Twice I’ve had to unexpectedly fly at the last minute, due to senior home care giving and grandparenting duties. In the process I’ve learned a few tips and tricks that are handy in a wide variety of travel situations. This is part one of a multi-part series over the next few weeks:

1. Watch those connecting flight times! Even if you talk to the airline personnel and they seem confident you’ll make your connection, please be aware that NOT ALL DO! (I am writing this after having missed my own connections and winding up spending the night at a local hotel!) Your rush to help your loved ones can take two-three times as long if you miss your connection. There are no guarantees of getting there on time, of course, even if you have longer connections between flights. Bad weather or mechanical problems can crop up at any time. But choosing reservations that offer an hour or more between flights instead of only half an hour can make things less stressful for you!
2. If you have to fly in late and your connections are close or weather is a concern, you might want to make your hotel reservations directly with the hotel and explain the situation. I only had a half hour to make my connections on my last trip. I called the hotel and explained the situation and gave her my frequent flyer number. The hotel manager was great. She explained she had 25 spots at 5 pm and wasn’t sure if they would fill up. She gave me the option of losing the room if they filled up or keeping it but getting charged. I chose the second to be safe. When I did end up missing my connection because of plane delays at both ends, I immediately called her and she allowed me to cancel my reservation even though it was past the normal time for cancellations.  Needless to say, when I finally got to that hotel I filled out a STAR EMPLOYEE card for her!
3. Many airlines offer cellphone and/or email alerts you can sign up for. These notify you if there is a gate change, flight delay, etc. As I sit in an airport (this time I have a whopping 48 minutes between flights going through Atlanta – the busiest airport in the world, according to our last pilot. Do you think I’ll make it this time?), I just got a buzz on my phone to let me know about a gate change on my second flight later today. Very handy! Particularly since I was originally scheduled for concourse B and now am going to concourse A. If I had run off the plane with only minutes to catch a flight, I might not have noticed that gate change on the board! I highly recommend these alerts. (By the way – it’s now a week later and I DID make that flight! Everything went smooth as silk! You just NEVER know! )
4. If you don’t mind writing on your hand, I’ve learned it gives me less stuff I have to juggle and keeps my ticket safe when I write the gate number, flight number, and take-off time for my connecting flight onto my hand. That’s especially handy when I don’t have much time to catch that connecting flight!
5. Even if you are rushing to pack your bags due to a caregiving crisis, it can still be wise, and in the long run save you time, if you empty them first and then start packing from scratch. I had to toss two fairly expensive lotions when I forgot they were in my carryon from a previous driving trip and they turned out to be over the airlines’ maximum of 3 ounces. Not only that, it took five extra minutes for them to spot them with their machine then dig through my bags to find them. If I was tight on time when taking off, due to caregiving demands, that could have made me miss a flight!

More tips to come next week. And in the meantime, if you have some great flying or other travel tips, feel free to share them in the comments section.

• The words of the Lord are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times.You, O Lord, will keep them. Ps.12:6-7a
• Great article on decorating for the holidays for seniors with Alzheimer’s and/or in care homes. http://tinyurl.com/5pxn3n
• Great Music for Caregivers, Elderly parents, and more – http://jijr.com/bIG Jazz Music, Old-Time Online
• My favorite airline, Southwest, is now using Twitter to warn flyers of bad weather! http://budurl.com/5ujq If you have a Twitter account and you fly Southwest, you might want to join me in signing up to follow Southwest. I use Slandr.net to read my Twitter account on my cell phone, so this could be quite handy for traveling. I’ll keep you posted on how I like it If it works well, this should be useful information for caregivers including grandparents as they travel to visit family or take vacations.

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• TechTalk: Finally got my first Squidoo page up and running – http://tinyurl.com/6aq8f6 . #
• TRAVEL/FRUGAL:Did you know if you book with Southwest and they have sale, you can change your ticket online& get cheaper price? That can save you LOTS! #
• Encouragement – Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Ps. 37:7 #
• FRUGAL-Email addresses for a wide variety of cell phone co.-http://budurl.com/EmailCellPhones  – so you can email a cell phone with txt messages. #

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Due to a variety of different issues, I have gone from not flying until I was 30, to being a white-knuckled flier in my 30s and 40s, to now being a relaxed frequent flyer in my 50s. I have flown several different companies but my favorite airline is Southwest and I appreciate them HUGELY. They are not perfect but no airline is. However their prices are reasonable, their people are wonderful, and their policies work great around my caregiving schedules.Those are all wonderful travel solutions for those of us in the Baby Boomer Generation of caregivers, otherwise known as the Sandwich Generation!

When one friend had to cancel a flight with American Airlines due to illness, they would only allow her one year to use her ticket and she wasn’t allowed to transfer the credit to anyone else. If she had not been physically able to fly during that year, she would have had to get a doctor’s note and MAYBE get a refund. With Southwest, I can cancel tickets right and left and they make it ultra-easy for me to deal with the credit. It goes into my account and I can then use it to make new arrangements for anyone I want, whether myself or someone else. When you are dealing with health issues for more than aging parent, not to mention grandkids, cancellations can be more common than the actual trips, so that is a very important option.

I have learned a trick or two to make flying easier for myself as well as for others who might be traveling with me. This is the first of an occasional series listing some of those tips. Hopefully they will be a help to you if and when you take off into the wild blue yonder.

1. I like to wear comfortable shoes that are easy to slide off and on. When I am going through the security checkpoint, juggling luggage, laptops, and maybe even a fellow passenger, whether grandkid or senior parent, I’m so glad not to have to stress over getting my shoes back on.

2. I try to be sure to put everything that would normally go into my pockets inside my purse or other carryon before getting into the security line. That way I don’t have to stress because I accidentally set off the alarm over my car keys or cell phone. Also, if you haven’t flown recently, be aware that in addition to removing your shoes, you will have to take off sweaters and jackets, and you will have to remove your laptop from its carrying case and put it in a separate plastic bin.

3. Don’t forget the newest security requirements. I like to keep a couple of quart-size plastic bags in my carry-on at all times so that if I do forget, I will have them anyway. (If you are traveling with others, make sure they have put their liquid items – 3 oz. or less – into a plastic bag as well.)

4. I always bring a snack and a water bottle, which I purchase after going through security. That way, if we run into turbulence right away and they can’t bring food around, I don’t regret being too busy to eat before flying. A good friend of mine practices excellent frugality by bringing an empty water bottle. Once she is past security, she fills it up from a water fountain. Just be sure the water at that airport tastes ok. There is one airport I used to fly in and out from that had the worst tasting water!

5. After years of lugging a purse and a backpack, I changed over to a rolling backpack and find that so much easier. Because some planes are smaller than others, I’ve learned to pack the stuff I am going to read, along with my snack, pens, and iPod into a big nylon tote that fits nicely into my rolling backpack. That way, when I get to my seat, I lift out the nylon bag and stick it under the seat in front of me. Then the bigger bag goes up in the overhead bin. If I am going to work on my computer, I pull that out as well. If it is a full flight and all three seats are going to be taken, I usually leave it in the bag that goes up above. It’s just more cramped than I like in that situation, especially if the person in front puts his seatback down.

6. I like to bring my MP3 player with me on the plane. I started doing that back when I was a white-knuckled flyer. I discovered if I listened to praise and worship music on the flight, it kept me a whole lot calmer. Now that I am flying so much and doing better, I still like to have it so I can listen to audio books, classical music to help me sleep in spite of the noise level around me, and yes, if it gets turbulent, I often pop those praise and worship songs back on as well. (Word of warning in case you haven’t flown with one before, you cannot have any electrical device on for take-off and landing. This includes the MP3 player, as well as a cell phone set on flight mode, a DVD player, a computer, a video game, etc. Fortunately, you reach the necessary altitude quickly, and then you can turn any of those on.)

7. There is a great site called Seat Guru, www.seatguru.com , which can give you a lot of useful information on what seats are best on each airline. For me, I’ve learned that if I fly alone I love the emergency row as it gives you a bit of extra room. Due to arthritis and tight seating, I get very achy on a long flight. On those rare occasions I get to sit in the emergency row I’m a happy camper! And I am such a caregiving nurturer by nature, as most of you probably are, I have no problems agreeing to help any and all if there is a true emergency. It’s what I would do no matter where I sat.

When I fly with senior citizens who need extra help, or grandkids who need supervision, I pick a seat in the last couple of rows. I avoid the last row because it doesn’t recline at all, but I love the last two or three rows. I am close to the restroom and the flight attendants. That way, if I have to leave a little one, I know they are safe. And if my companion has to go to the restroom during the flight, it’s easier for them to get there and back when it’s so close. I usually avoid the front because you are no longer allowed to form a line for the restrooms and it can get a little frustrating trying to deal with that and taking care of others.

That said, I do make one exception. If I am traveling with a grandkid, I will often look for an unaccompanied child around the same age or a family with a child around the same age. If I can find someone, I’m very glad to sit up front and let that child and my grandchild have fun talking to someone their own age and keeping each other company on the flight. (I always ask the flight attendant first to make sure it is ok.) We’ve met several nice kids that way and it makes the flight so much more pleasant for the kids AND the adults with them. Instead of “whennn are we going to gettttt there,” we hear, “oh no, we’re there already. I’m having way too much fun to land!” Now that is music to my ears!

8. When it’s time to land and pick up the luggage, I have found it is a piece of cake finding my luggage, which looks like everyone else’s, by tying something bright that will catch my eyes onto the handle. It can be yarn, a bow, a hair ribbon, or whatever. Don’t make it too long, though, or it might catch on something and get stuck.

Well, this article is quite long, so I’m going to end it now and start saving up more tips for the next one. I will leave you with one last recommendation, if you fly often. When my flying started to increase, I read the book, Guerilla Travel Tactics, by Jay Conrad Levinson and Theo Brandt-Sarif. It has many excellent ideas and suggestions. My copy is dog-eared and underlined like you wouldn’t believe! It has suggestions for cheaper tickets, picking out seats, wisely using your frequent flier miles, and more. There’s even a chapter on how to complain properly. Hopefully none of us will need that! You can find used copies of this book at Amazon and half.com.  www.amazon.com www.half.com

I hope that all these travel solutions that have worked well for me will be a great help to you. And now, to quote those great singers of yore, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, “Happy Trails to You.”