Flying for first time need tips

[skives]

My wife and I are flying for the first time in march. Anything we should know for first time flyers? Also she will have one foot in a boot because of bunion surgery. Will the boot be a problem?

[disneysteve]

Go to the TSA website (tsa.gov) and familiarize yourself with all of the rules regarding what you can and can't bring on a plane and how things must be packed. Educate yourself about the size limit for carry on luggage. Make sure your checked bags don't weigh more than 50 pounds each.

As for your wife having the boot on, when they are boarding the plane, they will first call first class passengers and folks needing special assistance or extra time so she could board then (with you) and get settled quicker.

When you go through airport security, remove everything from your pockets. Remove your shoes. Remove your belt so that the buckle doesn't set off the detector. Laptop computers must be loose in a bin by themselves (not in a bag). And throughout the process, keep a very close watch on your personal items as they go through the scanner. They may get to the other end before you and you don't want someone walking off with them. Or you may get through the scanner first and your stuff will be behind you where someone could grab something and slip it into their own bag. So just be extra observant.

Arrive at the airport 2 hours before your flight for domestic flights, 3 hours for international flights.

You can't bring food with you from home but you can buy food after the security check and bring that on the plane.

Don't bring wrapped gifts on the plane. They may have to unwrap them to examine them. Either check them or ship them to your destination.

That's all that comes to mind right now.

[kork13]

Arrive at the airport 2 hours before your flight for domestic flights, 3 hours for international flights.

If you aren't flying out of a crowded, major airport (like Steve's Newark/LaGuardia/JFK mess, or Chicago, Atlanta, San Fransisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, or similar), arriving 1-1.5 hours early is generally sufficient for most domestic flights, 1.5-2 hours early for international flights. I've flown regularly from small & mid-size airports like Denver & Colorado Springs, Oklahoma City, Portland, Seattle, Miami/Fort Lauderdale, Syracuse, and many others without incident.

As for the boot, it shouldn't be a problem at all. As Steve said, you should be able to board early if you prefer. Depending on how claustrophobic and uncomfortable your wife becomes with wearing the boot, it might be worth paying extra for more legroom (as ridiculous as such a fee is), or even just upgrading to business class (or whatever). As for dealing with security, I don't remember exactly how the TSA handles medical devices (such as a boot), but the worst that could happen is they ask her to remove it for just a minute. But if I seem to remember that they have some restrictions on how much they can demand of medically injured or disabled individuals... Others may be able to answer that.

[skives]

So we are using credit card points to buy the tickets and each of us have the same card. Will we be able to get seats next to each other buying our tickets on two credit cards?

[bjl584]

It saves tons of time to print out your boarding passes ahead of time. It's one less line to wait in.

[adviceseeker]

Since this is your first time to fly, I am assuming that this will be your first time to book a hotel outside your area. If you haven't made any reservations yet and if you're looking for an affordable yet decent hotel, you can search for hotels with Crispy Hotels - been using this for over a year now and it never failed me.

I hope this helps!

[disneysteve]

Since this is your first time to fly, I am assuming that this will be your first time to book a hotel outside your area.

I find that a very humorous assumption. Have you ever heard of driving? We routinely book hotels outside of our area even though we hardly ever fly anywhere. We drive to Florida every year - just over 1,000 miles each way. We've been to almost every state on the east coast (haven't made it to Maine or Rhode Island yet). Been to Ohio and Indiana. Been to Niagara Falls, ON and Toronto. None of those trips involved air travel.