WHAT WOULD A FREQUENT FLYER DO?

Which is the best day to board a plane? 10 air travel tips worth knowing

Image: Artur Tumasjan

Depending on the details, air travel can make for a pleasant experience or a hideous one. The Internet is crawling with advice on how to improve this endeavor and, while some of it is very much on point, many other sources offer dubious or outdated information.

Listed below are ten tips that can help smooth the ride and even save you a few bucks in the process.

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An early check-in to your flight will not only save you valuable time at the airport, and let you choose a better seat, but it will also prevent some airlines from re-selling your place (yes, that happens).

Also, checking in early through the website or airline app can earn you bonus miles. Too many positive things for a little effort at home.

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This one is obvious: any liquids you're carrying through TSA checkpoints must be less than 3.4 ounces (100 milliliters) and placed in a see-through bag no larger than a quart.

Also, leave at home that mini pocket knife you use as a keychain and any sharp objects, as it too, won’t make it past the TSA checkpoint. Or, put them in the checked baggage.

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Overseas travel involves filling out paper forms that are usually handed out during the flight. And there is a great possibility that the onboard personnel won’t have enough pens to go around.

So, take a pen from home. You’ll need it to fill out immigration forms onboard. And your flight attendant will appreciate not having to supply the entire flight with extra ink.

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God forbid it happens but, if your checked bags get lost or delayed, it’s important to have your essentials packed into your carry-on. Make a list of the most important things and start with prescription medications and medical supplies.

Follow the list with a cell phone charger, a change of clothes, and the necessary paperwork to get you through security and into your hotel. What you can pack in a carry-on is different than what you can pack in a checked bag.

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It’s no secret that airlines have strict size limits for carry-on bags, which are enforced by gate agents. So, check your bag's dimensions at home and make sure they adhere to your airline's limits.

And keep in mind that European carriers' limits vary slightly from those in the U.S. Blame it on standard versus metric. Carry-on requirements vary by airline (9″x14″x22″ is standard for Delta, United, and American Airlines; Southwest allows 10″x16″x24″). it’s best to confirm space allotments and measure your bag before you pack.

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Electronic devices can take up space pretty quickly, especially when you are traveling with a smartphone, charger, laptop, tablet, photo camera, etc.

So, get those items ordered and make sure you are not forgetting anything, including chargers, extra batteries, etc. And maybe think about getting an organizer if these things create too much of a mess.

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Dressed up women and men in suits toasting with a champagne glass in their ample seats while the steward attendant smiles are probably not the sort of thing you will encounter when air traveling these days. Crumpled seats and tight aisles are the norm instead.

And, in this scenario, being comfortable is paramount. So, dress up with that situation in mind. Airplane cabin climate settings vacillate between icebox and toaster oven, with no habitable medium in between. Dress for any contingency by wearing multiple light layers.

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Really, it’s as simple as that. Larger crowds lead to more chaotic parking and drop-off situations and longer wait times at security checkpoints so, plan accordingly.

Airports tend to be most crowded on Monday mornings and Friday afternoons, as these days bear the brunt of business travel. As for seasonal variations, expect Fridays to get even busier in the summer months as recreational travel peaks.

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If you are not a frequent traveler, spending your hard-earned money on those several hundred dollar annual fees that are associated with airline lounges makes no sense at all. But if you’ve got a long wait, it might be worth it to purchase a daily pass.

The cost is usually much less than you expect and you don’t need to have a certain credit card brand to access it. You will be able to spend those hours in a more comfortable environment, with amenities like complimentary food and drinks, better seats, showers, and more.

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If motion sickness is a problem for you, then the front seats might not be the best location on the plane. The front and back of the aircraft are the areas that move and bounce the most.

In contrast, the middle part is the most stable one. As a pilot said: "A plane is like a seesaw. If you’re in the middle, you don’t move as much". So, while a last-minute upgrade might seem like a good idea, those front seats are not the best for those with motion sickness.

Treasures with a history

Medieval Jell-O? These inventions are a lot older than you realize!

Jell-O, Swiss Army Knives, roller skates, lighters… It’s hard to picture these items existing hundreds of years ago, isn’t it? And yet, some of the treasures that make modern life easier have indeed been around, in some cases, for millennia. Read on to learn when these 11 items were actually first invented!

Gelatin desserts existed centuries before Jell-O! Medieval cooks used boiled animal collagen to make shimmering molds for banquets. The brand Jell-O came in 1897, when Pearl B. Wait in New York flavored powdered gelatin with fruit syrups.

It’s hard to imagine the video game giant existing before electricity. But Nintendo was founded in 1889 in Kyoto as a playing card company. For decades, it produced hanafuda cards, then toys, and only entered electronics in the 1970s.

Long before disco rinks or inline blades, a Belgian inventor named John Joseph Merlin assembled the first roller skates in 1760, skating into a London ballroom (and famously crashing). Early versions had fixed metal wheels and very poor steerability.

Famously, lighters predate matches. But do you know exactly how long lighters have existed? The first usable one appeared in 1823, invented by a German chemist. The first friction match only appeared 3 years later.

That’s what we call the famous red multi-tool standardized by Victorinox in 1891. But archaeologists discovered a Roman folding tool from around 200 AD made of silver and iron, with knife, spoon, fork, spike, and spatula. It might not have been mass-produced or standardized, but it certainly was there first.

We may associate dishwashers with mid-20th-century suburban kitchens, but the first one dates to 1886, when Josephine Cochrane built a hand-cranked model to save her fine china from clumsy servants.

The 20th century was still far away when the first working escalator was patented. The year was 1859, yet it was introduced at Coney Island only 30 years later—as an amusement ride!

It’s not a thing of the 90s! Its roots go back to 1969, when ARPANET connected four U.S. universities for military-funded research. The web’s 1991 debut by Tim Berners-Lee made it public and visual, hence the illusion that the "Internet" appeared overnight.

Do you associate concrete blocks with modernity in your mind? Think again! The Romans used advanced volcanic-ash mixes to build huge, durable structures (like the Pantheon dome or aqueducts). The Ancient Roman techniques even give clues on how to make longer-lasting concrete today.

We are not talking about electronic printers. Think about the movable type technology: It goes back in history way, way farther than Gutenberg’s system.

Printing with woodblocks and even early movable type existed in China long before the 15th-century European printing that Gutenberg perfected and popularized.

The great ancestor of GPS was probably the magnetic compass used for navigation. The discovery that magnetic force could be used to calculate the position of the poles occurred over 2000 years ago during the Han dynasty, in China.