Four Ways to Better Endure the Airport

I'm one of the very few people I know who actually likes airports. I'd like them even more if a few things changed. And I'll bet you would, too. Here are a few things I do to make my airport experience a little better. Try doing the same. Betcha these tip will work for you.

1. Can't carry it? Don't bring it. Ask yourself a question before you shove a fourth pair of jeans or a seventh pair of shoes into your suitcase: Will bringing this be worth the pain of lugging it around? If you even give it a second thought, make do without it. Your vacation or business trip already involved enough stress. Bring a little less with you, and watch it all get better. My rule of thumb is that if you need a baggage cart, you've got too much.

2. Step away from the baggage claim. If I had my way, any traveler stepping within five feet of the baggage carousel would get a zap from a cattle prod. There is no earthly reason you need to be doing a lap dance for the baggage carousel - it will not make your bag arrive any faster. All it does is make it harder for people to see and retrieve their luggage. So back off, already.

3. Watch where you're going. Many people at airports seem to leave their spatial awareness at home. They meander, with the dull, glassy-eyed visage of cattle as others are trying to catch their flight (or even just moving purposefully).

4. Lighten up. Everybody knows that flying involves some stress. And that the TSA rules are weird, inconsistently enforced, Byzantine and often downright daft. But berating the TSA agent isn't going to do you any good. Same for the people working in the news stand and your fellow passengers. But a little good cheer can lighten the mood a bit, and remind us all that we're in the same boat, if I might be allowed to mix my metaphors (because nobody says "we're all on the same plane").

Now, go forth and remember how cool it is to pay relative peanuts to travel at 500 miles per hour at 30,000 feet. Trust me, it beats a covered wagon.