Let us start by asking ourselves: What are life hacks? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, life hacks are simple and yet smart tips or ways of doing certain similar tasks with much ease and efficiency. In our everyday life, we are hard-wired to find a technique of completing tasks much easily. Sometimes, we ourselves discover these life hacks, and at times, a good friend gives us life hacks in the form of good advice. In this article, I will show you 15 top airport life hacks. These airport life hacks might seem illegal at first glance, but they are not. Life hacks for airports are actually in compliance with the law and meant to make your life easier when traveling.
1. Take a few zip-top bags
When going to an airport, it is always a good idea to take some zip-top bags with you. These bags can be helpful in several ways; for example, for storing liquids while going the airport security. You can also keep your phone dry using these zip-top bags, as well as keeping your snacks.
2. Keep the important things within easy reach
It is recommended to have carry-on baggage filled with your personal items. First off, you may need to keep your documents in a carry-on, where it is safe and easy to reach when needed. If the journey is very long, you may also keep your fragrance, deodorant, and some other personal items in the carry-on backpack or handbag. Secondly, keeping your most important items in your carry-on is the safest option because your carry-on bag cannot get lost on the board, unlike your checked-in luggage. Losing checked-in baggage is an unlikely scenario, but it may still happen to everyone.
3. Try wearing your extra luggage
Instead of paying an extra amount of money for baggage exceeding the limit, you may try wearing two or more jackets or t-shirts. Remember that you can always go to the bathroom on the airplane to take extra clothes off and keep them in your hand. Apart from that, it sometimes gets cold inside the airplane, so one should have an extra jacket or cardigan to put on during the flight. It is recommended that you try to wear as comfortable as possible. For instance, avoid wearing tight clothes or high heels. Instead, go for loose clothes and comfy sneakers.
4. Customize your suitcase
When you arrive at your destination, it may be stressful for you to wait for your suitcase at a baggage carousel. It might also be the case that there are several similar or even the same type of suitcases. In order to avoid any confusion in advance, you may decide to customize your suitcase by either painting it or decorating your suitcase with stickers.
5. Life hacks with wireless headphones
You can realize other important life hacks at the airport with wireless headphones, which can make your journey easier. First of all, unlike ordinary headphones with wire, wireless headphones cannot pose a problem while you are carrying your baggage. Also, during the flight, using wireless headphones is much comfortable, especially if you can sleep while being on the air. However, you might be cautious not to listen to music too loud while waiting for your flight because you may miss an important announcement regarding the flight time or gate change.
6. Try queueing next to business class check-in
One of the life hacks for airports is waiting in queue close to the check-in area of business class. Business-class passengers always receive the best service. Since business travelers are much fewer than regular customers, if you are lucky enough, a hostess may grow sympathy and check you in. Although this kind of assistance from a hostess might be rare, there is no harm in trying and even asking for help. The worst you can get is a polite “no” from a flight attendant.
7. Bring a lot of snacks
One of the airport life hacks is about bringing a lot of snacks with yourself to an airport. This tip will help you save a lot of money. The reason is that airport food is mainly expensive and at times not as great as your own food. You may bring a sandwich or a burger that you have prepared at home. But usually bringing dry snacks or cookies is the best, as you can pass them easily through any airport security. Bringing snacks can definitely save you some money if you are in a transit airport.
8. Bring an empty water bottle with you
One of the top airport life hacks for the ones traveling on a tight budget is bringing an empty water bottle through airport security. Usually, airports tend to charge a lot for common and basic things. In order to avoid paying huge mark-ups for your basic needs, such as water, you better pass an empty bottle through security and fill it inside the bathroom. That is already more than $3 saved.
9. Get a shopping bag
If you are wondering: What are life hacks? Then, pay attention, please, because I am about to give you a great example. Imagine you only have a suitcase and a handbag, which are already full. But you still have certain important stuff to take. You may think that paying an extra amount of money for your luggage is inevitable. That is wrong, and here is why. Instead of overpaying, what you can do is to get a shopping bag and fill it with your extra stuff. Voila, it will look like you have bought something at the airport, and you will not be charged for that.
10. Have a portable phone charger
When you are in an airport, one of the airport life hacks is bringing a portable phone charger, i.e., a power bank. If you consult with many travelers, they would say that a power bank a must-have item for a flight journey. Portable phone chargers can be a lifesaver at airports since you cannot easily find an outlet there. Especially if you have a one- or two-stop flight, then having a power bank will definitely make your life easier. Besides, gamers would find it much easier to charge their phones with a power bank on the plane while playing.
11. Consume some alcohol for tackling the stress
Flying can mean a stressful experience for many people. Especially if it is the first time that you are about to fly, you might be nervous and stressed about it. There are even some passengers who are scared of flying because of high altitude, resort to taking pills. If you do not like taking pills, then you may want to consume some alcohol. Passengers can take up to 100 ml to the board, so you may take some alcohol and mix it up with soda to make a nice cocktail for yourself.
12. Take frozen liquids
One of the life hacks for airports could be taking frozen liquid to an airport. It is obvious that there are limits on how much liquid you can carry with yourself to the cabin of an airplane. A general rule is that you can take up to 100 ml. But if you are a water person and drink a lot of water during the day, you may freeze your water at home before taking it to the airport. With this method, you can evade the restrictions on the allowed amount of water in the cabin.
13. Go to the left at the security lane
We all know that most people are right-handed. As a result, those people are biased toward their dominant hand, so they go to security lanes at the right. You can take advantage of this biasedness of people and go to the left at the security lane to face fewer people waiting in the queue.
14. Being the last one to board might pay off
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One of the top airport life hacks could be being the last one to board an airplane. This may allow you to pick any other empty seats that you like. If a flight attendant is in a good mood, you can politely ask and grab the first-class empty seat in the plane.
15. Go for a red-eye flight
One of the airport life hacks could be opting for a red-eye flight. A red-eye flight is a flight scheduled to happen overnight. Flying during the night is especially useful for people who do not like the hustle and bustle of airports during the daytime. Apart from guaranteeing you a calm journey, red-eye flights also allow you to sleep in the night and save your time.
A quick recap of this article
In this article, I first answered the following question: What are life hacks? Life hacks are the simplest and easiest ways of doing things. Then, I move on to give life hacks for airports, which are listed in the following way: taking a few zip-top bags, keeping the important things within easy reach, wearing your extra luggage, customizing your suitcase, life hacks for airports with wireless headphones, queueing next to business class check-in, bringing a lot of snacks and an empty water bottle, using a shopping bag, having a portable phone charger, consuming some alcohol, freezing liquids, going to the left at security lane, being the last one to board, and going for a red-eye flight.