Spending too much time at airports

This is really bad advice. You should search using a flight search engine like Google Flights, not a single OTA, and book directly with the airline unless an OTA has a much, much better deal. The $10 that Orbitz might sometimes save you comes at the cost of having to talk to their customer service, not the airline’s, if you want to change your trip.

I recently had a five month period where I took a plane ride every single week for work. A “frequent traveler” so to speak.

To me, the big difference between basic economy and regular is the ability to cancel (for a credit) up until the flight takes off. When you travel once in a while, this isn’t worth that much. When you travel every week, it’s huge. For example, when I travel (round trip) 3-5 times a year (which is my normal cadence), I’m not gonna really care if I booked an 8pm flight but last minute decided that I have time to get on a 6pm. An extra two hours not-at-home is no big deal, maybe even a good thing. When you travel every week, the ability to change later minute is huge (and contrary to popular belief, I found that it is often the case that last minute flights are the same price or cheaper, depending on the route, though it can also be wildly more expensive).

In addition to changing my mind about when to leave, don’t get me started on delays. If I saw my flight was delayed two hours (which often means that it’ll end up cancelling or taking off 6 hours late), I’d immediately book an alternative (if I could find one at a decent price) and then cancel one of them right before departure.

Aside from this, seat selection is important, especially if you travel a lot (the lifestyle is hard enough to begin with). You can usually buy seats in basic economy and the whole thing will be cheaper, but assuming you are going to do that, then the difference is gonna be $25-30 which is basically the “right to cancel” fee.

This one really bothers me. The Portland airport mandates all food prices to be the same as at the businesses off-airport locations. As a passenger that makes it really great. As a free-market worshipper I have some concerns about this but it seems to work really well in practice and we get excellent options. Unfortunately, other airports don't rely on free-market competition to result in great offerings either but instead usually have most vendors operated by the same concession company like HMSHost, SSP Group. This gives a captive audience to a quasi-monopolist. It's the easiest situation to avoid a monopoly or cartel situation and foster competition, yet most airports seem to either be operated by people who don't care, crooks or idiots.

Unlike the in-seat entertainment, the movie on a personal tablet won't be interrupted by announcements which I almost never want to hear.

Get an airline credit card for one based in your city and checked bags are no longer a cost. Aside from a few minutes to drop and pick up. Usually there are other perks like food and beverage discounts on the plane, etc. I fly to the Caribbean once a year on the miles we accumulate.

Even though most domestric lounges are hit-or-miss, it's a way to trick myself into getting to the airport 30 to 45 minutes earlier than I would. That way, if I'm running late, worst case I miss the lounge or cut short the time.

For those complaining that lounges are overcrowded with mediocre food, it's true and getting worse. However, it's buffet style - select a healthy salad option with a reasonable protein. Non Priority Pass options are somewhat worthwhile -- United Clubs have gone through a massive upgrade post Covid and so far haven't been too crowded. They also allow access upon arrival, if you really need to fire off some emails and hydrate upon landing.

As for in-flight, for former gaming geeks, try classic emulators. They won't require internet and drain very minimal battery life on your latop.

The adjacent hack is to bring an empty water bottle in your carry-on, which you fill once you clear security. Then, you have a full bottle of water and can decline everything from the "beverage cart" on your flight, meaning you never need to worry about managing a precarious open cup of liquid and ice sitting on your in-flight tray.

People's preferences really do vary widely, don't they?

There's nowhere I feel less safe than a security checkpoint, and nowhere I feel less relaxed than a high-pressure commerce zone clamoring for attention I don't want to give and trying to squeeze me out of money I don't want to spend.

But there are people who voluntarily go to Las Vegas, on purpose, because they think they will enjoy it: so, we are clearly not all alike.

N00b here - is that actually where the optimal prices emerge, rather than many months prior? I used to wonder why the optimal prices didn't emerge the day before the flight, because I'd assume airlines would rather fill a seat with lower profits than waste the space, but I guess that could cause forecasting issues if everyone waited until the last second.

Perhaps I’m too precious but economy class is awful compared to business class. Lie-flat seats are a significant improvement over economy. If you are spending your own money, sure, stick to economy so you can spend your money on other things that are more important to you… but someone else’s money? What conceivable reason is there to choose economy if someone else is paying.

Free food, drinks, booze, superior in every way. If I know I have access, I’m not too bothered with spending extra time, or minimizing my airport time. The absolute minimum should be fast track tho.

Edit: Also, the real benefit of upgraded class when boarding is guaranteed overhead luggage space, if you only have carry-on luggage.

The longer time you spend there the more $$ you leave there: shops pays a huge rent, and I have no doubt one statistic Airport use to raise rents is the average time we spend inside the airport (by the number of passengers, of course).

Security, and supposed security, is part of it.

This is reasonable advice going to the source airport or NYC where subways run 24/7.

Be mindful at the destination though, when trains may not be running etc. I've had a number of close misses at SFO when the last BART out was just past midnight and a slight delay would leave me spending 4 hours there or $100+ in cab fare.

That said, I'll sometimes intentionally show up early just to wander around if the airport is interesting or interestingly weird, like how LHR funnels you from security straight into an upscale mall before you can get to any of the terminals.

This has been my experience, too. Some airports have a half-assed process where it's partially self-service and partially done by a human. In Denver, they have booths outside to check bags. You scan the QR code, pay in the app, and it prints your tag at that booth for the worker to take. Convenient right? Wrong.

I'm second in line, so I scan and do the whole process, then the worker leaves to help a disabled woman. No problem I thought: I'll just go to another booth to have it re-printed. Nope, apparently once you print the tag, employees can't do anything about it and you're forced to buy another checked bag or hope that the original worker comes back (I'm not taking that chance if I have a flight to catch)

1 - bypass queues - if possible, get fast track. Generally not that expensive.

2 Place to sit - Lounge access. If you have a long layover, 50 bucks will buy you decent food and a place to chill.

I could have slept in an hour longer and drove 4.5 hours directly to Montreal instead of going to Boston first with the connection.

If you are talking about gate checking, I am yet to meet an airline that forcibly gate checks you AND charges you for doing so.

First, I never ever ever use a third party portal. If things go wrong, now you have to deal with customer service from two places. I know American charges fees if you make changes to your flight that you book through a third party portal.

Second, flights are more expensive two weeks out, and this isn’t pre 2020, as far as I know, unless you buy the cheapest ticket, all airlines let you make changes or cancel flights for an airline credit, If you book directly.

I’m not sure what he is referring to specifically as “basic economy”. But on Delta it means - no refunds not even airline credit, no seat selection, and you don’t earn miles for flying. Economy is the lowest I will go.

I do care about frequent flyer programs. My home airport until 3 years ago was ATL so of course we flew Delta. It’s still our preferred airline because we end up in ATL a few times a year and the only airline that flies into my parents city in south ga is Delta.

With Delta with status (and lounge access via credit card especially in Atlanta) makes everything better.

The issue also is not the variability of time at the airport especially with digital ID, Clear, TSA pre check and even with a check bag either using curb side check in (again Delta in our case) or Sky Priority check in (thanks to status), it’s the time to get to the airport and not worrying about traffic. Being at the airport killing time with my computer, tablet or phone - even if I didn’t have lounge access - is better than worrying about Atlanta traffic when I lived on the other side of the metro area.

> You have a safe upper bound of how long it takes. I agree that adding 30% is mostly safe enough for taxis

That’s true for the most part.

He also mentions not checking bags. I agree with the sentiment. But that is diametrically opposed to buying the cheapest seats where you are last to board and not worrying about status which would get you earlier boarding.