22 Travel Tips from a Flight Attendant: Ideas to Make Your Holiday Travels More Enjoyable

Electronics & Entertainment

•  If you have the new iPhone, be sure to bring your own pair of headphone that fit. Certain types might not fit airplane plug ins for in flight entertainment. And while the airline offers headphones that fit most types of phones, they aren’t great quality. So be sure to bring an adapter if having a pair of working headphones is important to you.  
• Make sure your medicine, car keys, identification, and important documents are in a bag you can put under your seat. If overhead space runs out for bigger bags, you don’t want to be scrambling to search for and repack items from one bag to another at the gate—or worse, on the plane.
• Make sure you bring enough food, drink, and entertainment to last at least twice as long as you think you will be on the plane. You never know when you’ll find yourself in the air or on the tarmac longer than expected, especially with winter weather. 
• All that being said, be sure to have backup power sources to recharge batteries in case no recharging areas are available on the plane or in the airport. 
• Don’t assume every airplane will offer Internet services. Download a movie or two or an audio book before leaving if you’re wanting to watch something on your personal device. 

Avoiding Germs

• Stock up on antibacterial wipes and hand sanitizer because airplanes and airports are petri dishes for germs. 
• Use antibacterial wipes to wipe down tray tables and armrests. 
• Be sure to use hand sanitizer after security check-in and the boarding process.

Traveling with Gifts

• Ideally, send your gifts ahead of time to your final destination. 
• If you can’t send your gifts ahead of time, be sure to pack your gifts unwrapped. Pack them in your carry on along with flat gift sacks.  

My best story of a Christmas gift gone awry is about a passenger traveling from Boston to Dallas. This particular passenger bought live lobsters in the Boston airport to take to his family in Dallas, and while the lobsters were specially packaged in a box that fits under the airplane seat, in the process of forcing the box under the seat, the top was loosened or torn. The lobsters escaped—the first indication being a woman in the row ahead who reacted to feeling a creepy something on her ankle. Pandemonium ensued. First, passengers jumped out of their rows, and then the excitement was followed by passengers and crew crawling under seats to corral and recapture the escapees. My advice? Just say no to live lobster Christmas gifts! 

Tips for Traveling with Children

• Plan to get to the airport in plenty of time because children pick up on your stress. While you’re waiting to board, let your child run around in the airport play area to burn off some energy. (But then be sure to wash hands or use antibacterial wipes to cleanse because airports are petri dishes for germs.) 
• Bring a special airplane bag of toys, books, and finger foods. The bag should have a couple familiar, tried-and-true things along with a few new things as well you can pull out and surprise the child with at various points throughout your journey. 
• Make sure you have extra food, diapers, etc. as weather can force you to land at alternate airports or wait on the tarmac to refuel. 
• Invest in a pair of baby headphones and download your child’s favorite shows or movies on your personal device ahead of time, just in case the airplane does not offer WiFi. 
• Know that you can use your stroller/car seat combo all the way up to the gate. The crew will check the stroller portion at the gate if your child will be sitting in his or her carseat on the airplane. Be sure to note that baby/child car seats are required to have a label before they are allowed to be used on a plane. Check out this information from faa.org. 
• Be sure to look at the seating information for car sets: they can’t be in certain seats, for example the aisle seat or exit row seats where the car seat would block people from exiting. 
• For hurting ears, use a bottle or sippy cup and snacks so the child moves his or her jaw. Use these tactics at take off and beginning about twenty-five minutes before landing, as the plane begins its descent because that’s when cabin pressure begins to change. 
• Last, but not least, if you’re traveling with a baby, earplugs for fellow passengers are always welcome and most often appreciated.

Tips for Sending Kids Alone

• • Pick flights early in the day because the chance of delays increase as the day goes on. 
  • I always suggest an aisle seat for a child traveling alone. We can see them better and better monitor them throughout the flight. If they need something from us, they can catch our attention more easily when they’re sitting in an aisle seat. 
  • Make sure you pack plenty of activities in his or her back pack, along with a pair of headphones and entertainment. Don’t forget their favorite snacks too! (Children rarely like the food we have on the plane.) 
  • An additional outfit for any child is a must. Often times, they unexpectedly get air sick and because they are alone, they wait until it’s too late to say that they don’t feel well. 

People are amazingly sweet to unaccompanied children. Often times, these kids are crying when they get on board because they are leaving loved ones, and it’s a scary experience to get on a plane by themselves. I have seen senior citizens be surrogate grandparents, teens share their music by sharing an ear piece, moms with other children take them under their wings and include them in activities they brought for their children, and busy businessmen read them stories.