Advice from an airline employee

1. Definitely get to the airport at least one hour prior to your flight time. You'll be happy you did.

2. Book directly from the airline. Shop around on other websites if you wish, but then go to whichever airline you want to fly.

3. Booking from a third party website (i.e., Travelocity, Expedia) only leads to headaches. They lie about guarantee-ing you a window or aisle seat; they make it difficult to change flights or do anything; and they are not always the cheapest airfare.

4. Have a valid form of ID. And have it ready at the ticket counter.

5. Bring your itinerary, just in case.

6. Dress in layers. Airports and airplanes are cool; your destination may be warm; you can never predict if you're going to be too cold or too hot.

7. Every airport is different, so not every airport features the same things (i.e., curbside check-in, post office, bag drops). Do not expect the same service at every airport.

8. Do be nice to the people working at the airport. There is no need to get belligerent when things go awry. Sometimes if you're nice to people working at the airport they are really nice back.

9. Always purchase your beverages after proceeding through the security checkpoint. It'd be a bummer to dump that $5.00 latte you just bought because you can't bring liquids through with you.

10. If you are bringing something out of the ordinary or require a service that you're not sure about, you should call the airline. Don't be shy; it's OK. Better to be a well-informed traveler than finding out at the last minute that a bag weighing over 50 pounds cost extra money.

11. A flight may leave at a certain time, but the door to the aircraft will close ten minutes prior to that departure time, at which point it cannot be opened until it lands at its destination. You need to make sure you are there before that door closes.

12. Take personal responsibility. Do not blame the traffic for your late arrival at the airport. Do not blame us that you showed up late. It's not our fault you didn't plan accordingly. It's the cold, hard truth. Hey, the other 100+ people made it in time for the flight.

13. We like to give out wings. It brightens people's day.

14. We may help you with your bag, but we can't do all the work for you.

15. Airports and airlines have their bad days, too. That's what you get when you throw a bunch of different factors into an equation. But we will get you to your destination... somehow... sometime.