Holiday Travel Survival Guide

By Billy Kolber-Stuart Editorial Director, PlanetOut Travel

Heralded by little printed messages of good tidings on airline meal trays, the holiday season is a very evocative time of year for travelers. It’s a time of year when utopian peace and harmony are approximated by uniformity and conformity – stores rushing to sell the same gifts and decorations, an entire nation eating turkey on the last Thursday of November, and then flying back where they came from the Sunday after – the busiest air travel day of the year. The holidays are a time for family, community and assembly – and as such they can be particularly difficult for gay people, who frequently don't fit the imagery on the millions of Christmas cards clogging the postal service through New Year's Day. Many gay women and men spend the holidays with their families. Some of us celebrate with the family we were born to. We travel back to our hometowns, to nostalgia and familiarity, a journey that can cross thousands of miles, and an equal number of emotions and moods. Others of us celebrate with the families we have forged, families connected by love and choice and a commitment that may prove thicker than blood, though church and state refuse to sanctify them. We travel to friends in cities near and far, traveling back to the future, to homes free from the oppression of tradition. Still others of us travel to escape the holidays entirely – spending them in Acapulco or St. Barts – places where Christmas trees look out of place, and the Christian Broadcasting Network can’t reach us. Whatever the motivation or destination, holiday travel is important enough for us to battle crowded train stations, premium airfares, and whatever psychological baggage we have to carry. If you are traveling this season to be with your relatives, we hope that the holidays prove to be a time of affirmation, understanding and inclusion. If you are traveling to share the holidays with a family of affinity, we hope that affinity brings to you the true sense of warmth and community that the holidays promise but so often fail to deliver. And if you are traveling to escape, we wish you speedy flights, comfortable accommodations and complete refuge from the din of jellied cranberry sauce and video yule logs.

Ten Tips for Holiday Air Travel Survival

1. Fly early in the day Flight delays and problems mount during the day. The first flight out is almost always the most likely to go out on time.

2. Call ahead to reconfirm your flights. The earlier you know about flight delays or cancellations, the more options you'll have.

3. Leave your car at home. Airport parking lots always fill up early. So take a limo, taxi or shuttle bus. But leave the car at home.

4. Get to the airport early. It's always a good idea, but especially when the airports are so crowded.

5. Make sure your luggage is tagged to the correct destination. Computer-generated baggage tags help a lot, but making sure the tag on your luggage has the correct destination tag on it is your best assurance that it will arrive in the same place you do.

6. If you're running late, go right to the gate. Your reservations and seat assignments are subject to cancellation if you don't check in on time. Even if you have luggage to check, you're better off taking it right to the gate if you can fit it through the x-ray machines.

7. Get out of line and hit the phones. If your flight is cancelled or delayed, don't wait on a long line to find out what your options are. Call your travel agent or the airline's central reservations center. Have them book your alternate flights, and then go wait on line, if necessary, to have your ticket re-issued.

8. Bring something to eat and something to read with you. Delays are inevitable, and you'll feel like the smartest person on the plane when you pull out a tasty sandwich and the current issue of People while everyone else is begging for peanuts and reading the SkyMall catalog.

9. Reconfirm your hotel reservations early on the day of arrival. Confirm them directly with the front desk, and let them know when you plan to arrive, especially if you are going to be arriving late.

10. Be nice to the people behind the counter. Any problem you're having is almost certainly not their fault, and they are the ultimate authority on upgrades, seat assignments and boarding. Yelling will get you nowhere fast.