Five Habits of Highly Experienced Travelers

Air travelers today always seem to be having bad days. They rush to make connections towing an enormous amount of carry on luggage behind them. They stand in long lines to board airplanes, praying there is overhead baggage space remaining when they finally get aboard. They're jammed in middle economy seats on crowded airplanes that never seem to have any empty seats. And when they finally arrive at their destinations, they're relieved to have survived the stressed out ordeal and badly in need of a drink.

But it doesn't have to be that way. Occasionally you'll see someone who stands out from the pack and seems immune to the stress and frantic behavior that grips their fellow travelers. These few people have figured out how to avoid all that. They are what I call highly experienced travelers.

By “highly experienced” I mean a travel veteran, someone who travels constantly for business and pleasure. Their families are accustomed to their frequent absences. They've accumulated two million or more lifetime miles on their chosen airlines. They know how to game the system and they're familiar with all the tricks of the trade. They move gracefully though airports and travel in relative comfort and style. They enjoy exalted status in airline frequent flyer programs. You often see them in First Class sipping a drink and reading the morning newspaper.

What can we learn from these highly experienced travelers that will help the rest of us who don’t travel as often cope with the stress of modern air travel? It turns out there are a few things they do that would help us all relax and cope more effectively with the vagaries of hectic travel schedules. To find out more, I canvassed my friends and colleagues who travel frequently and drew on my own decades of travel experience. Here are a few tips I learned that should make your next journey a far more pleasant experience:

1.    They book their own travel. Highly experienced travelers know better than to trust their bookings to travel agents or corporate travel departments. Instead, they often take responsibility for booking their own travel, either online or through a concierge service. Many of the latter are available at no cost to those who sign up for travel credit cards.

Booking online allows travelers to take control of their own travel choices. By booking directly through an airline website, they can often save money, choose their own flights, connections, seating, and even check in online. Travelers can customize business itineraries online and reserve them for later payment by the company. Whether to use an online travel service such as Priceline, Expedia, Kayak, and others, depends on a number of factors especially price sensitivity. But be aware that many airlines, rental car companies, and hotels don’t allow itineraries booked through these travel discount sites to earn loyalty program points or miles.

All the major airlines and hotel chains have smartphone apps, too, which makes monitoring your travel, checking in, choosing seats and hotel rooms, and obtaining electronic boarding passes simple and easy. Some Hilton hotels offer digital keys that allow smartphones to unlock rooms. Room keys, paper tickets, and boarding passes are rapidly becoming things of the past. In case of flight delays or cancellations, these apps often alert passengers well before a general announcement is made, allowing them to rebook early.

2.    They always check baggage. Among frequent travelers, there's a conspiracy theory that goes like this: The airlines, anxious to free up aircraft holds for more mail and cargo, deliberately make checking baggage difficult, expensive, and time consuming. Over time, they've trained most air travelers to avoid checking baggage and instead carry everything aboard and use the overhead bins. As a result, passengers jam the overheads full to overflowing. They race to board their flights quickly, driven by fear there won't be any space left for their luggage. Often they're humiliated when they find the bins full and are forced to swim against the tide of humanity and return to the front of the aircraft to gate-check their heavy bag.

In reality, checking luggage is typically painless and stress-free. Airline kiosks automate the process. Passengers who check bags don't have to worry about getting all their toiletries and personal items through airport security checkpoints. Airlines are astonishingly efficient at transferring bags, even where connections are very tight. Rarely do passengers have to wait long to claim checked bags at their journey’s end. Automated baggage handling systems mean that airlines seldom lose luggage anymore. And most airlines waive baggage charges for one or two bags for even the most junior of their frequent flyers. At their destinations, highly experienced travelers never crowd the baggage carousel, watching intently for their bags. Instead, they politely stand back and wait, approaching the carousel only when they spot their luggage. The upshot is that those travelers who check their bags are far more relaxed and less stressed than their fellows travelers who carry it all aboard.

3.   They enroll in time saving membership programs. To ease the stress of travel, the government, airlines, hotels, and private companies have created a number of programs to make the travel experience more pleasant, streamlined, and trouble-free. For example, you can sign up as a Trusted Traveler, a TSA program that includes both TSA PreCheck and Global Entry. The fees are nominal and reimbursed by many travel credit cards. Those who sign up avoid standing in long lines at security checkpoints and usually don't have to remove their shoes or laptops from briefcases or backpacks. Global Entry allows international travelers to use automated kiosks upon reentering the country rather than waiting to see an immigration officer. In some cases during busy arrival times, that can save passengers more than an hour.

Better yet, some large U.S. airports have CLEAR lanes, which speed members through airport security even faster than TSA PreCheck. For less than $100 per year, CLEAR stores members’ biometric identifiers, which allows them to keep driver’s licenses stowed in favor of fingerprint identification. CLEAR members always go to the head of the lines, saving hours of waiting each year.

Most airlines have clubs or lounges that offer food, drink, Wi-Fi, and a relaxing atmosphere in which to work between flights. The annual membership fees can be quite steep, on the order of $450 per year. However, there are many ways to have these costs reimbursed. Employers sometimes will pay these costs, recognizing that clubs and lounges enhance productivity. And many travel credit cards such as the United Club VISA, for example, come with club membership included.

4.   They play the “points and miles” game. Nearly all highly experienced travelers are members of airline and hotel frequent traveler (loyalty) programs. They earn miles and points as they travel, which in turn can be used to upgrade airline seats or book free travel. These programs offer a myriad of benefits including free checked baggage, priority seating, early boarding, and complimentary upgrades, to name a few. Of course, not everyone travels enough to qualify for elite status. But even the most junior of frequent fliers earn valuable benefits that ease their en route stress.

Many savvy frequent travelers also have credit cards that confer travel rewards such as airline co-branded cards that earn air miles for every purchase. These programs allow even infrequent travelers to accumulate points and miles to earn airline seat upgrades, free flights, and free hotel stays. In some cases, generous signup bonuses are worth enough points to pay for thousands of dollars worth of travel.

One of the top travel rewards credit cards, for example, is the Chase Sapphire Reserve VISA. This card comes with a 50,000-point signup bonus, enough for a round trip domestic air ticket. Those who use the card to pay for travel and dining earn three Ultimate Rewards (UR) points for every dollar spent. UR points can be used to book discounted travel or easily transferred to airline and hotel frequent traveler programs. Hotel branded credit cards often earn multiple point bonuses when used to book stays at the hotel chain that issued the card. Given the rich and diverse travel benefits offered by these credit cards and loyalty programs, it's surprising that more travelers don't take advantage of them.

5.    They take travel disruptions in stride. There's nothing worse or more embarrassing for those involved than to witness a weary traveler berating an airline employee. Often the employee has absolutely no control whatsoever over situation, such as a delay or cancellation caused by a mechanical problem, adverse weather, or air traffic control.

Frequent travelers take airline disruptions in stride because they know how to handle them. Smartphone apps alert travelers to disruptions early. Often by the time a traveler finds out about a delay, the airline already has rebooked them on the next available flight. For elite members of airline loyalty programs, the airline often will book and pay for the cost of a hotel room or rental car in case of a cancellation or overnight delay.

Highly experienced travelers can teach us a lot about how to avoid stress and reduce the unpleasantness of modern air travel. Do as these people do and you'll find that the airlines, hotels, and fellow passengers will treat you like a pro.