5 Online Tools To Guarantee A Stress-Free Flight

Whether you’re heading for Tenerife, Florida, or pretty much anywhere abroad, one of the most stressful parts of a family’s holiday is the initial panic-filled hurdle from home to airport. For that reason we’ve decided to show you a collection of online tools designed to assist the airbound traveller and make that journey as smooth as possible, from finding the cheapest flight right through to preparing yourself for the in-flight meal by reading travellers’ food reviews.

Step 1: Finding the Cheapest Flight

There are various similar websites out there which enable you to search all the major airlines at once and then instantly find the cheapest flight to a particular destination. However, the brains behind Yapta.com have decided to set their site apart from the crowd by introducing first a price tracker, and then a service which assists you in claiming refunds from the airline should the prices drop after you book through Yapta itself. Signing-up is a breeze and the website is extremely easy to use, culminating in a site which really will guarantee that you pay the cheapest price for your flight.

Visit Yapta.Com

Step 2: Making a Pre-Flight Checklist

If you’re one of the millions of people who routinely arrive at the airport and then convince yourself that you left the iron switched on and the front door unlocked, this website could be for you. After a quick registration process (essential as reminders are emailed to you at specific points running up to your departure date) you’re presented with an extremely comprehensive list of things to be done before you leave. All you need to do is click on the ones applicable and the site will then create a personalised list for you to print off. Alternatively you can choose to be emailed as and when the tasks need to be carried out. All in all, a definite stress buster.

Visit DontForgetYourToothBrush.Com

Step 3: Preparing for Flight Delays

SleepingInAirports.com is the ultimate resource for travellers who either choose to sleep in airports to save money or have no choice but to nap in the departure lounge due to delays. You can search for airports by continent and read readers’ reviews of the airport’s sleeping facilities or you can browse the Best and Worst Airports list. The site also contains a section dedicated to Airport Sleeping Tips and even photos of travellers bedding down for the night in airports across the globe.

Visit SleepingInAirports.Com

Step 4: Getting the Best Seats on the Plane

There aren’t many things more unattractive than entering a plane prior to a long flight and then discovering that your seat is immediately in front of the lavatory. You’re now guaranteed hours of dubious odours and queues of strangers hovering next to your seat. However, this can be avoided by visiting SeatExpert.com. It’s basically a database of airline seatmaps: you choose your aircraft and are then presented with an overhead map of the plane in which various seats are colour-coded depending on their level of discomfort and vicinity to the toilet. An incredibly useful website.

Visit SeatExpert.Com

Step 5: Preparing for the In-Flight Food

Thankfully the quality of in-flight food has improved drastically in the past decade, but there will always be dipping standards in various parts of the planet. In an attempt to document the world of mid-air gastronomy and warn travellers of the worst offenders, AirlineMeals.net is an enormous collection of reader-submitted reviews and photographs of airline food from pretty much all the world’s airlines. The website is currently in the middle of a redesign but everything is working as normal in the meantime.

Visit AirlineMeals.Net

This entry was posted on Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 3:24 pm and is filed under Holiday Planning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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