Travel tips from Newsweek

As a traveling "newbie" (my first trip is coming up, though), I don't have any personal experiences to share. But The July 30 Newsweek had a few tips for air travel. I'm sure all your experienced folks already know all this.

Title of the article: Happy Tarmac Sitting!

Most-delayed big-city airports that get fewer than 70 percent of flights off on time:
* Chicago O'Hare
* Portland, Maine
* NY Kennedy
* Newark (NJ) Liberty
* Charlotte-Douglas (NC)
* Philadelphia

I'm guessing no one is surprised by those.

To see 10 hours in airplane hell, there's a YouTube video (Delta Flight 6499) that some guy posted about his 10 hours spent on a plane on the tarmac with no food and plenty of crying babies due to unspecified mechanical problems and weather. Haven't watched it (am scared to), but I'm sure it's a dozy.

Newsweek offered these travel tips:

* Research before you buy your ticket
- Avoid busiest airports and busiest times (duh!)
- National Air Traffic Controllers Association (www.natca.org) offers airport-specific reports on how to avoid delays, like "fly mornings at JFK, weekends at Logan"
- At flightstats.com, you can check specific flights and see records of on-time departures and cancellations.
- Check avoiddelays.com, which publishes rankings of the "worst offenders": airlines, flights and airports that had most and longest delays last summer.
- Fly as early in the morning as you can to get in/out before troubles start.

* Book a good ticket
- Passengers who use online travel agents and consolidators to get low prices may be the first people bumped.
- Airlines may work harder to find new flights for their own frequent fliers and those who bought tickets directly from the airline.
- Paper ticket helps you jump to a different carrier more quickly.
- Nonstop flights may be worth the extra money.
- Allow two hours between connecting flights.
- Give yourself a buffer day.

* Use your airport time
- Check in at curbside. (Did I hear AA is charging for this now?)
- Make sure cosmetics and liquids confirm to TSA rules.
- Some airlines take cell phone numbers so they can text message passengers information about changes.

* Bring a sandwich, extension cord (ie, you can't avoid delays)
- Make sure phone is charged.
- Bring phone numbers of all major airlines.
- Bring a good snack with you on the plane. If the flight doesn't have a meal, then you won't get food while stuck on the runway.
- Carry an extension cord so if you're stuck for several hours at the airport, you won't have to crowd around the one outlet by the gate to charge your phone or power up your laptop.

* Be nice, but be tough
- Don't take out your frustrations on a hapless airline employee
- If don't get satisfaction after delay or cancellation, follow up later with a written complaint to the airline. They don't always give the best consolation prizes on the spot, but confronted with your disgruntlement a week or two later, you might get a travel voucher.