Holiday Travel Tips: How Will You Manage?

It's the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and you know what that means! Everyone and their mother (literally) will be ducking out from work early today, booking it to the nearest airport / train station / bus depot to trek their way home to be with their nearest and dearest for the long weekend. And what brings back more memories than a walk down the memory lane of holiday travel from hell?

• • • • • • • • • • • • • Rail passengers wait in line for Amtrak tickets at Washington's Union Station Wednesday Nov. 27, 1996.

And while we're all in the spirit of giving, why not take a moment to share your secret and savvy holiday travel tips with your other nearest and dearest: fellow HuffPost commenters? How do you handle travel stress? Got any tried-and-true techniques for traveling with children? Know a secret security line at JFK where the TSA workers are friendly and the wait tops out at 6 minutes? Or are you just looking for a place to vent your Thanksgiving travel terrors? Either way or all of the above, let us know!

The AP may be reporting that holiday travel is down this year, but that doesn't mean there won't still be "4.54 million people expected to fly during the long holiday weekend." And, as the Beatles say, everyone gets by with a little help from their friends, so let's share the love in the comments below.

Related:

7 Tips For Getting Along With Your Difficult Relatives Over Thanksgiving

What You Can Learn About Stress Management From Airport Workers

22 Tongue-in-Cheek Travel Tips

6 Tips For Enjoying A Vacation

50 Most Asked Travel Questions

All photos courtesy of AP.

Comments

[JBS]

Gotta work tomorrow. Retail. I get one day off, and it's not a paid holiday.

[KarateKid]

How will I manage? By staying home, that's how. People must be nuts to travel on the busiest day of the year, at the weather's mercy.

[ecotopian]

By not traveling.

[doyle005]

My advice, fly form a small regional airport. I always go through National Airport (refuse to Call it Reagan National, I just will not). It is the smallest of the three DC metro airports. The lines are short, TSA people have always been quick, if not nice and pleasant...try to get that in BWI or O'Hare.

[theyak]

I am flying home from a 2 week required business trip, leaving Phoenix at 5:10 pm for O'hare. I will leave for the airport planning on a 4- 41/2 hour ordeal. I will wait in lines patiently, sit in a middle seat and do my damn best to just get home with piece of mind and good will towards my fellow traveler. Any humor provided by the impatient, boorish and just plain silly will be appreciated and told around the dinner table tomorrow.

[EmilyS]

Anyone flying for Thanksgiving this year should definitely use Aerochannel.com.

They'll have live airport coverage throughout Thanksgiving weekend at 6 major hubs. It's one-stop access to all the info you need, including flight status for all airlines, weather, security line length, airport traffic, etc. It totally takes the stress out of travel day.

There's nothing else like it out there, and I can't believe how many people still don't know about it.

www.aerochannel.com

[LisaMarieC]

I cope by staying home. BTW I love those Jack Kennedy rockers they have at Logan. Best thing about that airport.