Megan Singleton: Bloggeratlarge.com writer on dealing with the busiest travel time of the year

While most of the country is winding down for the summer holidays, airports and airlines across New Zealand are gearing up for the busiest weeks of the year.

Air NZ expects almost 3 million passengers domestically and internationally from now until the end of January.

Bloggeratlarge.com writer Megan Singleton says it's important to plan ahead and keep a cool head if something goes wrong ahead of a big trip.

Read more about Megan's travel tips here.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks EDB Travel with Wendy wo Tours unique
fully inclusive tours around the world.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
All right, so around the twenty first twenty second of December,
the arrivals and departures will be peaking at airports around
New Zealand and I imagine around the globe. So how
do we sort of tackle the Christmas travel without getting
too stressed. Megan Singleton, blogger at Large, is with us. Now,
good morning, Good morning.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Well, actually I am going to be flying on the
twenty first of December, so I am needing to take
some of my own advice. So firstly, it's the mental prep.
It's knowing I'm in New Zealand put out something this
week to say, make sure you get to your gates
half an hour before you normally would. So now I'm
going to put that and bring that forward, leave home

(01:01):
half an hour before I normally would get to the
airport half now, you know, I mean, just expect a
lazy everywhere. So that's a great tip. Choosing your attitude,
you know, Francesca, this is one of my life mantras.
If there is a drama. Stay calm. Nobody loves dealing
with a screaming benchhee at the airport, You're more likely

(01:23):
to get put on another fly or find your luggage.
If you take a breath and just choose your attitude, can.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
You choose your partners and your family's attitudes as well?

Speaker 3 (01:33):
If only, Yeah, there's a button, haven't you seen that button?
Look it's probably but like now, but get Santa to
send gifts ahead. If you've got a beeline in for
the North Pole, you might be able to get gifts
sent directly to where the children are going to be
woken up, which is quite clever, I would have thought,
especially if you're buying on the web. And then you

(01:55):
can maybe take carry on, which will be my plan
because I'm only nipping away for two nights and then
coming back to autand for Christmas, so take the carry on.
Even though I'm in charge of the family salad, which
includes a pumpkin, I've got somebody buying that for me.
In face, I don't have to take my pumpkin.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Megan, What is the best way to keep in touch
with your airline? Like I have the apps and I
check my flights on that but should is social media
sometimes a fast way of knowing what's going on with
you an airline.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
Social media, Yeah, And what I also find is if
there is a problem, often the social media teams are
faster at responding. So like if you say, look, you
know this flight's been canceled, everyone's standing here, no one
knows what to do, you'll find the team come back
real quick. What I would say to that though, if
that does happen to you jump online and rebook another

(02:46):
flight before you get to the alert to do so,
because everyone will be lining up to do that. And
I don't know if you've had that situation before, but
I have. And then suddenly you find that you can't
now get a seat until the end of the day
or you know, worstcase scenario tomorrow. I don't expect that
to happen here in New Zealand in the middle of summer. Like,
you know, it's not fog, We're not going to have
situations like that, but you know, there could be all

(03:08):
sorts of little breakdowns and things, so let's just remain calm.
Let's also lengths in our transit times, So if you're
flying in from overseas and you want to catch a
connecting flight. I wouldn't even rely on two hours at
the best of times. Transitting through Auckland and getting a
domestic I would say make it three, and I would
say Christmas week, make it four. If you haven't already.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Got that, get screening prepped, right, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
So I start stripping off in the line. So I've
undone my laces, I've taken off my chunky jewelry, my
earrings are in my handbag, I've got my laptop, my
thing's unzipped. We're all ready to go. So by the
time I get there, I'm just juggling everything into the trays.
So don't even wear that stuff. Don't wear the belt
if you can, if you're not going to lose your down.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
Now, that's really good.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Don't wear the chunky stuff.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, that's really good advice actually, because how many times
do you stand in the line and they're still saying
and the things in your pocket and yes, and that please,
and that please. So that's very good advice. If you
want more advice for traveling at this time of the year,
you can find Megan at blogger at large dot com.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin. Listen
live to News Talks A B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio