Traveling during the holidays triggers an array of different emotions. First, you’re excited for your upcoming holiday travel plans. Maybe you’re flying home to visit your friends and family. Perhaps you’re heading to Europe to immerse yourself in lights, mulled wine, and traditional Christmas markets. Or if you’re allergic to colder weather, you might be flocking to warmer climates so you can avoid the frosty snow.

No matter what your holiday travel style happens to be, there’s no denying that the holidays are one of (if not) the busiest travel seasons you’ll ever encounter.

To help you navigate the trills and thrills of holiday travel, here are 10 holiday travel tips to help you rock this season.

Tips for Traveling during the Holiday Season

10 Travel Tips for the Holiday Season

These travel tips will not only make your travels easier during the holiday season, but they could get you in the good habit of becoming a savvy traveler. Starting with…

Avoid Booking the Last Flight of the Day

The weather on the other side of the country can still impact your flight, even if it’s nowhere near where you’re coming from or going to.

Avoiding the last flight of the day means that you won’t be affected by a whole day if a delay due to weather were to occur. The truth is, rolling delays impact those later flights heavily. As terrible as it can be to take a 6 AM flight, that early bird of an aircraft is usually sitting there the night before - reducing the likelihood of a delay. (Especially due to weather or maintenance rolling in other parts of the country.)

Watch Your Incoming Flight

You can do this through your airline’s app or by using an app like Flight Aware to keep track of and monitor your incoming flight.

Why do you want to do this? So that you can get ahead of any potential scheduling issues. Recognizing any delays before they are announced will give you the opportunity to change your flight before everyone else. This means you’ll likely get to your destination exactly when you plan.

Pre-Program Your Airline’s Customer Service Number Into Your Phone

Even better - have your airline’s app downloaded and easily accessible. Sometimes if you know you’re going to miss a connection, you can get ahead of the issue by contacting your airline the moment you land. (Yes, before you even hop off the aircraft.)

Bonus points - if you have a Twitter account ready to go, follow your airline. Believe it or not, tweeting your airline is sometimes the fastest way to get help from your airline.

Line Up Lounge Access

Lounge access can make your travel day much easier and more comfortable. Not only are food and drinks complimentary, but you’ll have more space and access to outlets to charge your devices. The biggest bonus? the agents in the lounge are often able to provide a little extra help if you’re in the lounge associated with your specific airline carrier.

Accessing a lounge is simple. You can buy a yearly pass with your favorite airline, buy a day pass for some airlines, or you can receive access to certain lounges with certain credit cards like the AMEX Platinum or Chase Saphire Reserve. Another option is to purchase Priority Pass which gives you access to specific lounges. This means you’ll have to check the availability on the Priority Pass app.

Get CLEAR, Global Entry, and TSA-Precheck

TSA-Pre Check is amazing and it comes with Global Entry. It allows you to seamlessly roll through security in a similar fashion to pre-9/11. But as great as it is, sometimes it’s not enough, which is why I love CLEAR.

With a CLEAR membership, you cut the lines at TSA (even the pre-check line, if you have pre-check).

All it takes is a quick scan of your retina and boarding pass and you are on your way to cut everyone else in line. This can save tons of time, which during the holidays, could easily save you a half hour or more.

Get Travel Insurance to Cover Trip Delay

Despite your best efforts, sometimes getting stuck is inevitable, especially when the weather isn’t on your side.

This is why you should have Travel Insurance to cover the trip delay. Some credit cards will provide it for free. But, Travel Guard is my favorite choice for insuring your trip and protecting you from costs of trip delays, lost baggage, and even medical emergencies.

You’re not covered from the weather by your airline, only issues that are within the airline’s control, so you won’t receive a hotel voucher if you’re stranded due to weather. And who wants to wait in a long line for a crappy hotel voucher anyway?

With travel insurance and trip delay protection, you’re covered and can even pick your own hotel rather than waiting on the airline’s agents. It’s best to protect yourself from the unexpected. My preference? The yearly policy from Travel Guard.

Consider Shipping Your Luggage and Gifts

Unfortunately, lost baggage becomes more frequent around the holidays. The solution? Consider shipping with FedEx, or with LugLess - a company designed to ship luggage.

Not only will you not have to waste time checking a bag when lines are long so you can hop right on over to security, but wrapped gifts can potentially be unwrapped by TSA.

Sometimes it’s better to ship in advance and avoid having gifts unwrapped or lost.

Skip the Regular Traffic

Now, this tip doesn’t apply to everyone. But if you’re traveling to and from New York City, consider ditching the horrendous traffic and opting to fly with Blade.

Besides, Lyft, Uber, and Taxi costs are quite comparable to Blade’s prices, depending on where you are in the city.

Travel on Christmas Day

Whether you’re heading off on vacation or visiting relatives, consider spending Christmas morning at home as usual, especially if you have kids. This means you won’t have to lug your gifts around the globe.

Why would you want to do this?

Because not only are flights less expensive on Christmas day but the airport and planes are generally empty - making it a much less stressful travel day for you.

Be Kind

Last but not least, it is important to be kind always, but more so during the holidays. If you run across any issues or trip delays, remember the holidays can be stressful for those working to get you rerouted to your destination.

At the end of the day, you’ll get more with honey than with vinegar, so keep an upbeat attitude, say hello to your cabin crew as you board, and flash a smile.

Want to go the extra mile? Feel free to pack a little gift (like a box of chocolates) for your flight crew.