Playing the Waiting Game: Surviving Long Flights and Airports Delays

The first thing we always do is make sure that we're at the airport early – and I mean really early. If the advice is to be there three hours before your flight is due to depart, then we aim to get there at least four hours beforehand, just to be on the safe side. It may sound like a long time, but by the time you've checked your luggage in – as that's something that you can't do ahead of time online! – then gone through security checks, it can take as long as a couple of hours at the larger airports at the busier times of year. Coming back from our Disney cruise around the Mediterranean was a prime example. We stood in line for baggage check-in for well over an hour in Barcelona and by the time we added in security and walking to the gates, it took a grand total of an hour and 45 minutes. We had less than an hour before we were due to fly out.

However, if things go faster than that for you, there are usually plenty of other things you can do. Always double check the facilities at the airport you're flying out of before you travel. What restaurants or fast food outlets do they have there? Are there any that might suit your party for perhaps breakfast, lunch or dinner, depending on the time of day you're flying? The chances are that the food may well be better there than on the plane if a meal will be served at all during your flight. There are a number of shorter flights, particularly inside America, where food is no longer served free of charge, so you're going to have to pay to eat one way or the other. We've often had some great meals at airports and it's a good way to use up an hour or so.

Another fun activity is browsing the shops and we're not just talking about Duty-Free here! Most airports have a good range of shops these days and one of our favorite places to head for is a bookshop to check out any good reads that we might want for the plane. We've picked up some excellent books in the past and of course, once you've bought them, you can get them out immediately and start reading them, helping to make the wait for your flight go even faster.

Does your airport have an observation area, where you can watch the planes taking off and landing? Even if it doesn't, quite often some of the gates have great views and if you know ahead of time which gate, or which area of the airport you'll be departing from, its worth heading off there to see what's happening outside. It's a good activity for youngsters and can help to stave off boredom for them.