It’s vacation time and I’m in Vancouver hanging out with family and enjoying the weather. My journey had a few bumps along the road, but I finally made it – Yah! I survived getting bumped off my flight, 8 hours of airport time, too many lines, a random hotel in the middle of no where and a 4:30 wake up for a 6:45 am flight. Here are a few of my tips for “enjoying” trip delays and airports.
1. Get to the airport early. In my case this wasn’t an issue seeing as I arrived at 6:30pm on Friday and didn’t leave until 6:45am on Saturday.
2. Avoid automated walkways. Airports can be very boring places, so why rush to your departure gate where you are going to sit and sit and sit. Take your time, walk at a leisurely pace and avoid the automated walkways.
3. Update your electronic devices. You never know when you’re going to get stuck for 8 hours…. so before you leave for the airport download some new music, a TV show, maybe a movie. Something that will occupy your time in a pinch.
4. Eat a proper meal. Airports are expensive, but I usually account for this in my trip budget. If I have the time, I would rather sit in a restaurant with a nice meal, a glass of wine and a book, than eating fast food and rushing to my gate.
5. Go shopping. Airports are often filled with lots of useless crap, but looking at that crap is entertaining and takes up more time. One of my favourite places to kill time is a book store or the shop looking at magazines.
6. Be pleasant. Airline staff probably get yelled at a lot when flights are cancelled or they have to bump people off their flights. I try not to be one of those people. Being nice can work in your favour. The last time I got bumped from a flight I ended up getting bumped up to first class on a 5-hour flight. It was amazing!!!
adrienne in_365 