Boomer travel tips have to include ways you can help your senior travellers, and often ways to help younger people travel, too! Here are travel tips 1-5, and now I’ll give you tips 6-10. My boomer travel tips are gleaned from a recent flight from Portland, Maine to Los Angeles via Newark and Chicago.
6. Listen for gate announcements. When you get to your gate, make sure your flight is on the sign or marquee, and then pay attention. Check it as the flight gets closer. Two flights were changed to different gates, and I sat there, happily reading a book, until I overheard someone ask for the flight. Both times, there was no gate change announcement and only luck kept me from a mad dash across the concourse.
7. Plan for bad weather. Face it, our weather is broken. It seems that every season now has terrible weather patterns. In my travel last week, I spent the night at Newark airport when my flight from Los Angeles arrived five hours late and my flight to Portland was cancelled. Make sure you have your medications in a bag or purse that’s with you if you check your luggage. In most airports, the food courts close at 10 p.m. and reopen at 6 a.m. so tuck a granola bar or some nuts in your bag. Don’t go too far away into an empty terminal, but move away from the TV sets (which will go all night) and the foreign flight areas, which also take off in the wee hours. Try to get comfortable, stay warm, and relax. Stay hydrated. I felt very safe with the crowd of other stranded travelers. I can report that Newark has little brown mice in concourse C that come out around 2 a.m. So while boomer travel tips includes packing food, don’t leave crumbs around!
Boomer travel tips: worry more about comfort than fashion!
8. Invest in a neck pillow if you’re going on long flights. The little c-shaped pillows (some are inflatable) will make a long flight much more comfortable if you’re dozing off. Some have a strap across the neck so they can be strung on your luggage.
9. Make sure you have the contact numbers you need. You’ll be sad if your flight is two hours late, your son has already left for the airport, and you don’t know his cell number. For that matter, make sure your phone is charged before you leave for the airport, and that the charger is in your purse. Several of my flights had outlets under the seat, which worked great for a seat mate recharging her Kindle.
10. Leave yourself enough time. Especially if you’re travelling from an unfamiliar airport, leave yourself enough time. Try to have at least an hour between connections in case your flight is late, and get to the airport at least 1.5 hours before your flight. Just as the Portland Jetport has changed in the last few years, so have many of the terminals Portland flights fly in to.
Happy travels! Thanks for reading. Do you have any boomer travel tips to add? Send them to me at dmclean@maineseniorguide.com.