack and more of a courtesy thing, use headphones! I respect that you can listen to any music or entertainment that you want, however I don't want to hear it too. And neither does anyone around you. A good quality noise-cancelling headphone is best.
Where's The Fire?: Also known as "gate lice," why do you feel the need to crowd the boarding area when boarding is about to begin? Your boarding group isn't going to be called faster if you block the way for your other passengers.
Expect The Unexpected: As a personal rule, I won't check a bag unless I absolutely have to. Things happen with checked luggage, they get ripped, torn, completely lost. And if you have anything important in your bag, you can consider it gone. If you must check a bag, at least keep a change of clothes in a backpack with you, just in case.
#TeamBoardLast: If you have status at your airline of choice, and you're eligible for upgrades. Why not wait till the last minute to board? It's possible that the gate agent has some last minute connecting passengers that won't make it, and it's possible they may be sitting in business class. It's probably one of the best ways to score a free upgrade.
Final Thoughts
For the inexperienced traveler, these tips are actually quite useful, and I do implement most of these when I travel. Flying is never perfect, there's always the chance of some hiccup or problem to occur, but tips like these can be genuinely useful.
What travel hacks do you have?
