• SNAG: You're picking up relatives, but you don't want make the trek to the airport and then have to wait if their flight has been delayed.
• SOLUTION: Before you leave home, check by telephone or online to see if the plane is on time. Besides contacting the airline, you can find out a flight's status within a two-hour window by airline, flight number, city, airport, etc., at www.flightarrivals.com. Also, www.fly.faa.gov publishes a map of U.S. airports color-coded to indicate flight delays.
• SNAG: Due to security concerns, the airports won't let you wait in your car at curbside for arriving passengers.
• SOLUTION: All three Washington-area airports offer limited free parking for pickups. In addition, BWI has a "cell phone lot" just inside the Daily B surface parking lot at Aviation Boulevard and Elm Road where you can wait for arriving passengers to contact you. The Arrival Waiting Area, across from the Daily A garage, also offers about 50 spaces where drivers may wait with their vehicles until making cell phone contact.
Luggage
• SNAG: Items are stolen from your suitcase after you've checked it.
• SOLUTION: First of all, don't pack any valuables in your checked bag. That means the $500 digital camera goes in the carry-on. Security personnel can and will break open locks to screen baggage, so use a special TSA-approved padlock, sold in luggage stores and online (the TSA Web site, www.tsa.gov, has a list of brands). Security personnel can open it with a special key, and the lock alerts you afterward if your bag has been opened.
If you believe something was taken from your bag, contact the airline, call the TSA at 866-289-9673 or download a claim form at www.tsa.gov.
• SNAG: The airline loses your luggage.
• SOLUTION: Learn to pack light (it's an art) and carry your bag on the plane. If you must check your bag, put a label on the inside as well as the outside, and include your destination, not just where you're from. That way the airline has a better chance of finding you.
Pack essential items such as eyeglasses and medication, expensive or irreplaceable items and a day's worth of clothing -- or at least a change of underwear -- in your carry-on.
Checking In/Security
• SNAG: There's a huge line at the check-in counter.
