1. Plan for your vacation a minimum of two weeks beforehand.

The more time you can spend preparing for your holiday the better, you have a lot of things to take account for. Airfare shopping, locating hotels at discounted rates, car rental arrangements and more can all be extremely time-consuming.

2. Go to the TSA travel assistant web site.

There is a tremendous amount of information that can be found on the site, it can be quite a shock to learn of all the restrictions that are in place if you have never heard of them before. So you have quite a bit more planning to do, that’s not a problem really. The site is very user friendly and you will have no trouble doing research there. You will find a list of prohibited items, what’s considered satisfactory documentation, in addition to info on travelers with disabilities and health conditions.

3. Plan to leave for the airport at least four hours before your departure time.

It never fails, you will always think of something else you need to do to have your mind at ease.

4. Know where the ticketing counter is located before you arrive.

If you are driving yourself to the airport, you want to park as close as you can to where you will be checking in. If you are being dropped off by a friend or taxi, you don’t want to be left somewhere on the other side of the terminal with all your baggage.

5. Keep important documentation and credit cards on you at all times.

These items should be in a purse or coat jacket, the idea is to never leave important items such as these somewhere that you are not.

6. Use curbside check-in if available.

Use this service If you are traveling domestically and if your airline has this service available. You can drive up to the curb, and drop off your baggage with a sky cap. The sky cap can also print your boarding passes without you making any lines.

7. Leave yourself plenty of time to check-in.

Check-in in at least two hours before a domestic flight and about three hours before an international flight. Lines can get surprisingly long, especially during the summer and school vacation breaks. A lot of passengers underestimate the size of these lines and figure they can do a little airport shopping and dinning beforehand.

8. Know the baggage weight limits and cost per bag.

Going over the weight limit on a bag is a nightmare scenario. There you are at the front of the line and all of a sudden you need to repack items from one bag to another to balance out the weight, or buy another bag altogether and put a dent in your wallet.

9. Leave yourself plenty of time to pass through security.

Boarding time for a flight is roughly forty-five minutes before the flight departure, you definitely want to be at the gate by boarding time. There is also the issue of waiting in lines to pass through security. These lines can be significant, at times taking a good twenty to forty minutes. Have your boarding passes, passports, and identification cards in hand as you reach the front of the line. This can help you go through the departures area in reasonably less time. If you have connecting flights, arrange for airport stop overs also.

10. Have the proper kinds of baby food.

You can’t carry fluids through airport security, this includes baby formula, even soft foods like yogurt you will discover. Bring powdered, pre-packaged formula in single feedings.

Natasha is a travel writer covering world wide travel destinations. Her specialty is budget travel, she can help you find domestic flights and cheap international flights for various destinations world wide.

Overbooking can be a dreadful thing for many of us, especially when you have plans that can’t be delayed. Overbooking is a standard practice across many airlines that allows them collect double fares – one from a passengers that made a reservation and another one from those who book late. Sometimes there will be empty seats and that’s when your changes for a free flight will arise.

When you volunteer, they will ask for your airline ticket and offer you another flight either later that day or the next day. If it is a next day flight they will offer you a hotel voucher as well. If they don’t mention this, make sure to check with them. Once you agree to a later flight, they will book you on that flight and return their attention to the boarding passengers. Take a seat near the information desk and wait until they call you. Do not wander off! Sometimes they’ll realize seats are available at the last minute. If that is the case, you are expected to board and may still get some kind of compensation!

For reference, Forbes released an article on America’s most overbooked flights where you’re most likely to get bumped.

1. The advertised price is not the purchase price - Most of the time, the advertised price doesn’t take into account several taxes or fees such as airport taxes or credit card fees.
2. Low cost airlines charge for luggage - If you plan on travelling with a low cost airline, know that you are only allowed to one hand luggage free of charge. All extra luggage will be charged for.
3. Most of the time, the airport is not a primary one - So before booking your flight, be aware that if you book a Ryanair flight to Barcelona, you’ll arrive at Gerona airport, and it’ll take you one hour to reach the Barcelona city center (and you will have to take into account other costs such as public transport or parking.)
4. Pay to have the possibility to choose your seat - In low cost aircrafts, no seat is allocated. If you want it to be so, you’ll have to pay. If you want to travel next to your child, some low costs offer you the possibility (Vueling allows you to choose your seat for a fee), others not. In this case, you’ll have to hurry!
5. Disabled people watch out! - Most of the time, low cost airlines won’t offer the basic services and to top it off, they’ll charge you for it (wheelchair, etc.)
6. Avoid the online booking traps! - When booking online, beware of the ticked boxes that may inadvertedly make your ticket much more expensive (with Ryanair, to forego travel insurance, you have to tick the box between Latvia and Lithuania!)
7. Don’t forget to print your boarding pass! - Ryanair could charge you €40 if you don’t!
8. Leg room is generally inexistent! – If you’re tall, try to catch the best seats, it’ll cost you a few more Euros too.
9. Nothing is included in the price but the flight! – Anything you ask for is at an extra cost (food, drinks…)
10. Low cost airlines are not always the cheapest – Sometimes low cost fares are not as cheap as one would think. Before booking your flight, make sure that no other airline is cheaper. To make sure, don’t forget to count in all the potential extra fees when you’re comparing fares (airport taxes, credit cards fees, seat allocation fees, online check-in fees, luggage charges…)

Guide in jpeg version – here

This post was written by fellow blogger AirObserver

You start off with a couple of million dollars and a Boieng (B737-800, to be more precise). It’s up to you to create your first route, there are plenty of airports all over the world. But first, make sure you select a couple of cities that have a demand of more than 90%. You can check the demand of the cities in the Flight section, at Find Routes. Re-order them decreasingly by demand each time you get here, in order to make your flights more profitable.

Keep in mind that each aircraft type has a different range and your destination should be within its range, or else you cannot create the route. Also, do not forget that the demand of the cities vary, they increase and decrease in time, so check your flights constantly – you should close the route when you have too much empty seats.

When buying new planes, order them by price. Don’t spend all of your money on purchasing a new aircraft, there is a fee for creating a new route and you also have to spend some money on fuel and advertising. Also, always choose the plane with the lowest fuel consumption, the biggest range and the largest passenger capacity.

Once you have set up your first routes, you have to manually start the flights, in order to make money. You’ll see that even if the demand on one of your routes is very high (97-99%), you’ll still have empty seats on your planes. That is because you have to advertise your routes in order to have your planes full. There are five types of advertising, the cross-country newspaper advertising and the billboards being the most efficient ones.

You’ll notice that the prices of advertising and fuel vary, as well. The lowest price for fuel I’ve seen is $400 per 1,000 lbs and the cheapest advertising I’ve purchased was $5,000 for billboards/day. In times like these, when you have the finances, buy as much fuel and advertising as you can!

If you buy a new plane, you’re automatically hiring new staff. They have wages, so make sure that at the end of the day, you have in you account balance their daily salary. Once your company grows, so will the financial expectations of your employees. If they will call on a strike, that will not affect your flights, only your balance. Make sure you give them a raise as soon as possible, since it is much more expensive to go on with a strike than paying the regular salary.

Depending on your performances, your stock rate will rise or drop. Make sure your balance is positive, you have profitable flights and that you don’t have any work protests to keep your rate growing. Also, if you have the money, invest in profitable companies and sell stock after a while, if you’re in need of money. It’s a great way to make money, playing as a broker. Check how you’re doing on the stock market in the overview section and from time to time promote your airline, to get more investors.

Obtaining achievments gets you money awards. In your first day of activity, when every dollar counts, you can easily obtain an achievement by choosing a hub and uploading a logo. Another way to get benefits for your company is by gathering pax points (calculated on the basis of the satisfaction of your passengers, the flights/incidents taken and a random factor).

Maybe the greatest tool you can use when playing AM is the one you can find it here. Using it is a real time saver, since you don’t have to search the most profitable destinations, you have them all there and you can easily sort them by demand.

If you’re already an user of the application and you have some other tips and tricks for all the newbies out there, share them here with us! Also, if you have any doubts or questions about the game, comment here and I will give you my advice. Good luck, managers!

1. Finding the cheap tickets - Ryanair sometime offers tickets as low as 1£/€ but you might not always find them easily. Subscribe to their mailing list to make sure you’ll be notified when these deals are launched. Also, make sure to check the website daily, preferably after midnight, when these tickets are usually posted.
2. Connecting two Ryanair flights – The issue most of us come across when dealing with budget airlines is that they are often late so making a connection with another flight can sometimes be difficult. If you’re connecting two Ryanair flights, make sure you buy two discounted tickets. For example, if you’re flying from Dublin to Paris, then Madrid, buy two tickets on the trip to Madrid – one leaving in 2 hours after you land, one later than that. It’s cheaper to buy two tickets than it is to change an existing one.
3. Not finding discounted return fares - You’re flying with a budget airline so don’t expect to find cheap tickets both when leaving and returning from your trip. Be flexible on your dates, check for less popular flights (early in the morning) or just settle for one discounted ticket. It’s still worth it!
4. Checking-in your luggage – You’ll find that carrying your bags is often more expensive than an actual ticket. Try only taking one hang bag (which is free) or book a baggage online. Each passenger is allowed to check in up to two bags; the first bag should have a maximum weight of 15kg and will be charged €/£15 online or €/£35 booked through their call center or at the airport. The second bag is charged €/£35 booked online or €/£70 via the call center or airport.
5. Avoiding extra hand luggage fee – You might often find that your luggage is too heavy to fit with Ryanair’s standards (55cm x 40cm x 20cm weighing up to 10kg). Check this before boarding; if it doesn’t fit, be prepared to pay €/£30 at the gate.
6. Getting your boarding pass – Ryanair has recently decided to eliminate check-in desks at the airport. This means that you either need to print your boarding card online (€/£5) or ask for it to be reissued at the airport, which costs you a whooping €/£40. Make sure you avoid this fee and check-in online, this option being available from 15 days up to 4 hours prior to your flight.
7. Getting priority boarding – At some airport, you’ll be picked up by a bus and taken to the aircraft. Speedy boarding means you’re the first to get on the bus, but the last to get off it. If this isn’t the case, priority boarding means you have the chance to sit on the more comfortable chairs, besides the airplane’s wings.
8. Getting travel insurance – This fee is usually added by default when buying a Ryanair ticket. Make sure to uncheck it and get a cheaper insurance at a travel agency if you really need one.
9. Avoiding Ryanair’s credit/debit card fee – Paying online might cost you an extra €/£5 per person per flight. In order to avoid this fee, get a Visa Electron Card, a basic type of debit card linked to a bank account & no overdraft.
10. Avoiding the name change fee – This is the highest fee you could pay at Ryanair – €/£100 online or €/£150 to be paid at the airport if you spelled your name wrong. Before making a booking, double and even triple check your names to make sure they’re spelled correctly.

Remember, if in the end, your trip is more expensive than €/£50, you could check ticket fares at another budget airline or even see what regular airlines have to offer.

Printing your boarding card online can be done from 15 days to 4 hours prior to the flight.

An Irish internet company decided to help passengers affected by this fee by offering them a more cheaper alternative.

Surfbox, a company based in Kilkenny, installed kiosks in several UK airports to help forgetful passengers. They said around 100 Ryanair passengers per day are using their machines to print boarding cards at their kiosk located in the Dublin airport. The company has now expanded and installed similar kiosks in Cork, Shannon and Liverpool airports.

So if you’re ever at the above mentioned airports and forget to print your boarding card at home, use Surfbox’s kiosks and save from €40 to €100.

Have a pleasant flight!