How To Deal With Airport Stress
Posted by Neil Stelling
Your flights booked, and now it's airport time. Airport's can be stressful places nowadays, and these tips are designed for stress reduction...
Your flights booked, and now it's airport time. Airport's
can be stressful places nowadays, and these tips are
designed for stress reduction...
* Leave home early
Airport stress starts the moment you leave home. Don't sit
in traffic watching minutes tick away. Aim to arrive at
the airport two hours early (usually required for
International flights). Then if there's traffic delays,
you've still got plenty of time.
* The check-in Line
Now you've arrived, next step's check-in. Usually, there's
multiple lines you can choose from. Which looks quickest ?
Maybe the longest line is quickest ? Here's a couple tips.
If you see lots of families and children in a line, avoid
it. By the time they've found all their tickets, and
sorted their luggage jumble, they've taken twice the time
of a couple or single person.
Look for a short check-in line that's not easy to see. Look
at each end of the check-in aisles, and maybe there's a
valid check-in hidden by a pillar, that few people see.
Happened to me just recently, and cut a half hour off my
check-in time - a half hour I spent relaxing in the bar.
* How long to walk from lounge to gate ?
Maybe I should publish a guide to 'walk-time' at different
airports ! I've walked anything from 2 minutes to 20
minutes after a call to Gate.
Ask at check-in. It's an important question. When that
screen flashes 'Go to Gate', it's much less stressful if
you know how long you'll take to walk there. All your good
work of stress-reduction goes down the tubes if you walk 5
minutes and then realize your gate is way the other side of
the airport terminal.
Sometimes you even have to go through more security, or
another passport check, and find a line waiting there. I
once travelled out of Spain, and this exact same thing
happened. A long passport control line stood between me
and my gate, where departure was scheduled just 15 minutes
later. Luckily myself and 5 others decided to go right to
the front and explain the situation - no one objected to us
going thro first.
But try to avoid this un-necessary stress by checking in
advance.
* Invest in the Executive Lounge
If you travel often you might get free entry to an airport
executive lounge. If not, you can often pay a small amount
to use it. The ideal low-stress airport experience begins
in the executive lounge. Away from all the airport hustle
& bustle, relax with free drinks and nibbles. Read a
newspaper or magazine and you're soon in just the right,
relaxed frame of mind for your journey.
* Nervous ?
Don't feel embarrassed to be nervous. A lot of people are
nervous of flying, but you know it's much safer than your
car journey to the airport. If you can't use an executive
lounge, then there's a couple other options to reduce your
stress. Try shopping ! Yes, retail therapy can help take
your mind off your nervousness and stress. No need to buy
anything - just wander around looking...
Follow the above tips and you'll have a relaxed and stress
free airport experience, all ready to enjoy your vacation
or business trip.
===========================================================
"How To Deal With Airport Stress"
- by Neil Stelling B.Sc, MBA
- Marketing Manager, DigiLectual Inc.
==> http://www.cheap--airline--tickets.com
© DigiLectual Inc. 2004
===========================================================
Discover some of the best cheap airline tickets deals on
the internet. Go
==> http://www.cheap--airline--tickets.com
** Attention eZine editors / Site owners **
Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your
ezine or on your site so long as you leave all links in
place, do not modify the content and include our resource
box as listed above.
If you do use the material please send us a note so we can
take a look.. mailto:articles@digilectual.com
|
