Sunday, July 30, 2006; P01

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John Duffy of Gettysburg arrived at Dulles 2 1/2 hours before his United flight to Frankfurt, Germany, to find all available floor space filled with other would-be fliers. It took an hour and 45 minutes to reach the ticket counter. That means he probably would have missed his flight had he followed the advice on United's Web site: Passengers should arrive at the terminal two hours before an international flight .

But wait. Asked about problems at Dulles, spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said in an e-mail: "For our customers traveling through our largest airports during the busy summer travel season, including Washington Dulles, we are recommending an additional 30 minutes earlier than the recommended times."

CoGo sought in vain for that info on United's Web site, so Urbanski sent a handy link to the press release archive: http://www.united.com/press/detail/0,6862,53976-1,00.html . (By the way, the 30-minutes-extra advice also applies to Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and San Francisco.)

But even with the extra 30 minutes, Duffy was stressed about possibly missing his flight. Maybe that's why Bill Steiner, a customer service assistant for United, advised in a letter to CoGo that customers should get to the airport three hours before an international flight .

Which of the three recommend- ations should you follow if you're flying United? That probably depends on balancing your tolerance for hanging around with your tolerance for worrying about being left behind.

CoGo's standard advice: Check your airline's Web site for suggested arrival times, then add to that the average wait times for security lines (check http://www.tsa.gov). Add more time if weather has delayed flights prior to yours. When possible, preprint a boarding pass and check luggage with a skycap. If things look bad, use your cell phone while you wait in line to call the airline and ask about contingency plans if you don't make your flight.

It's been a couple of years since CoGo joined the throngs heading down I-95 to the beach, so it came as a shock when what should have been a three-hour trip from Washington to Virginia Beach took almost six hours on a July Saturday. After CoGo's blood pressure returned to normal, we asked AAA's Mid-Atlantic office how to avoid the 200-mile parking lot. The auto club's tips:

· Don't leave Washington Saturday mid-morning or afternoon. Traffic heading south is already backed up and pretty much stays that way till Sunday, when the whole mess repeats itself going north. And don't think you can beat the rush by leaving Friday afternoon -- traffic backs up by 2 o'clock. Better to leave very early or very late Friday, or Saturday morning by 6:30 or 7. Or wait till Sunday.

· Consider an alternate route. While I-95 to I-64 is more direct, back roads are less congested and more scenic. Route 17 east, for example, winds through the Virginia countryside all the way to Norfolk. If you're leaving from Maryland or D.C., pick it up from Route 301 south; if leaving from Virginia, take Route 66 west to 29 south to 17 east. You can also pick it up via I-95 south, outside Fredericksburg (Exit 126). Once in Norfolk or Newport News, pick up I-64 and Route 264 to Virginia Beach. Another good byway: Virginia's Route 460, which you can pick up outside Richmond. At Suffolk, get on Route 58 east to Virginia Beach.

You'll pass through lots of small towns with lower speed limits and plenty of stoplights -- but at least you won't pop a blood vessel getting there.

Heads apparently rolled after a Princess Cruise ship tilted at sea earlier this month, injuring 240 passengers. The federal investigation continues, but the line's president Alan Buckelow said last week that the "incident was due to human error, and the appropriate personnel changes have been made" . . . Gourmet coffees and meals are being added to truck-stop fare at TravelCenters of America. The new "Cafe Express" centers are in 70 of the roadside stores and will be in all 162 outlets soon.

Reporting: Cindy Loose, K.C. Summers

Help feed CoGo. Send travel news, road reports and juicy tattles to cogo@washpost.com.