I’ve invented a new buzzzword (renamed an existing one). “Blaqgging” is weblogging to counteract the effects of jet lag. Having spent all but 2 of the past 29 hours awake I can’t vouch for the quality. To provide some context here I’m currently safely ensconced in the Hampton Inn, Logan Airport, Boston where I’m staying the night. For the 2nd time ever I decided to chance getting a ticket in an airport and it couldn’t have been a worse move. My shannon-boston flight that was supposed to arrive at 6:30 was 25 minutes late in landing. Add in over an hour of delays for luggage reclaim and a missing (no shit!, 40 minutes late) ternimal shuttle bus & I was never going to get outta there last night. However, for all you regular US visitors I can sincerely recommend the prompt service and low cost of AirTran airways. They found me a direct flight 1st thing this morning from Logan to Virginia at less than a 3rd the cost of the US Airways equivalent. What’s more amazing is that it was at 10:30 last night yet the cost was just over a hundred dollars.
So here’s my top 5 tips to avoid Air travel frustration:
- Inform your longhaul airline (mine was Aerlingus) well in advance if you require a specially prepared meal. Coeliacs like me may have to explain to them what a coeliac is and why they can’t eat lasagne
- Book your connecting flights if you’re arriving in the airport after 3:00pm and don’t want to be stranded overnight.
- Check out the AirTran and JetBlue sites for connecting flights in the US. They’re both very cheap and provide good service. Especially AirTran.
- Don’t puke on or near the staff no matter how nauseous you feel
- Don’t confuse the European idea of reserving/holding a ticket with the American concept. It could just have been tiredness of the part of both the staff and I but I ended up with a round-the-world-to-get-next-door itinerary from US Airways that they assured me was exactly what I was looking for. One call to AirTran convinced me this wasn’t the case.