Tips For Air Travel

Buy Blankets
- If you choose to carry your own blanket on board the aircraft, there are a few things to consider.
- Ensure that the material has a flame retardant rating. In a fire emergency, synthetic fibers will melt onto your skin at high temperatures. It is a safety issue.
- Federal regulations require airline blankets to be specially treated and rated. A generic blanket from home may not meet these standards.
- Most airline blankets today are sealed in dry cleaners' plastic. That is your assurance that they have not been recycled from another passenger.
- The trend today is for blankets to be sold for a couple of bucks, and are yours to keep.

Essentials for Carry-On new
- Traveling nowadays is a hassle, especially with all the new restrictions on liquids in carry-ons, so for toiletries in my carry-on, I always pack the following.
A bar of soap (it works the same as body wash)
Toothpaste (sample size)
Petroleum jelly (travel or purse size)
Hand sanitizer (travel)
Small liquid make up (mascara, liquid eyeliner, etc.)
Nasal spray and earache relief
Travel Kleenex
A small role of toilet paper that can be purchased at camping goods stores
Toothbrush AND dental floss
Travel mouthwash
Travel first-aid kit
Facial wipes (facial cleanser often leaks on the airplane)
Antibacterial wipes such as Wet Ones
All prescription and over the counter medication (including pain relief)
Aloe vera gel
Moisturizer (in travel size)
Deodorant (travel size)
2-in-1 sample size shampoo and conditioner
Brush, comb, hair elastics, etc.
Make-up (small amounts) 

All of these items, when bought in travel size, will often fit into a small carry-on toiletry bag.

Going Light - Benefits of Traveling Light new
- Security: Going light on your baggage greatly reduces the need to check baggage or entrust fellow travelers. There is much less risk of losing the baggage due to theft, damage, or misrouting.

Economy: You eliminate extra baggage charges if there are any by your airlines. You do not have to depend on taxis, limos, and private commute, but can easily take public transportation. If your baggage has wheels, you can even walk if the place to visit is pretty close-by. You don’t have to pay porters and the like to carry stuff around for you.

Keep these two in mind, be Travelite, and have a wonderful tour.

Advance Attention to Safety
- When boarding the aircraft, make a mental note of all exits, and count how many seat rows you pass from the exit to your row. This will expedite your escape route in case of an emergency landing if there is smoke and/or power loss in the cabin. And by all means, pay attention to the flight crew! No matter how boring or uninteresting it may sound, their instructions are vital ... and read the aircraft emergency procedure manual completely before takeoff. These are located in the pouch right in front of you. Do this - it pays to be prepared for flight. Knowledge is power, and armed with the basics you can sit back and enjoy your flight.

Advance Seat Assignment
- When buying airline tickets online, call the airline to get seat assignment immediately if no seat assignment is given. If you arrive at the ticket counter without seat assignment on an overbooked flight, you probably will get bumped off the flight and forced to take a later flight - which can be several hours or even a full day later. Due to overbooking, getting seat assignment in advance can reduce the risk of getting 'bumped'!

Advice for Traveling Alone
- Traveling alone can be an intimidating experience, especially for those who don't do it often. Knowing what to expect and thinking about the challenges solo air travel throws at you ahead of time can make it an easy and efficient experience.

Avoid checking a bag. This is true of any air travel really, but I find it's much easier to be a self-contained entity when alone, leaving as little responsibility to the airline as possible. There's nobody to search for the right baggage claim with you or to help you talk to the agent if a bag gets lost. By keeping everything with you, there's less chance of error.

Along those same lines, don't be afraid to gate check a bag (usually signified by yellow tags put on the bag as you board). This works differently from normal bag checking, as any gate checked bag is only given to the airline as you board the plane, and is retrieved right as you exit the plane. The bag never actually goes through the whole luggage system - that invariably ends misplacing things.

Traveling alone seems to increase the chance of you being searched at security, particularly if one is not obviously on a business trip. Just assume you will be searched and pack accordingly.

The biggest advantage of traveling alone is usually the ability to get an exit row seat. If the airline you are flying with allows online check-in (usually available 24 hours before departing time) exit row seats can usually be obtained there. If not, make sure to ask at the gate, as most of the time there will be the odd one exit row seat that nobody has taken because they want to sit with their traveling companions. They get company, you get leg room. Sometimes a book and being able to stretch is better than someone to talk to.

Air Quality
- The air that you breathe inside an airline cabin isn't nearly as good as what you will find most other places. The cabin is pressurized, since the air is so thin at altitude. However, they don't pressurize it to sea level; it is substantially weaker. (This is part of why air travel can be so draining; you can end up with mild altitude sickness!)

Furthermore, the air is very very dry. This can lead to dehydration, which can also make you feel lousy. I strongly advise bringing a litre or two of water with you, and guzzling that non-stop throughout the trip.

Finally, the air is filled with the exhaust products of your fellow travelers. One of these can be cigarette smoke; while smoking has been banned on domestic US flights, such rules are not followed around the globe. Although it might horrify some Americans, not all countries even mandate separate smoking sections!

Another exhaust product is germs. Because airplane tickets are so expensive, and because such effort is involved in making such a trip, people will fly sick. If your immune system is compromised in any way (HIV, chemotherapy, immunoglobulin deficiency), you may well want to wrap your face in a scarf or wear a surgical mask.

Air Sickness
- If you get motion sick easily, you may be more comfortable if you take some sort of motion sickness drug before you fly. Note that you must take the drugs before you get sick; there is unfortunately nothing that I know of that will relieve motion sickness once it has started. My personal drug of choice is Dramamine, a readily-obtained over-the-counter medication. Unlike Bonine, another over-the-counter drug, it tends to make one drowsy. I feel that this is a benefit on a long plane ride! Another motion sickness treatment (usually used for boating) is Scopolamine patches. These patches go behind the ear, and usually have no noticeable side effects. I believe that in the USA, a prescription is required. Furthermore, there can be unpleasant side effects, such as dry mouth, blurry vision, and one other one that I forget. (Oh yeah - loss of memory.)

Motion sickness is caused in part by a discrepancy between what the eye sees and what the inner ear feels. (This is why the driver of a car gets sick much less frequently than a passenger: the driver is continuously watching the road, getting a good idea of what is coming next.) It may help to close your eyes the moment you start to consider thinking about getting airsick.

If you do come down with discomfort, one relatively easy but embarrassing way to feel better is to empty your stomach. 'Barf bags' are usually located in the pouch on the back of the seat in front of you. Frequently, using them reduces and/or eliminates the discomfort.