The Travelite® FAQ

In general, my mantra is “If you don’t need it, leave it home.” Once in a while, though, I make an exception because the item makes life so much easier.

One such item is the travel tray. They aren’t particularly popular items at travel supply stores so you might have trouble finding them, but you do occasionally run into them in unexpected places. The best one I got was a brown Hello Kitty travel tray for $1 at the dollar store in the San Francisco Japantown a few years ago (OK, so it’s Hello Kitty… but how can you beat a buck?).

Mall store Brookstone offers a no-frills travel tray. Photo courtesy Brookstone.

What makes these travel trays OK in my book is that when not in use, they’re just completely flat, like a sheet of cardboard. To use it, you pinch the corners together and snap the buttons together, and now you have a little tray.

Maxpedition, an online store that sells a lot of rugged gear, also sells a travel tray. Unlike the one from Brookstone, this one even includes a little pouch on one side for your small items, like rings. Photo courtesy of Maxpedition.com.

Why is a travel tray so convenient that I actually think it’s OK to pack? Because it helps you keep all your stuff together in one place when you get back to your hotel room! Your wallet, your cell phone, your car keys, your hotel key card…

While you might have a place for everything when you’re home (and not even think about it when you go to grab them), staying at a hotel means things aren’t at their ordinary places. It would be so easy to misplace things.

I’ve gone so far as to keep my cell phone in the travel tray while getting it charged!

Fortunately, once you unsnap the corners, these travel trays are pretty travelite-friendly. Just slide them into the side of your carry-on and you’ll barely notice it’s there.

I don’t usually link to the same site twice in a week, but FareCompare has its list of seven no-nos for air travelers that I think are pretty spot on (http://www.farecompare.com/articles/how-to-shop/top-worst-passengers-planes/).

Some of the things on the list are kind of silly (“don’t drool on your neighbor”), but on the top of the list? Not packing lightly. Here’s what the list says:

“There’s a lesson in that for all of us: pack right, and pack light. And use a carryon—this one simple act can save a family of four $200 on a flight. And if you must check a bag, keep it under 50 lbs—the overweight bag fees are a killer.”

By the way, my mom, on her recent trip to Japan, went nuts buying an entire suitcase full of second-hand books (Japanese books are, as you can imagine, more expensive in the U.S.). She was giddy at saving so much money, but it turns out a suitcase full of books weighs more than 50 pounds. She wound up having to pay a huge overweight bag fee, so she didn’t save nearly as much money as she initially thought.

Number 4 on the list is also appropriate: Don’t be a “bin hog.” Hey look, exactly what I was talking about. Here’s what the list says:

“We’ve all seen these bin hogs, who take up way more than their share of a plane’s overhead compartment bag space. My two biggest pets peeves involve people who  pull your carefully folded blazer out of the bin to make room for their own things, then stuff it back in, rendering the jacket completely unwearable—and those who try to jam too-big bags into too-small spaces, knowing that a flight attendant will remove and check the bag, at no charge to them.

“Mostly what I hate is how long it takes the bin hogs to get themselves situated, time that could be spent getting us to our destination, with an on-time arrival.”

The point?

• Be a “traveliter” – packing lightly so you only have to take your carry-on.
• Don’t be a “traveloader” – overstuffing your carry-on or using too big a bag as your carry-on and knowingly abuse the system.

Pick up the current issue of Consumer Reports (June 2010). Besides a great article rating the current computers on the market, the issue has a special travel section where it rates the best and worst hotels; very helpful if you’re feeling a little overwhelmed trying to figure out what works best for your travel needs.

Tucked in the article, though, is a great little graph called “What Annoys Travelers Most.” People sure get annoyed at a lot of things, but the top annoyance is luggage charges. Those $25 fees sure add up.

Take a look further down on the list, though. In at #8 is something of particular interest to those of us who travel with just a carry-on: “People who hog carry-on space.”

Although I espouse traveling with just your carry-ons, I have to agree—it’s pretty obnoxious when people bring Jabba the Hut overstuffed carry-ons on board and try to squeeze them into the overhead. Unless you’re an elite-status frequent flier who gets early boarding privileges, you’ve probably boarded aircrafts where all the overhead space above your seat was already taken by other people’s luggage. As annoying as it is, that overhead space is a free-for-all; passengers can put their carry-ons in any space they wish, and there are those truly annoying ones who will purposefully stash their luggage in the overhead bins closer to the front of the aircraft for their convenience, even if they’re sitting towards the back of the plane. How rude and selfish can you get?

Remember: The Travelite philosophy is not how to take on board with you as much as you can get away with. People who use marginally acceptable luggage, overstuff then, then try to cram them into the overhead space, still fall into the “traveload” camp and they besmirch the good name of those of us who travel lightly.

Here’s a couple of real easy tips to remember, as you pack your carry-on for a trip:

• Will this thing fit my airline’s carry-on bag sizer contraption at the airport?
• Can I actually carry this thing around a block? Yes, even if it’s a rolling upright. I said “carry,” not pull on its wheels. Is it too heavy? Am I too out of shape? Does it not have a shoulder strap or a handle?
• Can I actually lift this thing high enough that I can put it in the overhead bin by myself?
• And most importantly: Is it soft-sided, pliable, or not overstuffed, so that when I put this carry-on in the overhead bin, I can slide it straight in, instead of spreading it out sideways and taking up more space? Extra points if you can actually place your carry-on on the floor under the seat in front of you.

Surprise, you’re not alone.

According to an article in the New York Times, approximately 12,000 laptops are stolen per week from airports around the world.  Each week.

There are some things you can do. Consider using a checkpoint-friendly laptop bag that lets you lay out your laptop bag on the security screening conveyor belt instead of removing it from the bag. Never place your laptop as the first of your items on the conveyor belt. By the time you’ve finished laying your plastic bin (with your shoes), your empty laptop bag, your purse, your carry-on bag, that laptop can be long gone. If you run the laptop in last, make sure you see it through as it enters the draped section of the X-ray machine so no one else will grab it back out on the other end.

Finally, if the worst happens and your laptop is stolen, what do you do? What if your flight leaves in half an hour; do you have time to file a police report?

According to the article in the New York Times, what you might want to do is buy some “spyware.” No, not the programs that sneak into your computer and steal your info, but programs you can turn on remotely, and which snoops around to find out information about your laptop’s thief! Different programs do different things, but they include things like record the IP addresses the thief uses to get on the Internet, take screenshots of various activity, and even remotely turn on your laptop’s webcam to take snapshots of the unwary burglar!

Read all about it in the article, found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/17/technology/personaltech/17basics.html.

Feeling a little confused about what each airline charges for bags? What about your first checked bag? Do you pay more for a second? What does an airline define as an overweight bag?

Fare aggregating site FareCompare has recently published its domestic airline baggage fee chart, and it’s a pretty handy list. If you’re trying to decide between a couple of airlines for an upcoming trip, check this chart first and see if you wind up coming ahead by choosing one airline over another. Just remember that many of these airlines don’t charge you when you book your ticket, so this won’t actually affect your travel budget until you actually show up at the airport and they tell you how much more to shell out for your big check-in suitcase.

The chart is broken down into two columns: Carry-on bags, and checked bags (and pets). A quick scan shows that Spirit Airlines is still the only airline that insists on charging people for their carry-on ($20 to $45).

All airlines have restrictions on the size of your carry-on, although most of them either have very liberal weight policies or do not specify a weight limit on your carry-on at all. That is, of course, except for Virgin (remember how I had to carefully weigh my bag to fit their requirements when I went to Europe a couple of years ago?).

All airlines allow you to carry on “one personal item”—amusing that both an umbrella and a women’s shoulder bag would qualify…

It looks like most airlines charge between $20 and $25 for your first piece of checked luggage. Your second piece of checked luggage will cost you at least as much as the first, although most airlines charge a hair more. You start paying some hefty fees though, when you have luggage that’s too big, weighs too much, or you travel with a gaggle of suitcases like Paris Hilton on her way to film a new reality show on location.

One surprise I didn’t expect was that Southwest isn’t the only airline to provide an allowance for free checked luggage. JetBlue doesn’t charge for your first checked bag! That’s where the similarity ends, though. While Southwest doesn’t charge for the second item, JetBlue charges $30. But hey, that first one is free.

As usual, traveling light pays off. Two people traveling round trip can easily save $80 on a trip by learning to pack just their carry-on.

Here’s the chart. Keep it handy next time you need to book your flight:  http://www.farecompare.com/how-to-shop/domestic-baggage-fee-chart.html

It wasn’t but a couple of months ago that Spirit Airlines caused travelers to gasp in horror when it introduced a new $45 bag fee–for carry-on luggage. Their logic was that the aisles would be less crowded during boarding, and there would be a lot of room in the overhead bin.

Personally, I thought it was a horrendous idea. In my opinion, the solution was not to charge people to use the overhead bin; it was to strictly enforce the size rule for carry-ons. How often do we see people with rolling uprights that are obviously too large; their hard-sided structures not allowing people to slide their bags in sideways?

Well, perhaps the inane rule wasn’t the only thing they mismanaged. Apparently they didn’t treat their pilots well, either. As of today, Spirit flights are grounded due to a pilot walkout, and Spirit just announced that they’ve cancelled all their flights for the next couple of days due to the walkout.

Time for new management, I say. And while we’re at it, repeal that stupid carry-on fee.

PS: For those of you loyal readers, my apologies for being absent these last months. I’m still around!

Stuff is flying (and I don’t mean airplanes) since the foiled bomb attack by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on Northwest Airlines flight 253, specifically on how the government and airlines are reacting.

The Transportation Security Administration under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security umbrella issued Security Directive SD 1544-09-06, which it sent to all airlines and airports on the same day as the incident. In it, the TSA outlined what was not allowed in air travel. The directive, which was to be in order through December 30, required that flight crew could not make any announcements regarding the position of the aircraft. And beginning at an hour before landing, passengers were required to remain in their seats beginning, could not access their carry-ons, nor have any blankets, pillows, or personal belongings on their lap. And worst of all for many electronically savvy travelers, the directive banned the use of all “aircraft-integrated passenger communications systems and services” during all phases of the flight (such as phones, Internet, GPS, etc).

Travel writers Christopher Elliott and Steve Frischling were sent copies of the directive from industry sources, and representatives from the TSA came down with a hammer in the form of a subpoena to find out who their sources were. Fortunately for both of them, calmer heads prevailed, and the subpoenas were withdrawn after a few days (I’m sure in no small part to the people who came to their support). Talk about a terrible way to spend one’s holidays.

Security policies by the airlines however, seem not to have calmed down yet. I have heard a number of reports via email and on various online posts that airlines are imposing new policies that make you scratch your head.

I have read some accounts of airlines only allowing travelers to take on a small personal item, requiring them to check in their larger carry-on bag. If I were to travel with just my carry-on bag, and it’s not at maximum size, I don’t know what they would do.

Most recently, Nate Silver of the FiveThirtyEight.com political statistics Web site tweeted that on his flight today from Montreal to JFK (New York City), Delta Airlines prohibited all carry-on—and oh-by-the-way, you have to pay $20 to check in your carry-on! Because you know, it’s now a check-in bag.

Silver amended his original tweet to say that :

Correction: you’re allowed to bring on a carry-on bag if it contains a computer but **not if it doesn’t**. Wish I were making this up.

The only reason for this that I can think of is that Delta doesn’t want the added responsibility for being liable for people’s laptops, since people typically don’t (or lack the ability to) lock their carry-ons. If Delta decides to continue with this security theater, might I suggest you buy yourself a very cheap netbook to slip into your carry-on? For giggles, try the pink Disney-branded ASUS netbook with a Hannah Montana screensaver.

I read an account online where some TSA agents are not allowing unbranded bottles of toiletries. Because you know, someone who wants to use the same method Abdulmutallab used, would never think to decant bomb-making chemicals into an empty bottle of Head & Shoulders. Right?

By and large (in case you haven’t noticed), I am opposed to the way governments have tried to implement air travel security. I think most of it is based on knee-jerk reactions, and are a dog-and-pony show designed to deter only the casual troublemaker. This country is not willing to use profiling and probitive questions the way it’s done in Israel because we aren’t supposed to pick on people based on their race or national origin. Yet the government thinks it’s OK to introduce highly intrusive whole-body scanners that do what was promised by those cheap “X-ray glasses” you could buy years ago from the back of comic books: See through clothing. My husband and I disagree on this one—he thinks they’re fine and there’s nothing wrong with me. I, on the other hand, think they’ll be misused (there are no laws nor technological limitations) in place that prevent the images from being saved, for example. I can see a huge market for full body scans of celebrities. These scanners can also show if you’re wearing more than what’s expected. Is your baby wearing a soiled diaper? Is your grandfather wearing a pair of Depends undergarments? Maybe you wear extra padding to hide your mastectomy. These will all show up as anomalies, and you may likely be pulled aside for a secondary screening. Can we talk about invasion of privacy here? The ACLU agrees.

In a recent Morning Edition on NPR (“Passengers Cite Inconvenience as Main Concern“) Robert W. Mann Jr., one of the country’s leading airline industry consultants, put it best when he said travelers are more concerned with the inconvenience added security brings, not fear:

“Even for a trip of six hours like London-New York, the idea that you would lose three hours on each end of a trip makes it questionable,” Mann said. He said he is pleased that the Obama administration is conducting a top-to-bottom review of the Transportation Security Administration. Up to this point, Mann said, the agency’s security processes largely have been a failure. [My emphasis.]

“I would go further to say that I’d like to see the next billion dollars invested not in technology with X-rays and puffer machines, but rather with essentially police work done offshore to locate people who would do harm—whoever they may be, wherever they be—and before they ever get to an airport,” he said.

Mann said he worries about the soft underbelly of the nation’s airports, with their long lines of tightly clustered people waiting to go through security and into the safe side of the terminal. He believes more puffer machines—screening devices that the TSA says are capable of detecting traces of explosive residue on a person’s body or clothing—will not stop suicide bombers wrapped in vests of C-4 plastique.

In the meantime, what can do you as a traveler?

Consider leaving your rolling upright at home. It’s very convenient but carry-on policies are changing as quickly as today’s weather, and the rolling upright is likely a very easy target for airlines to ask to check in. Don’t forget, most airlines will then get to earn an extra $20 just by making you do this! If you are on airlines like American that charge even more for a second check-in item (and even more for a third), imagine how much more they can make! More than ever, keep your carry-on as light and as small as you can make it (even if it means wearing two layers of T-shirts to lighten your load!)

Stay away from unlabeled toiletry bottles. Or if you’re like some people, print your own professional-looking label to make it easier to identify the product you decanted into your small toiletry bottle. These days it’s very easy to find the product’s logo online for such purposes.

Consider paring down your purse to the bare essences and transferring the items to a travel wallet. Travel wallets, like the Baggallini Teenee bag I’ve reviewed, are a little bigger than a wallet, but have removable (or hideaway) straps so you can wear these on your body for security. Your other option is to use a security wallet to wear under your clothes (and there are versions with straps so you can wear it like a travel wallet). At minimum, your travel wallet should be able to carry your passport and ID, as well as credit cards and your boarding pass (which you can fold in half). Everything else you normally put in your purse, like a folding umbrella, make-up, compact mirror, hairbrush, etc. should go into a zip-lock baggie that you can stash in your carry-on. If all you have is your one carry-on, it is easier to claim it as your personal item.

Ship stuff in advance. This is actually quite feasible now. Flat-rate Priority Mail boxes mean you can ship quite a lot of things in the box for under $11. Even an overnight FedEx package will barely cost more than the cost of your check-in fee. If you are on your way home with a lot of newly acquired souvenirs, seriously consider shipping all of this stuff home. Or be like me and just buy small, flat things.

As we head to the holidays, many of us will be hitting the skies to visit family. If you plan to do any flying for the holidays, consider these tips to help keep your travel experience smooth sailing.

1. Purchase your gifts online and have them shipped directly

Save gas and the hassles of going to your local mall by simply shopping online. The earlier you shop, the cheaper the shipping fees.

You can find just about everything online these days, but it’s never a guaranteed thing when you purchase things online. Maybe the color just isn’t the same as it appeared on your monitor, or the fabric feels cheaper than it appeared. For this reason, try to use online stores that have very liberal return policies that will let the recipient of your gift return the item with ease:

• Retailers like REI have both an online and physical store presence. If your gift recipient lives near an REI store, they can take the item back in person.
• Mail order catalog outfits  like Travelsmith have a no-questions-asked exchange policy that makes exchanges easy. In addition to a complete online store, they also offer their entire inventory in a catalog, in case your recipient would prefer going through a mail order catalog to decide on an exchange item.
• Online stores like Zappos charge no shipping fees for returning an item, nor do they charge to ship the new item that you’re exchanging for. This can be a huge cost savings over other online stores, who can charge upwards of $7.00 for you to print out and use their merchandise return shipping labels.

Make sure you read the fine print before ordering online. Do they charge for returning or exchanging an item? How do they handle refunds? Can the recipient do this or do you have to intervene as the holder of the credit card?

Most importantly, check to see if they have a limit on how many days you have to exchange something. If an item at one place is cheaper by a few bucks but must be returned within 30 days of purchase, consider buying the same item (for a little more) at another site that doesn’t have this restriction.

Once you’ve decided on the purchases, have the items shipped to your recipient’s home directly. Most sites let you add a gift card or gift wrapping; whether you wish to do this is up to you. Gift wrapping usually costs more, and in the few occasions I’ve used the service, I haven’t been particularly impressed. Instead, you might just want to ship the item to the recipient’s home but have it addressed to your name. You can wrap the items when you get there.

Make sure you let your recipient know not to open any of these packages, though!

2. Ship your gifts in advance

Whether you purchase online or find something in a neighborhood store, consider gift wrapping them then shipping them out well in advance of your trip. This way you don’t have to worry about carrying the item on your flight, wrapping items when you get there, losing them when your checked luggage gets lost or stolen, or dented/broken as bags tumble through checked-luggage land.

You can wrap and label your gifts for your recipients, and put them all in shipping boxes. If the items are small enough, you can place everything in a flat rate Priority Mail box from the US Postal Service. You can spend a few extra dollars to get a delivery confirmation service for your package as well, which allows you to track its whereabouts in the system.

Make sure to note on the outside box that it’s OK for your recipients to open, if you’d like to have your gift-wrapped boxes sitting under the tree when you get there.

3. Purchase gifts you can take with you on your carry-on

If you’d rather have the security of keeping the gifts at your side and you wish to travel with them, may I suggest that you put them in your carry-on so that the items won’t get lost? If so, however, all the regular rules about carry-ons apply. The gifts:

• Must be small enough that they can easily fit in your carry-on, while you still pack your regular carry-on items in your bag.
• Cannot be liquids or gels; this means perfumes, bath gels, gift packs of jams and jellies, and the like are no-nos.
• Cannot be on the prohibited list for carry-ons, so no buck knife, no paint ball rifles, steak knife set, and so on.

4. Wait to wrap items until you get there

If you choose to take the gifts with you, make sure they are not gift wrapped beforehand. If there’s any question about them during the security screening process, the TSA agents will open your wrapped packages. Wait until you get to your destination before wrapping them. You can either pick up gift wrapping supplies at a store after you land, use the supplies available at the home you’re visiting (in which case, make sure you confirm that they do), or bring the supplies with you. Gift bags are particularly handy for this (unless you’re my husband; he says gift bags are particularly gauche and that gifts should be wrapped, not bagged), but you can also purchase small folded packets of gift wrapping. If you already have a lot of wrapping paper at home and you don’t want to buy new ones, simply cut out a large swath that will adequately cover all your gifts (to be safe, I’d double the amount). Fold them carefully and slide them into a stiff envelope (such as a FedEx or Priority Mail envelope) to prevent creasing. Don’t forget to tuck in any holiday cards or gift tags. If you have the room, take a single spool of ribbon as well. If your carry-on is really full, you can always clip it onto the shoulder strap of your carry-on. Just make sure to take the end of the ribbon securely. Finally, make sure you take a small roll of cello tape so you have a way to tape your bag or wrapping shut.

5. Consider gift cards that will create memories

These days, it’s so easy just to pick up a gift card for any retailer. Retailers love these gift cards because they make the money up front, and there are enough people who lose them, forget they have them, leave a balance and don’t use them all up, buy things that cost more than the balance on the card (thereby allowing the retailers to make even more money on purchases), or worst of all, not use them up before they expire. In my opinion, these cards should never have an expiration date, but many do. Read the fine print.

That said, there are some gift cards and gift certificates that I think are particularly nice: The ones that you can redeem for an experience, instead of just stuff. Most movie theaters offer gift cards or certificates; these are great ways for families to stretch the budget on a night out. And while one ticket might be a fun item to find in a stocking, giving the recipient a 10-pack would be considered a splurge (especially if they like movies). You can also purchase gift tickets for museums, aquariums, and zoos near your recipients’ homes. Since many of these institutions are not-for-profit, it’s always a great way to help boost their already-strapped budgets. If your recipients are already into that kind of thing, consider purchasing an annual membership certificate for them instead. You can easily tuck these into an envelope and they travel extremely well. If you want to be a little more fancy (so the recipients realize the card contains a precious gift), you can even print and make your own “pillow box envelope” beforehand, and then puff it up before presenting it to them (there are a lot of templates online; just use cardstock or other types of stiff paper).

Bonus tip for Thanksgiving fliers: Process your holiday cards on the plane

If you’re flying for the holidays and expect to spend hours at the airport or in the air, here’s a great tip for you: Process your Christmas cards on the plane!

You know how crazy busy it gets once December rolls around. If you normally send out cards for the holidays, why not process them while you’re traveling? It requires a little extra planning and some organizational skills, but you can still manage to process a few hundred cards at your seat with relative ease.

First, the prep:

• Purchase or print your cards now. One option is to go with holiday postcards. Going this route will simplify this process significantly (and save on postage).
• Purchase your stamps now. Try to purchase books of self-adhesive stamps instead of the gummed ones that you have to lick. There is no cost difference between the two.
• Write out your holiday letter (if you do one of those) and make copies now (if you are sending regular cards in envelopes). Try to keep it down to a single sheet of paper (so go double-sided, use a smaller font, etc.)
• Print out your return address labels now.
• If you keep an online address book, print your contents out now. Personally, I don’t care for holiday card envelopes that have the “to” address on a label; it feels too much like bulk mail. These days I prefer to write the addresses out by hand.

Second, the packing:

• Take all the cards out of any packaging or boxes they came in. Separate out the envelopes from the cards, then put each in their own resealable zip-top baggie. Make sure to squish out any extra air from the baggies.
• Put all your stamps in a small baggie.
• If your return address labels are printed on a full sheet of labels, cut the sheets into single rows so that you have single strips. Accordion fold them so they fit in the baggie with your stamps, or place them in their own baggie.
• Put your holiday letters in a stiff envelope or two, but take a couple of extra gallon-sized baggies to hold them once they’ve been folded.
• Grab one or two pens, and optionally, a stiff envelope (such as FedEx or Priority Mail) or a clipboard to serve as a writing surface.
• Place your address book (or print-out), along with the rest of the items, into one large bag. You can use a 2-gallon ziptop baggie or a shopping bag. You will to be able to close or cinch the top and carry this bag onto the plane, and easily stuff everything back into the bag when you need to.
• Take extra gallon-sized baggies or shopping bags with you to place the finished cards.

Third, the doing. Some of these are assembly-line tasks that are easier to do while you’re waiting at the airport because you’ll appreciate the extra elbow room, and the tasks are mindless enough that you can still pay attention to things like boarding announcements (since it’ll take you a few minutes to gather your belongings before you can board).

1. Add return address label – pull out a handful of envelopes at a time , and do this until you’ve done all of your envelopes, putting each handful back into the baggie.
2. Stick stamps – pull out a handful of envelopes at a time to do this. You can do this with the address labels at the same time, although it’s faster to do them separately.
3. Write down people’s addresses on the envelopes – do this until you have completed the task.
4. Fold the holiday letters – you will need a firm surface for this.
5. Sign the cards – if you and your partner typically sign them separately, you can both fold down your tray tables and get to work. Have your partner sign first to get it out of the way so you can take your time to…
6. Personalize the cards – this is one step a lot of people skip when they are rushing through the process. But you’re stuck on a plane for the next 3 hours, so it’s the perfect time! Take out an envelope so you know who the card is for, then personalize the card. Add their names, your message, whatever you want.
7. Finish it up – place your folded holiday letter inside your card, and tuck your card into the envelope. You can wait to glue/tape the envelope shut until later. Pack the completed envelope in a separate bag. You can take all of the completed cards and put them in a mailbox either at your connecting airport, or once you get to your destination.

If you don’t get done, you can do the rest on your flight home. Now, instead of just reading a paperback novel, you’re completely done with your holiday cards!

Maybe you do most of your travels by car, or you’ve just never had the chance to fly before. As much as I’ve flown, I still get little baby butterflies (hmm… caterpillars?) in my stomach right as we take off. I know it’s all physics and engineering, and that it’s safer to fly than it is for me to drive, but there’s always that bit of nervous excitement when we take off.

But before you can get to that seat for your flight, you need to “go through security.” If you’ve had to walk through metal detectors for school or music concerts, then airport security won’t be completely alien to you. But what can you expect, and how can you make the process as smooth as possible?

TSA-friendly packing tips

If you fly to or within the US, you will be screened by the federal Transportation Security Administration, established after the airplane attacks of September 11, 2001. What you pack for your flight should fall into these four categories:

Carry-on bags – these are the smaller bags you keep at your side and bring with you to your seat in the airplane. There are numerous restrictions associated with carry-ons, such as how large they can be, how much they can weigh, and what items are not allowed in them. Most of the tips at my Travelite site are designed to help you travel with just your carry-on bag. It’s perfectly doable, with a little planning. For the purposes of making it easier to get through your security screening, consider these:

• Avoid placing loose items in your main carry-on – the easiest way to organize these is with reclosable ziplock baggies. Go ahead, use them to pack your underwear and socks. Bring extras to store your dirty laundry a well. You can even find 2-gallon ziplock baggies, and they can fit a lot! Make sure to squish out excess air.
• Keep all your paperwork in one place – a manila folder works, although a stiff Priority Mail or FedEx envelope may be a better option if you have smaller slips of paper. Slip these into a big front pocket on your carry-on for easy access
• Even if you plan to stay with your carry-on, use a luggage tag to identify its owner. Consider including the same info inside the bag as well.

Check-in luggage – these are typically those bags and suitcases that are too big to bring with you to your seat on the plane. the TSA allows you to put things in your check-in luggage that are forbidden in your carry-on. For the purposes of a security screening, you don’t need to worry about your check-ins. However:

• If you choose to put a lock on your luggage, use the newer TSA-approved travel locks. These are clearly marked on the packaging, and allow TSA agents to open your lock with a master key should they need to.
• Use a luggage tag on the outside (it is fine if you used one with a cover that makes that requires lifting to see the info; the idea is that the information is there), as well as your personal info inside the luggage.
• Use a check-in bag if you need to carry items that are prohibited in your carry-on (such as knives and large scissors) or you have too many things to fit in your carry-on. Do not assume that you should always check in your luggage, or pack your check-in luggage to the hilt just because you can. Most airlines now charge a fee for even the first piece of check-in luggage, making it an expensive choice if you don’t need to take that much with you.

Toiletry bag – TSA has instituted a new “3-1-1″ policy whereby you can only take one quart-sized transparent resealable bag with you for your liquid and gel toiletries per person, and each individual container holding liquids and gels cannot weigh more than 3 ounces. Of the various things the TSA can nitpick about at the security screening, toiletries (believe it or not) is one of them:

• Most important: Your 3-1-1 bag must be within easy reach when you approach the security screening area, as you are required to place the bag in a tray for independent scanning through the X-ray machine. Don’t pack this in the bottom of your carry-on.
• Be mindful when purchasing souvenirs. That bottle of Caribbean hot sauce? If it’s bigger than 3 ounces and isn’t in your 3-1-1 bag, it needs to go into your check-in or it’s spicy condiment time for the TSA agents!
• Be careful when packing during your trip. It’s easy to accidentally toss in a bottle of shampoo or shaving cream in your carry-on at the last minute while you’re packing up from your hotel, but those will be confiscated.
• Although a quart-sized baggie is not very spacious, you don’t need to carry your entire set of regular toiletries with you. Think carefully about what exactly you want to take. Do you really need your body wash when you know the hotels you’re staying at provide bars of hotel soap?
• Limit the 3-1-1 bag just to liquid and gel toiletries. This may sound silly, but a lot of women are used to packing their make-up together with their toiletries. The thing is, your powder eye shadow, compact, and hair brush don’t neeed to go in the 3-1-1 bag. Once you completely isolate just the liquids and gels, you’ll likely be pleased to see that you can fit everything in the baggie.

Laptop case – you can pack your laptop in your main carry-on, or you can carry it in its own case separately. The airlines allow “one carry-on and one personal item,” and the personal item includes a laptop case (as well as other small totables like purses and camera bags):

• Make sure your laptop is charged enough to turn on if a TSA agent asks you to.
• Be prepared to remove your laptop from its case so it can be screened by itself in the X-ray machine. Some bag manufacturers make special laptop cases with a transparent pocket for your laptop; these must be approved by the TSA (the labeling will indicate this). Such bags let you lay the laptop sleeve open but keep your laptop in the bag through the X-ray machine, providing a little more security from laptop thefts.
• If you expect to be flying with your laptop frequently, consider purchasing travel-friendly cords that retract into a spool, minimizing cable clutter.

Secondary screenings

Look at your boarding pass. There is a corner of the ticket that can sometimes include a notation that looks like “S S S S S S S”—this is the dreaded “secondary screening” code, and it can be added to your ticket for a number of seemingly random purposes. Perhaps you purchased your ticket with cash, at the last minute, just for a one-way trip, or some other behavior that caused the trigger. It’s also altogether possible that during your routine screening, you set off the metal detector, or the X-ray inspector found something unidentifiable in your carry-on. If you do get pulled aside for a secondary screening, relax, breathe, and be polite. The TSA agents are just going through their normal tasks, and your goal is to make the process as smooth as possible so you can get out of there and off to your gate. A TSA agent will pass a handheld detector wand over your body, and they may need to inspect every item in your carry-on (and this is where having everything organized will come in handy).

Things to avoid having on your body when walking through a metal detector

• Keychains and keyrings with keys – it’s easiest to stash this in your carry-on or purse. Many bags have keyfobs so you can snap your keyring in place and forget it until you get back and need to get to your own car.
• Belt buckles – OK so you won a rodeo and you wear your winning buckle proudly! Except through the metal detector. It’s easiest to remove these and stuff them in your carry-on, place in the tray with your shoes (more on that later), or loop around the strap of your carry-on. Don’t worry; your pants won’t fall down in the 10 steps you’ll take through security.
• A pocketful of change
• Big pieces of metallic jewelry
• Your watch – it might not set off the metal detector, but you might as well stash it.
• Your metal sunglasses/glasses
• If you have metal rods and such in your body, consider traveling with your doctor’s note indicating this. Chances are you will still be wanded, but the process is made a little smoother with a doctor’s note.

How to go through security

1. Before you enter the queue:
   • Remove all large metal objects from your body and place them in your carry-on (see the list above).
   • Make sure you can easily get to your 3-1-1 toiletry bag and laptop computer.
   • From your wallet, remove your official government-issued picture ID card, and keep it with your boarding pass in your hand.
2. As you approach the security screening area, you might see different signs for queues for business travelers, or for travelers with children. There are no strict laws regarding which queue to enter, although if you are new to the process, you should probably avoid the queue for the business traveler. They tend to be veterans at the process, and may be impatient should it take you a while to get yourself oriented.
3. Near the entrance to the queue will be a uniformed agent – hand your ID card and boarding pass to this agent. The agent will scan both the ID and boarding pass, making sure the names match, and that you match the photo on the ID card. Most of the time, the agent will also mark a notation on the boarding pass.
4. Once you get into the queue area, there may be several queues. Unless you are directed into a specific one by an agent, you can choose which queue to stand in. The multiple queues are there to expedite the screening process.
5. The actual processing area usually holds about four or five people at a time. The first thing you will be able to do is to grab a large plastic tub from a stack near the counter. You will need at least one, maybe two:
   • Remove your shoes and place them flat in the plastic tub.
   • Remove your 3-1-1 toiletry baggie from your carry-on bag and place it next to your shoes in your plastic tub.
   • Place any small electronics like your cell phone in the tub.
   • If you are carrying an empty refillable water bottle, place it in the tub to show them that it’s empty.
   • If you are wearing a light jacket, you can also remove it and place it in the tub if it still has room. If it’s already full, or you are wearing a thicker coat, use a second tub.
   • Use a second tub if you have a laptop. Place the laptop flat in the plastic tub, with nothing on top of the laptop. If you have a TSA-approved laptop case, unzip the case so that the portion containing the laptop can be laid flat on the X-ray conveyor belt.
6. By this time, you should be about ready to pass your articles through the X-ray machine:
   1. Lay your main carry-on bag flat and have it be the first item that goes through the machine.
   2. Place your “personal bag” (purse, camera bag, laptop case) laid flat as your second item through the machine.
   3. Your plastic bin(s) should be the last item to go on the conveyor belt.
7. Do not take your eyes off of your belongings until you have ensured that the last of your plastic bins has successfully moved into the closed X-ray machine mechanism, even if it takes an extra moment. Sometimes a TSA agent will pause the X-ray machine and even back up the conveyor belt for a closer inspection, so the belt may be momentarily paused. The idea here is to minimize the chances of anyone in the queue sniping your valuables, so take the moment to make sure your tubs have moved into the mechanism.
8. Do not place your ID and boarding pass in the tub! Hold onto these.
9. Now, it is your turn to walk through the metal detector, which is parallel to the X-ray machine. Stand on your side of the metal detector and look to the other side. There should be a TSA agent standing there facing you. If there is no agent there, or the agent is busy with someone else, wait your turn. Only when the agent is ready and acknowledges you, should you walk through the metal detector. Walk through calmly and continue walking.
10. Assuming you do not set off the metal detector, you are now clear to retrieve your belongings. A few more steps, and you are at the exit end of the X-ray machine conveyor belt.
11. You will see your main carry-on and your personal bag come through first. Let these continue to roll; your goal is to retrieve the items in your tub first:
    1. Put your keys, cell phone, etc. away in your pockets
    2. Grab your shoes, place them on the floor and quickly stick your feet in them. Don’t bother lacing them or strapping them completely for now.
    3. Grab your 3-1-1 toiletry bag.
    4. Check that your first tub is completely empty.
    5. From your second tub, grab your laptop.
    6. Now grab your main carry-on bag and your personal item bag. At this point you are probably carrying your main bag, your smaller purse/case, your 3-1-1 bag, your laptop, and your ID card and boarding pass. And your shoes are flopping on your feet.
    7. Optionally, place your now-empty tubs in the stack at the end of the counter.
12. You’re now done with the security screening. Most screening areas provide benches in the exit area; spend a moment to put all your items in order here, making sure you haven’t forgotten anything.

You’ve now successfully gone through an airport security screening! Now let’s go have fun on your trip!

The TSA has some helpful Web pages:

• Screening process
• “Checkpoint-friendly” laptop case information
• 3-1-1 toiletry bag

When looking for airline tickets, do you think about all the hidden fees or whether you’re allowed to sneak your super-sized “carry-on” onto the plane?

Travel clothing seller Travelsmith has published a very handy spreadsheet online called “Carry-On/Check-In Luggage Guidelines.” You can get it in PDF form, which means you can easily view it on the Web and print it to your printer directly with all the margins and text set correcty.

The checklist from Travelsmith makes checking airline luggage fees a snap. Click on the image to go to the Travelsmith site.

When seeing all the information presented in one sheet of paper, you can really see where some airlines are just digging their fists into travelers’ wallets. American leads the pack with fees of $20 for your first checked bag, and $30 for your second. If you’re the type to travel with a lot of extra luggage, you’re looking at $50 per person one way. That adds a jaw-dropping $100 per person to your trip, and certainly something to be aware of when trying to decide which airline to use to book your trip. Most others aren’t much better—with the notable exception of Southwest (which doesn’t charge for checking in bags at all), and Jet Blue, which lets you check in one bag for free—all other domestic U.S. airlines charge fees for both the first and second checked bags.

In addition to fees for checked luggage, this spreadsheet has other helpful information. What is your maximum allowable size for a carry-on, for instance?

When trying to figure out the maximum-allowable size of bags (whether for carry-ons or check-ins), you want to add up the height, length, and width of your bag. Image courtesy of Travelsmith.

In domestic travel, Airtran wins the carry-on category. At a maximum allowable size of 55 inches and no weight restrictions, that’s almost as big as the allowances for check-ins. On the other end of the spectrum is Malaysia Airlines and Italy’s Alitalia, which restrict carry-ons to no more than 45 inches total, and no heavier than 11 pounds. I thought I had to be creative to travel for my two-week European vacation with just 13 allowable pounds (see “The Ultra-minimalist packing list: How I packed for Europe” for details); shaving 2 pounds off of that would’ve meant I would’ve had to sew in pockets throughout my in-flight clothes so I could remove even more stuff out of my bag. Eek!

One really noticeable thing in the checklist is that the checked bag fees are almost strictly a domestic thing. Although some U.S. airlines like Continental charge for both the first and second checked bags at home as well as abroad, most of the other domestic airlines don’t charge a fee if you’re flying outside of the U.S.

The bottom line here is that Southwest continues to be the only domestic airline that charges nothing for checking in your bags. At all. Nada. Zippo. Zilch.

If you need to travel with a lot of checked luggage in the U.S., these days I really recommend Southwest. Sure, your flight will feel like a commuter bus ride. But they don’t try to pretend to be something more. The no-frills airline is simply prompt and friendly, with up-front pricing and an open seating system that rewards online check-ins (you get a better spot in line to board). You don’t have people trying to sneak on huge bags so the aisles don’t get unduly clogged, and they can depart right on time. So what if you don’t have the choice to purchase a $6 boxed lunch? Soft drinks are still free, and even their frequent flyer reward system is easier to track. How can you go wrong?