Flying from New York City

According to what I read, Obama has ordered all airports to tighten security. This means that instead of the usual security you are familiar with, they are now required to do more. So I would get there at least 4 hours early just in case. You can always take a nap if need be.

If I ever fly out of New York during the holiday season I always arrive several hours before my flight is due to take off. I learned my lesson after missing a flight in early 2002 around the time they had just begun implementing post 9-11 security measures. The lines for security checks were too long and my flight went to Florida without me.

I guess then I will have to try and get to JFK at around 9.30am for my 13.45 pm flight !!

Good luck - hope they don't lose your luggage! That's another thing that seems to only happen to me during the holidays.

Just arrived from an international flight, and it was excruciating. Only allowed one hand luggage and they insist a laptop already counts as one piece. They body-searched each and every passenger, twice on each side of the ocean. We left two hours late because the additional security took so long. It was endless. The pilot got on the speakers near to arrival, and said he'd like to tell us where we're flying over, but he's not allowed to since Dec. 25. Strange. All the crew kept apologizing to us for what they were putting us through, and looked strained and over-worked. At passport control at Newark I watched exasperated as they kept picking people out of the line, usually young men traveling alone, and taking them back to the security room. First time crossing the Atlantic that I thought I'd lose my cool and start shouting at someone.

Oh, and I got my luggage lost, but that's another story.

Oh god Uraniumfish.. I thought only Canadian flights had banned hand luggage.. wasn't aware trans Atlantic flights had started that as well.. travel used to be fun now its stressful to say the least.

Yeah, if you're going as far away as Asia be prepared to be roughhandled for hours even before you get on the plane.

Then again, it was my impression that only flights in and out of the States were being required to go through such extreme measures, which you might take as an indication that other countries aren't quite so stupid in their security policies and take a more balanced view of how to keep passengers safe. Honestly, I don't know how this kind of harassment of travelers is going to prevent dumb people from trying to do dumb things and don't feel particularly safe. After all that hassle and thorough searching of my person, did the authorities discover the undeclared liquids I had stowed in my laptop bag? They did not.

Hey, uptowngirl, been seeing on the news that it's mostly inbound US flights that are getting the worst of the security measures. Maybe you'll get lucky and they won't harass you too much on your outbound flight.

Uraniumfish did you see piece on the mayhem at Newark yesterday? seems that someone walked into a secure zone as a result of which all passengers in the Continental terminal had to be re-screened before they could depart this went on until the early hours of the morning.
Just checked my carrier's website( Cathay Pacific) which asks passengers to limit cabin baggage to the minimum .. I usually have my laptop and a change of clothes in my carry-on would be loath to be deprived of either on a 16 hour flight ..watch this space..

@uptowngirl Then I say be as flexible as you can about being able to consolidate those into exactly one bag. At the airport, being told the laptop and a bag count as two, I had to throw some makeup into the laptop bag and make do with that. At least the airline was handing out free toothbrushes on the flight.

No I didn't see the Newark story. Sheesh. Gotta shake your head and be thankful you weren't on that flight.

All of this crazy airport talk is making me glad to have driven to Florida for the holidays... though at the time it didn't feel like the most sensible option.

The terrorist incident happened while I was down there, so who knows what I would have dealt with on the way back? Though I probably wouldn't have had to deal with much more than long lines, being a lone female traveler.

When I travel, I go light as possible. I do not carry anything in my pockets except for my house keys, wallet, and change purse. Everything else stays home. As for bags, I pack two bags. One bag is for my clothes, and the other one, which is my carry on, is for my laptop. But that is it. I hate the hassles at the airport. They make you take off your shoes. I heard that now, after the recent terror attack, that airport security is going to do a full body scan. Another delay. So it may be best to go there three hours ahead of time.