Making Holiday Travel Bearable

When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money. -Susan Heller

Travel tips to help you breath a bit easier during your holiday travel experience.

The key for a successful and less stressful trip is to be prepared. By following these five simple suggestions, traveling into or out of HIA, or any airport for that matter, will be easy and convenient:

1) Know the security rules before you pack. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has a 3-1-1 campaign to educate travelers on the carry-on baggage restrictions. For specific details, visit www.tsa.dhs.gov before you pack your bags.

2) Call your airline’s toll-free flight tracking phone number for an update on your flight before coming to the airport. Flight status information is also available on each airline’s website.

3) Arrive at an HIA parking lot about 90-minutes before your schedule departure.

4) Follow the signs and park in the Long Term/Economy lot ($7.00 per day). Shuttle uses run every 8-10 minutes from the numbered shelters in the lot and bring you directly to the terminal building.

5) When picking up or dropping off a passenger, park on the second or third floor of the garage. The garage rate is just $1.10 for the first hour (additional rate information). Federal security mandates prohibit parking along the terminal curbside. Only the active loading and unloading of a vehicle is permitted in front of the terminal building.

Finally, we ask that you remember to bring a smile and be patient. Generally the weather looks good nationwide for the upcoming holiday travel week, however delays can happen at any time. The airlines want to get you to your destination safely and on time, while the TSA has a responsibility to make sure that everyone getting on an aircraft is doing so without any prohibited items.

Have we missed any tips that you think would be helpful to other travelers? We'll include your feedback and suggestions on our travel tips section of our web site as well.

Stories for the Road...

The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page. – St. Augustine

Having just finished listening to Exploded by Tom Bodett (long-time Motel Six spokesmen) while on the road, I am inspired to find out what keeps you fueled while you're racking up mileage.

I found myself transported to Homer, Alaska to Tom's living room as he -surprisingly the consummate storyteller- wove an auditory journey overflowing with humor and local metaphors. Listening to his audio book made my typically mind-numbing highway travels quickly slip by as his stories engaged my brain with verbal play.

Either by train, plane, automobile or any other form of transportation; what pod casts and audio books are on your play list or in your changer? Or do you prefer a good old paper back read?

Wherever your travels take you, hopefully you find that where you end up has left the light on for you.

Corporate Intrusion or Customer Service Department Extender?

A number of you are active on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social networking sites. Much of online social networking revolves not only around our personal contacts, but also our favorite local and national brands and businesses as well. However, some folks find the business use of online social media to be a 'corporate intrusion,' as one woman deemed it.

Do you find business use of online social media to be offensive, an intrusion into your social networking zen? Or, do you find it an easily accessible extension of a business or brand's customer service?

What brands and businesses, based on your experience, are dominating the social media waves with great customer service and relationship building? And, which do you feel are merely barraging you with self-promotion messages, videos, podcasts and tweets?

Please share your thoughts and feedback to our facebook profile or as a comment on this post.