It was news that no short term mission team wanted to hear—their international flight from the U.S. had been cancelled. The team’s airline only operated one flight a day from their airport to Europe, where they were to connect to an Africa flight. The airline was ready to put the team on a different carrier in order to make their connection. The problem, however, was that they would have to leave several hours early.

Sixteen out of the 20 team members already had their bags packed when they got the news. They made it to the airport in time for the earlier flight. The other four were not ready—and missed the flight. Those four would have to take extra planes and spend significantly more time traveling before they eventually connected with the rest of the group.

This story, which actually happens more than you might think, is a great reminder to international mission teams of the importance of having your luggage packed and being ready to leave early. We have seen weather and mechanical delays cause some teams to leave two days early or cancel their trip altogether.

Our recommendation, especially if you are traveling as part of a group, is to have the bulk of your luggage packed 48 hours prior to your scheduled departure. You can add toiletries and last-minute items later. This way if you do need to go early, it will only take you a couple minutes to be ready. This is imperative with groups because the more people you have, the more difficult it is to find seats for everyone on alternative schedules.

In addition to packing early, be sure to sign up for the airline’s flight notification service that will call or text you with any changes to your flight schedule. You can sign up for the service on your airline’s website. You also may want to check your flight status with the airline starting two days before scheduled departure. This too can be done at the airline’s website.

Team leaders should keep with them the cell phone or other contact numbers of each team member just in case they need to notify them of a late schedule change.

Hopefully your next international mission trip flight will depart on schedule. But if not, you’ll be ready to quickly grab an alternative flight–as long as your bags are packed!

In our last post, we gave tips for those infrequent travelers who are trying to navigate airline policies, airports, security and such. Today, we want to focus on things that mission and humanitarian trip leaders can do to help team members who are travel novices.

First, don’t make assumptions about your team when it comes to their level of travel experience. Just because you are double platinum in six airline frequent flyer programs doesn’t mean that the rest of your team has any travel experience. In fact, you probably will have team members who fly only occasionally or who haven’t flown in a significant period of time. So early on in your team interactions, try to get a feel for each team members’ travel comfort level.

Talk through the travel process with your team. Make sure you address things like luggage weight and size limits, as well as the importance of making sure the gate agent puts the right tag on the bags. Explain the security screening process and the need to keep liquids in three ounce containers inside a clear, quart-sized, plastic bag. Also discuss the boarding process and how many airlines board by zone numbers printed on the boarding pass.

Have a travel interruption contingency plan, especially if your team isn’t all traveling together. You should have this plan even if you have a team of experienced travelers. For the infrequent flyer, this is vital. Discuss what to do if a flight is cancelled or delayed (see our past blog posts on “Dealing with Airline Gate Agents” and “Avoiding Weather Delays” for tips). If you purchase travel insurance through Ministry Travel, make sure that your team has the policy information and contact numbers. This insurance usually covers trip interruptions and provides 24 hour travel assistance.

Enlist travel buddies, especially for older travelers or those who are nervous about flying. Pair a team member who is an experienced traveler with someone who is not. This way they can look after the novice traveler and you will have one less thing to worry about!

Explain how passport control and customs work, both for the country you are traveling to and for the U.S. on your return.

These five tips will help you greatly improve the rookie traveler’s experience.

We took a family member to the airport the other day and were quickly reminded that not everybody flies on a regular basis. Some hit the skies rarely, if at all. That was that case with this family member, who in his 47 years of life had flown maybe a handful of times.  He had a lot of questions about the process.

It is easy for those of us who are frequent flyers to take travel for granted. But if we are facilitating the travel of others—whether it is as travel agents, mission trip sponsors or humanitarian project leaders—we need to look at travel through the eyes of the infrequent traveler so that we can help them have a great travel experience.

Here are three tips for the infrequent traveler. If you fall into that category, then you will find these especially helpful. If, on the other hand, you have more frequent flyer miles than you can track, then pass this along to a travel novice.

Give yourself plenty of time. Having to rush—whether it is packing, getting to the airport or finding a gate—is stressful, especially for the infrequent flyer. You can avoid a lot of anxiety simply by allotting extra time. Start packing for your tip several days ahead of time. Plan to arrive at the airport at least three hours ahead of time for an international flight and two hours for a domestic flight. In fact, you may even want to pad that time some and plan to arrive in time for a leisurely meal at the airport.

Be prepared for security screening. For many people, this is the most stressful part of the trip. Visit the Transportation Security Administration’s website at http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/index.shtm to find out the latest rules and tips for getting through airport screening. Basically, you should be prepared to show a government issued picture identification (like a driver’s license or passport) and your boarding pass. You will be asked to remove any laptop computers from your carry-on bag and have it screened separately. You also are limited to the amount of liquids that you can take through security. They must be in 3 ounce or less bottles and all bottles must fit into a quart-size clear plastic bag. Have this bag where you can easily pull it out of your carry-on as you approach the X-ray machine. You also should be prepared to remove your shoes. The biggest thing is to just pay attention as you go through the line and do what you see everyone else do!

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. If you don’t know how to find your flight’s gate, have a question about the boarding process, or just need general guidance, ask an airline employee. The same is true once you are on the plane—if you need help, ask the flight attendant. Also, many airports have information desks and personnel on hand who are more than happy to help you. At the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, for example, these people are called Airport Ambassadors and you can easily spot them by their green vests and wide-brimmed hats. Most airline and airport employees are glad to help answer questions.

So if you are an infrequent traveler, following these three tips should make your next trip go much smoother.

In January there were 19,000 flights in the U.S that were cancelled due to winter storms, according to the government and various news reports. In December the amount was slightly higher at 19,700. Those were domestic departures, and don’t include all of the European flights that were cancelled due to a snow storm that hit the other side of the Atlantic. There were a lot of people stuck in airports far from home or who had to cancel their trips altogether.

Severe flight interruptions such as these are especially hard on volunteer teams traveling for ministry or humanitarian purposes. Typically these teams have planned their trips many, many months in advance. They have trained, raised money, taken off from work and so forth. Plus there are the international workers who have prepared to receive these teams. Flight delays of even a couple days can force these outreaches to cancel. So what can you do if your trip is faced with inclement weather? Here are some tips.

First, remember that severe weather can happen just about any time in most any place and it is not something that the airlines can control. Numerous airports were shut down for hours, even days, over the past few months, which meant the airlines had no choice but to cancel flights. Getting upset about the situation doesn’t help anything.

While the weather may be out of everyone’s control, that doesn’t mean that you are helpless. Instead you should be proactive and flexible when you hear that severe weather may strike your travel cities. Don’t wait until the time of departure to discover that your flight has been cancelled. At that point your travel options may be very limited.

Instead, explore departing early or re-routing around the weather. We noticed after the huge weather problems in December that many airlines were quicker to relax their change policies. They actually encouraged people to fly earlier or explore different routings, something that typically is not allowed under normal conditions. Remember that every airline is different, so you will need to check with your particular airline to see what they will allow in your situation.

One of our clients had a 27 member medical team traveling to West Africa which was scheduled to leave the day a massive snow storm shut down their airport. The client contacted us a few days prior to the scheduled departure when it looked like their flight would be cancelled. We worked with the client and multiple airlines to re-route the team, but the only way it would work was if the team could be flexible and leave early.

Most of the team members had just a few hours notice about the chance in plans before they would have to pack and head to the airport. They all had a great attitude and demonstrated enormous flexibility. Sure enough–all 27 made it out. If they hadn’t left when they did, they would not have been able to depart for several days which would have forced them to cancel the trip.

The bottom line is to keep a close eye on the weather at cities through which you will travel. The sooner you can anticipate problems the better chances you will have to find a solution that will keep you from being grounded.

The travel industry is all abuzz over the new A380 airplane by Airbus which industry insiders say takes international travel to a whole new level. The massive “veritable floating cruise ship,” as one travel blogger called it, seats 525 passengers in three classes of service.

On Monday, German airliner Lufthansa inaugurated its A380 service to New York’s JFK Airport.  While the airplane boasts of the most impressive first class cabin imaginable (complete with 6’9” long beds and large lavatories), the real question for those of us unlikely to see the luxury section is “What are the coach seats like?”

Thinking of putting that many people on one aircraft brings up images of cattle cars. Not so, says blogger Matt Long who traveled on Lufthansa’s A380 initial JFK flight. He writes that the airplane has a slimmer seat back that provides an extra two inches of legroom—something that is very much appreciated on long haul flights. “In addition to the extra legroom, the seats themselves seem to be wider, and in general are a much more comfortable experience than most other aircraft,” Long writes on his blog, Landlopers.com

Airbus has received 240 orders for the A380 from just about every airline imaginable, but to date only 43 have been delivered and are in operation. The airline manufacturer says the A380 could actually seat 853 passengers if the plane only had economy class. The plane has two full-length passenger levels and a range of 8,300 nautical miles.

Airbus touts the A380 as the quietest long haul aircraft flying today with 50% less noise on departure than the nearest competitor. A study by the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) confirmed the Airbus claim.

While 525 seats may be the standard configuration for the A380, each airline that buys the mega-jet can configure they plane however it wants. Korean Air said that its first A380, which is set for delivery in May, will only have between 400 and 450 seats, making it “the most spacious A380 anywhere.”

Singapore Airlines was the first carrier to launch A380 service in October 2007. “We take…pride in being the first to operate the Airbus A380, the cleanest and greenest aircraft in operation today…The A380 is also quieter, both inside and outside the cabin,” says the airline on its website.

The massive size of the A380 has posed challenges for airports. According to a Los Angeles Times article, LAX has to give the plane priority landing and take-off. “Service roads, taxiways and runways must be closed to airfield trucks, cars and other commercial aircraft,” said the Times because the A380’s wings are almost as long as a football field.

With so many A380s on order, you can expect the newest generation airplane to eventually become a staple of international travel.

American Airlines recently unveiled new ways for members of its frequent flyer program, AAdvantage, to use their accumulated miles. AAdvantage points can now be used to directly purchase car and hotel rentals.

While all the major airlines offer various ways to accumulate miles—everything from buying flowers to turning on a light switch—they tend to be pretty stingy in how they allow passengers to spend those miles. Typically miles can only be used for flights, and then only under tight inventory controls that make it difficult to actually use the miles.

American, however, has bucked that trend by offering rooms at 10,000 hotels in 320 destinations worldwide that can be purchased with miles. In the past, American would allow you to transfer points to the points program of selected hotel chains. You could not book hotels or cars directly. Travelers are now given the option of using all miles or a combination of miles and cash to pay for hotel and car rentals through American. Points redemption, however, can only be done through the airline’s website and not by phone.

American also offers what it calls “exclusive deals” with certain hotels, which cost fewer miles. This means that there is not a direct correlation between the price of the room and the number of points needed.

The InterContinental Los Angeles hotel, for example, is available for 17,200 points per night. A room booked through the hotel’s website is $259. The Omni Los Angeles charges $10 more per night ($269) but is 4,500 AAdvantage points cheaper. AAdvantage Elite members get greater discounts.

A compact car rented from LAX, for example, cost a minimum of 2,450 points per day. Car renters are still responsible for any taxes or fees, which are paid at the time of rental.

These new AAdvantage options are also good news for Ministry Travel passengers who fly internationally on partner airlines and prefer to accumulate American miles.