It’s been a rough couple of months for the airline industry. It seems like every day you hear another discouraging story about the number of delayed flights, irritated passengers, or rude employees. I travel quite a bit for my job and have spent my fair share of time in the airport. Just last Friday I had a return flight from Boston, with a layover in New York’s JFK airport. The plane was late arriving to Boston and late leaving for NYC (a special thanks to the screaming child who cried the entire time). Because my flight was late arriving in NYC I missed my connecting flight and had to take a much later flight. Once I was finally on the plane we waited on the runway for 90 minutes for our turn to take off. I should have arrived in San Francisco at 10:30 pm and instead arrived at 2:30 am. Such is life I suppose.

But, I couldn’t help but laugh the other morning while watching The Today Show. Their Travel Editor, Peter Greenburg, was doing the obligatory report on the upcoming Labor Day travel issues. He decided to give his list of suggestions for travel over the holiday weekend. The list was INSANE and if anyone decides to follow his “advice” I wish you the best of luck! I’ve included the list below with some of my thoughts.

1. "Fly direct." Easier said than done my friend! I live in San Francisco, a fairly large city, and I can’t tell you how hard it is to find a direct flight. In this day and age, finding a direct flight, at a decent hour, for a decent price is pretty tough.

2. "If you do have a layover, allow at least 2 hours to make your connecting flight." Seriously? 2 hours?! This is only a 3 day weekend. I don’t need to spend 2 of my 3 days in an airport waiting for my connecting flight.

3. "Don’t check bags." Great idea, except for the fact that about 85% of Americans don’t understand the current TSA regulations for liquids. This means that the lady in front of me in the security line has listened to your infinite wisdom to carry on her bags and is now holding up the entire security line because she doesn’t understand why she can’t bring her full sized container of contact lenses solution, shampoo, conditioner, and mouthwash.

4. "Come home on Sunday." Now this is where I draw the line! Isn’t the point of traveling over the holiday weekend to enjoy the 3 days that we have off?

My advice to you dear reader is simple. Expect to be delayed. Manage your expectations. If you understand the current travel situation then you won’t be shocked when things take a little longer than planned. And if you’re one of the lucky ones who can arrive on time, let it be a very pleasant surprise and catch a few extra rays of sun for me! What about you? Do you have any travel tips?