“So, your flight was delayed, and may be cancelled. You missed your connecting flight and you face hours at the airport waiting for Plan B to play out. What to do?

Given that so many travelers feel air travel is driving them to drink, why not take this literally and seek out good places at the airport for a colorful cocktail, fine wine or hearty beer?

Beer is the most budget-friendly quaffing option, and airports are increasingly putting the good stuff on offer: toothsome microbrews, unique specialty beers and other fresh-from-the-tap alternatives to watery, character-free, mass-market suds.

The need to drown your sorrows has combined with the trend of airport concessions offering better beers to prompt UK-based Cheapflights.com to develop a “Beer Lover’s Airport Guide” to 15 U.S. airports. Beer bloggers and others are compiling airport lists, too.

“More airports are transforming themselves into places that travelers enjoy,” said Carl Schwartz, a Cheapflights.com executive. “The addition of specialty brews to their beverage lineups is helping to decrease stress levels while providing unique enjoyment at the same time.”

Given the turbulence in aviation, and the scary state of the economy, we have to hope so.

Jerome Greer Chandler, of Cheapflights.com, singles out Portland, Oregon’s airport for its Laurelwood Brewing Co. outposts — both are located post-security — in concourses A and E. Laurelwood’s Organic Tree-Hugger Porter is “robust and dark, with a chocolate malt ambience and a dry, roasty finish.”

Chandler favors another exemplar of American micro-brewing in the Denver International airport. This is New Belgium, a brewery that pours its beers in a pub called The Hub in the Mile High Aerodrome in concourse B of the regional jet terminal. “Nicely balanced” Fat Tire Amber Ale is showcased there.” ( via www.msnbc.msn.com ) by David Armstrong. (image moonbattery.com)

Pointswizard.com Spin: read more Waiting for your flight? Relax and have a beer

“(Budget Travel’s anonymous confessor has worked as both a ticket agent and a departure-gate agent for a major airline. He has since left the industry.)

When it comes to flight changes and delays, Budget Travel’s confessor says, “sometimes the agent is the last one to know.”

Airline agents may go out of their way to get kind passengers onto new flights when theirs are delayed.

No training
New airline ticket and departure-gate agents are hard to find these days. Not only are the wages awful, but flying for free — the one perk of the job — is becoming virtually impossible because planes are always packed with paying customers.

To save money, many airlines also aren’t giving new employees the same job training they once received, leaving inexperienced agents on the front line to deal with passenger complaints. Once, on a trip I took after I had stopped working as a ticket agent, I had to show a new hire where to look in the system to find my reservation — she had no idea what she was doing.

Cut off
The airline I worked for had a very antiquated computer system. We had about a dozen operating systems in the company. There were separate systems for mapping flight routes, filing lost-luggage claims, and keeping track of reservations — but not all of them could relay data to each other. To top it all off, the computers at the departure gates didn’t have Internet access.
The popular belief among disgruntled travelers that gate agents purposely keep passengers in the dark about flight delays isn’t really true — sometimes the agent is the last one to know what’s going on.

Good behavior
It used to be that if you tried a little smooth talking or even brought a cookie to the gate agent, you might be able to score an upgrade. Not anymore.

Because the airlines are increasingly focused on the bottom line, free upgrades are incredibly hard to come by. Still, it pays to be nice to the agents: After a few kind words, they may go out of their way to reroute you on a partner airline if your flight is delayed.

I turned on the charm myself one time when I was facing a long delay on the way to the Caribbean. Smiling politely, I went to a partner airline’s ticket counter and asked the agent to please reroute me. Several hours later, I was lying on the beach, sipping a tropical drink.

Personal info
Ticket agents are always updating Passenger Name Records, or PNRs. These computer files, which contain basic details on passengers’ trips, are accessible to most agents at check-in counters and departure gates.

Agents generally use PNRs to record special requests by passengers, but sometimes they also comment on a person’s behavior.” (via cnn.com and BudgetTravel.com)

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By Harriet Baskas

“There’s no turning back now.
Following the lead of United, Northwest, Delta and US Airways, Continental Airlines announced beginning May 5, passengers will have to pay a $25 fee to check a second bag. Any moment now, we’ll have to declare this to be the industry-wide standard.

How will well-mannered travelers cope? Some folks will grumble while they pay that extra fee, others will finally take the time to learn how to pack it all into just one suitcase — but most of us will just end up trying to carry more stuff with us onto the plane.
That means, of course, overhead bin space will become even more precious — and a lot more stuff will end up getting left behind at airports. Not because it won’t fit onto airplanes, but because the more you carry, the easier it is to lose track of your belongings.

Where does it all go?
The shelves and lockers at airport lost-and-found offices are already overflowing with all kinds of items distracted, anxious, sleep-deprived or just plain forgetful folks have left in food courts, gate holding areas, parking lot shuttles, taxis and bathrooms. “I’m amazed at all the stuff people leave,” says Kim Brown, a ground transportation coordinator who also deals with lost-and-found items at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. “We get more than 200 items a day turned in here — everything from cell phones, laptops, and prescription glasses to wallets full of cash and oxygen tanks.”

Some of the stuff folks leave behind is replaceable — often it’s not. Which is why Brown was pleased last week to be able to reunite a woman with a sweater she’d left on a parking lot shuttle bus. “The sweater had belonged to and been worn by the woman’s mother, who was no longer alive. So it was a piece of clothing that maybe didn’t look important, but it had a great deal of sentimental value.”

Stories like that are familiar to Priscilla Andrews, who heads up the lost-and-found department at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Her team once enlisted the help of a funeral home to track down the owner of a container of ashes left on the counter at a rental car agency.
Andrews had no ashes in her office when I spoke with her, but she did have about 40 cell phones, 30 wallets, 11 laptops, a dozen checkbooks, two dozen canes, a car stereo and a chainsaw. “The chainsaw may have come from the TSA. Those folks have enough to deal with, so we help out by taking in the items people leave behind at the security checkpoints.” All cell phones stay turned on, says Andrews, “in case the owner calls. And as soon as a laptop comes in we turn it on right away to see if we can find some identification. We know how important some of these things are to people.” ” (via msnbc.msn.com) drawing by Kim Carney / msnbc.com
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Security Checkpoint Wait Times
As a customer service initiative, TSA is providing security checkpoint wait time information to assist travelers in planning for their next flight. The wait times are historical so please note actual wait time may vary depending on factors including weather delays which result in increased passenger levels.

When calculating arrival time, remember to build in time for non-security related issues, including parking, and checking in with your airline. Please consult your airline and airport for additional guidance on arrival time.

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