Summary
- Purchasing travel insurance can be crucial in case of flight cancellations, interruptions, or other issues.
- Booking flights far in advance usually offers lower airfare prices and allows passengers to choose their desired seats.
- Contingency planning can help passengers navigate flight disruptions more easily and minimize stress.
Despite a significant increase in scheduled flight services worldwide compared to a decade ago, flying has become increasingly worrying and stressful for passengers. Air travel has undoubtedly become more turbulent with different rules across various airlines, soaring airfare prices, an evolving digital era, and significant disruptions resulting in cancelations or missing baggage.
With so much involved before passengers can embark on their holiday adventures or even just a business trip, are there any ways for air travelers to lessen these burdens and make flying less painful? Perhaps there are, let’s find out.
1 Purchasing travel insurance
As you may have heard many times before, it’s better to be safe than sorry – and the same principle applies to air travel in various ways. Whether you’re flying short-, medium- or long-haul legs on entire trips spanning days to months, ensuring basic travel insurance has been purchased is something every passenger should do. All basic travel insurance covers flight cancelations, interruptions, and baggage losses.
Most travel insurance plans also cover theft, sudden illness, injury, flight delays, and other issues. This means that in the event of such problems, financial losses suffered by the covered passenger can be reimbursed, with the refunded amount dependent primarily on the coverage type. Simply put, purchasing travel insurance for all flights protects against significant financial losses.
2 Booking far ahead
While planning and booking flights early is not always possible for every passenger, this is another old-school principle to lessen the worrisome load of air travel. Once your exact travel dates are known, it’s best to book the flights as soon as possible. More often than not, booking and purchasing in advance ensure passengers get relatively cheaper airfare price deals as the demand would be much lower.
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When the flights are released, passengers are also more likely to know what seats will be available and get to choose their favorites. Once flights are booked and confirmed, passengers can easily focus on other aspects of their trip, such as reserving their accommodation, planning activities, securing ground transportation where required, and much more.
3 Contingencies always needed
With flight disruptions becoming more frequent, being stranded at the airport is an increasing worry and never fun for passengers (perhaps unless you get stuck at Singapore Changi Airport). Although doing so beforehand may not be possible in every case, making contingency plans is ideal. This involves researching nearby accommodations, ground transportation options, alternative airports, and potentially backup flight services from other airlines.
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While passengers don’t need to book these extra contingencies ahead of time, it’s at least worth conducting such research. Should a flight disruption occur, getting unstuck in the airport will be a breeze as passengers would have a rough knowledge of what options are available, where they could accommodate themselves, or where they can drive to find alternative flights.
4 Factoring additional time
As the early bird always catches the worm, passengers will likely be less stressed out simply by checking in online and arriving at the airport at least two and a half hours before the scheduled departure time. The additional time buffer ensures that passengers can get any baggage checked in smoothly and leaves plenty of time for the possible long queues at security.
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Even if security lines are short with programs like TSA PreCheck, having plenty of time before the flight still allows passengers to wind down within the airport and get into the proper travel mood. Whether that means grabbing a needed bite to eat, indulging in retail therapy, or using the time to catch up with work by the aircraft gate, having the time to do so means more options and less stress for travelers.
5 Significance of paper
Since the aviation industry has been ramping up digital services, with most documentation available through various mobile applications, passengers might take for granted having everything stored on a single personal device. While convenient, entirely digital solutions can sometimes backfire if these automated systems are not functioning or the device gets lost or is simply out of battery.
Photo: Simple Flying | Tom Boon
Lack of a usable WiFi connection within the airport could also be a contributing factor, and there’s perhaps nothing more stressful than struggling with such problems when it’s time to show your boarding pass or other documentation. To avoid such issues, passengers can always rely on having relevant documents printed on paper before every flight and keep them handy in their personal carry-on bag just in case.
What are some of your favorite travel tips for ensuring a less stressful air travel experience? Let us know in the comments below.
