Airline Travel – Carryon Only!
We recently took a long weekend vacation trip from Chicago to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. (Yes, in part to escape the Chicago winter for a short while.) We had an experience that proved yet again the validity of the advice to avoid checking bags if at all possible. One of the podcasts I listen to (Manager-Tools, find them in the blogroll) goes so far as to say never check bags on business travel. They’re right.
Our flight left Chicago on time, and arrived at Houston Hobby a bit early. I got off the plane, found the flight listings, and discovered that our connecting flight in an hour had been cancelled. But the earlier flight was still boarding! Could we make it?
The gate was in sight, so we trotted on over pulling our rollaboard bags after us, and asked the attendant taking boarding passes. He directed us to another gate with an agent at the desk. Trot, trot, trot… and there’s a woman there doing the same boarding pass trade we want to do, and worrying about whether her bags will make it with her.
She finished and we traded boarding passes in for the new flight. Trot, trot, trot back to the gate, hand over the still warm boarding passes, and on down the jetway we went. Total elapsed time in the terminal, less than 6 minutes. And no worries about our bags getting to the airport with us, because we had them in hand all the time.
Next question: can I possibly do a two week mixed business and vacation trip to a foreign country, with only a rollaboard bag and laptop case? Stay tuned to find out!