Travel smart this festive season

It’s the final countdown to year-end and as you prepare for the summer break, it's a suitable time to take note of things that tend to derail holiday trips. Every holiday season, many South Africans miss their flights - often due to last-minute rushes, longer check-in queues, or simple missteps. To help stay ahead of the crowd, LIFT provides a wrap up of key info and simple, smart travel tips to help travellers arrive on time, breeze through the airport and start holidays stress-free.

Airport systems and timelines are carefully designed to ensure safety, efficiency and on-time departures. Haydn Halim-Henning, Brand Manager at LIFT explains that check-in opens two hours before domestic flights to allow the airport authority to plan and allocate secure baggage handling areas, as all checked luggage must undergo multiple layers of security screening before being loaded onto the aircraft. Passengers and their hand baggage are also screened, which takes additional time. Arriving early also accounts for parking, traffic and navigating to the correct check-in area.

“Most airlines take an average of three minutes to check in a passenger and their baggage for a flight, but due to fuller flights and busy airports, this usually quick process can take longer during peak seasons,” explains Halim-Henning.

“There are over 1 000 safety and security procedures that must be followed for both aircraft and passengers during airport operations, so it makes sense that the busier the flight and airport, the longer things will take - ultimately it’s safety first,” he says.

Halim-Henning adds that online check-in, early arrival and travelling with minimal hand luggage are key to ensuring on-time departures and smooth operations.

Below he provides some helpful practises and tips to follow before, during and after a flight, to make the festive season travel go smoothly.

BEFORE TRAVEL

Leave Early

“Leaving early is by far the best advice we can give to passengers, to account for unforeseen traffic, e-hailing delays, or parking/walking delays,” says Halim-Henning.

According to LIFT, the main reasons people miss flights is due to being stuck in traffic, misreading ticket information and misjudging check in times and boarding gate closure times. “We recommend arriving at the airport 120min before your flight departs to cater for these possible challenges. Plan ahead, leave early or prebook airport travel.” Check-in closes 45 min before departure for passenger and baggage acceptance and boarding gates close 15 min before departure.

Clearly label items

“Clearly labelling items is never a bad idea and adding a phone number makes it easier for those who find your possession to get in touch. These days, trackers like ‘Apple Air Tags’ can be useful backup tracking devices for high-value items like laptops.”

Know your Baggage allowance

Halim-Henning says to plan your packing ahead of time to ensure you stay within the specified baggage allowances, particularly for cabin baggage (size and weight and be aware of prohibited items). This ensures a smooth check in and boarding process. “And don’t forget your identification and driver’s license if you’re hiring a car!”

Pre-select your seats.

“One of the great benefits of flying with LIFT is that we offer complimentary seat selection during booking, or you can add it later at no additional cost. We encourage passengers to select their seats in advance to help avoid any delays when seating groups travelling together,” adds Halim-Henning.

Pack a snack/padkos

“Especially if you have kids - airports may be busy and queues may be longer. However, LIFT passengers can look forward to complimentary snacks and beverages on board,” he notes.

AT THE AIRPORT

Double check that ticket!

Check the date, time and boarding gates and if possible consider the walking distance to the gate to avoid misjudging the distance from check-in to boarding.

Check-in

“If you don't have any bags to check in and have checked in online, head right on to the security gates, as there’s no need to check in at the check-in counters,” he says. The LIFT crew at the check-in counters are ready to grab your bags and send them off to the plane. Arriving early will ensure you don’t have any “long-queue stress" worrying that you will miss your boarding time.

Have documents ready

Have your boarding pass in hand at the security gate to save time. Similarly, having your electronics as well as all metal items such as belts and watches out ahead of time when going through security helps avoid delays.

Check boarding gate details and listen to announcements

Find your boarding gate and listen for announcements or changes - Boarding gates will open 30 min before the scheduled time of departure and will close 15 min before departure.

ONCE ON BOARD

“Once you’ve prepped appropriately and find yourself in your seat with all your belongings, remember to keep your items with you,” suggests Halim-Henning. “The No 1 item we find left behind on flights is passenger identification, which could make booking into a hotel a bit tricky!”

All it really comes down to is the following: Plan ahead, leave early and keep track of your belongings!

“We wish our passengers and anyone travelling over the holidays a safe trip,” concludes Halim-Henning.