5 Tips for Holiday Travel

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you look! Decorations, presents, snow, and even crowds are all part of of the festivities.

While snow and crowds may add a festive atmosphere while you celebrate the Christmas season, they have an entirely different effect when you're trying to get to your holiday destination, or to visit friends and family.

Today we are sharing our top five tips to help your survive travel this holiday season.

Pack Light and ship your gifts. If you can swing it, you should try to only take carry-on luggage. This will help you avoid long lines to check in a bag. It will also allow you to keep your items with you and take action more quickly should you have any flight schedule changes.

Additionally, you will likely save a great deal of hassle and frustration by shipping your gifts. Shipping gifts will free up space and weight in your bags, so you won’t need to worry about being over the weight limit. You also avoid having your gifts unwrapped to be inspected by TSA.

Book your parking ahead of time. Instead of worrying or scrambling when you arrive at the airport because the garage parking is full, you can relax knowing that you have a guaranteed parking place. If your airport doesn't offer this service, use an off-site parking lot. These lots are often cheaper than parking at the airport and offer a shuttle service from your car to the airport. They sometimes offer additional services like oil changes, or car detailing while you’re away! Just be sure to plan additional time it takes to ride the shuttle to the airport terminal.

Think "EARLY". You're used to arriving at least two hours prior to your flight departure, but you may need to arrive even earlier than that in order to get through security. Lines will likely be longer than usual.

Equally important is scheduling your flight as early in the day as possible. Statistically speaking, early flights are more likely to depart on time than ones later in the day. Will this mean you will "rope drop" the airport? Yes. Will it be worth it? Yes!

Have a backup plan, or two. You may not want to think about all the things that can go wrong when you're traveling, but things can, and do, go wrong. (Hello, Murphy!) So it’s important to be prepared! Your first backup plan is travel insurance. Look for policies that have Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR), lost baggage, and trip delay/interruption/cancellation coverage. You've made a financial investment in your holiday travel, and you'll want to protect it. Travel insurance allows you to do just that.

In case your flight gets canceled, you'll want to be aware of alternate ways to get to your destination. Can you fly through a different city; what other flights are available? Are there trains or buses that can get you to where you are going? By thinking about this ahead of time, you'll have a plan of action if you need it. And be able to execute it before other travelers in the same boat figure out what they are going to do.

And finally, have a true "Plan B" just in case your vacation turns into a "stay-cation." By having a few fun activities or a local hotel in mind, you’ll help curb the disappointment.

Pack your patient pants. So much is out of your control when you travel. But one thing that is always within your control is your attitude. Flight delay? You can try something new that you've always wanted to try while you wait. Flight cancelation? Be kind while you work with the ticketing agent or travel advisor. I promise you, they want you to get to the destination just as much as you! Maybe even more.