Air travel planning tips
- Book your flight early especially if you know you are traveling during a peak season. You can also try to look for cheap travel deals if you plan early.
- Get nonstop flight meaning you ride the airplane and get off in your target destination and not in another airport where you have for several hours before going on your flight again. This is especially the better option if you have kids traveling with you.
- Select a seat when you do your flight booking or reservation. If you're traveling alone, this may not matter that much where you get seated. But if you're traveling as a family with little kids like us, it would be better to select your seats so that you can be seated together in the airplane.
- Secure all the necessary documents like your passport, VISA and airplane tickets. If you can secure your boarding pass prior to your flight check-in, it is much better.
- Reconfirm all the flight details in case there are changes. I know some people who failed to do this and when they got to the airport they were sorry to find out that the airplane took off earlier.
- Plan to go to the airport early enough (at least 2 hours before departure time) or you might get bumped off your flight.
Air travel packing tips
- Pack early. Cramming tends to make you forget the things you need to bring. Make a checklist of what you need to bring so that you can be sure that you won't miss anything. Also, know which things you can carry and which things are banned. You don't want to get on hold in the airport.
- Make sure that your luggage is secure. Actually, I just prepare the things that we need to bring and my husband does the packing. He is the expert in this. We use sturdy boxes and put packaging tape all around it as if laminating it (to protect it from getting wet just in case). Then, he ties a nylon string over the boxes, a peculiar color, so that it will be easier for us to identify the boxes when we get them from the baggage carousel. All other important things that we are taking with us, we put them in a heavy duty suitcase.
- Avoid excess baggage. Know how much baggage you can check in and hand carry including how much each should weigh. It is very difficult to open your baggage at the airport at the check in counter to remove what you can leave to those who brought you there. Otherwise, you have to pay for the extra weight you will be checking in. I have seen this happen at the airport and it is a very stressful situation.
- Be sure to carry everything that your child would need during the flight - food, milk, diaper, extra clothes, medications, etc. By the way, I will remember to bring extra plastic bags this time because the last time we had our flight, almost 3 of my 5 kids vomited on the plane because of headache during the flight. And maybe I'll also bring the appropriate medicine.
- To avoid ear pain because of the air pressure during take off and landing of the airplane, give your child something to chew like a gum or give a candy so he/she will swallow often. Babies can be given their milk bottles or pacifiers to suck.
- Boredom busters. In case of stop overs, some airports are equipped with children's playground. So look for that so the children can relax and play. How I wish that traveling with my kids this time will be less stressful. They're much older now and hopefully will be less fussy during the flight. Last time the aircraft we boarded was equipped with TV screens and movies per seat and it helped to entertain my kids. If the flight is at night, it is less of a problem since the kids can just go to sleep.
Probably, the next time I make another post, I'll be in the Philippines. God bless you all.
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