Travel trips I learned on my last adventure...

When I took my last minute trip to California recently, I discovered the impact of some of the airlines deciding to charge for luggage. People were trying to bring on bags that really should not have been accepted. This created the scenario where the overheads became full and those boarding the plane towards the end were told they could not take one carry on and one personal item on, that they could only bring on one item that could fit under the seat and their other one would be checked.

How do you avoid this? Pay attention to where you are seated, those who board the plane first, meaning those in the back of the plane or in a window seat will have the first opportunity to board with two items. Or plan to only carry on one item, but for me personally taking a laptop and a bag of clothing, there was no way I could take only one bag. Follow the actual size requirements or face reality and check your bag, eventually they are going to start enforcing the size requirements as people start to complain though it does appear if you check your bag at the last minute through the airline attendant you do avoid the fee.

After my experience on the way to California, I made sure I was sitting in an area where I would be in one of the second groups to board on both planes, that way I did not have to deal with the whole waiting for my baggage, which considering I landed at 1:21 a.m. was not something I wanted to deal with. Despite the increase in the the baggage charges, there are still some great travel deals out there. As an example, even though it was a last minute flight, it was just a bit over $300.00 to fly round trip from here to San Francisco. It was actually a better deal than I got the last time with the trip being more planned in advance.