A Season Like No Other

The turkey and dressing might taste the same as always, but for travelers this year the holiday meal might be the only thing that’s unchanged. In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, travelers trying to visit relatives or enjoy a vacation will encounter a whole new set of challenges, both physical and psychological. Stepped-up security, reduced flight schedules and nerves on edge--9/11 anxiety worsened by last week’s plane crash (being investigated as an accident at the Travel section’s press time Tuesday) in New York--have made holiday travel particularly difficult this year.

“The traveling public may experience some inconveniences, but we must do what is prudent in order to protect our citizens and transport workers,” Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta told the National Transportation Security Summit last month. He said the public must “understand the need for patience and that patience is the new form of patriotism.”

In past years the pull toward friends and family has meant that the Sunday after Thanksgiving is the most heavily traveled day of the year for all modes of travel, followed by the day after Christmas, according to Bureau of Transportation Statistics. This year the domestic holiday picture is far more difficult to divine. AAA predicts about 6% fewer travelers overall nationwide during the upcoming Thanksgiving period. Air traffic was down 20% to 30% in October compared with last year. Yet Amtrak is adding trains to meet an expected increase in holiday demand. The American Bus Assn. says that bookings for long-haul motor coach trips over Thanksgiving are up 10% from last year. Of those who are traveling, about 87% (4% more than last year) will go by car to their Thanksgiving destinations, AAA says.

Together with the usual holiday hassles--including inclement weather, which can cause last-minute cancellations--the new realities of long lines and scares that may shut down concourses suggest that travelers may face their most formidable holiday season ever.

Matthew Roth of Los Angeles is going to travel anyway. He’ll fly to New York to celebrate Thanksgiving with daughters Teresa and Rebecca, who are students at New York University. “I was in general hunker-down mode,” he said last week. “I don’t like airplanes and airports and find flying horribly inconvenient.” But he thought he needed to rise to the occasion. “My girls are flying home at Christmas, so that got me off the fence.” To Roth, a historian for the Automobile Club of Southern California, additional security measures at airports are “just one more thing.”

Even the most experienced travelers can be caught by surprise by the changes, and infrequent travelers or those who haven’t traveled recently are apt to be taken aback by some of the new regulations. Here is a look at what travelers can expect as they board planes, trains, buses and cars this holiday season.

Airlines

The decrease in the number of people traveling by air at Thanksgiving coupled with the cutback in airline schedules--as much as 20% in some cases--makes it hard to predict how crowded airports will be this holiday season.

What is clear is that safety concerns have transformed air travel and altered the lives of travelers who now must accommodate those changes.

The extra scrutiny and reductions in airline staffing (by as much as 80,300 workers, according to the Air Transport Assn.) have produced longer lines at check-in counters, security checkpoints and gates. “This year we might see front-end delays caused by what happens at airport check-in, as opposed to back-end delays caused by traffic and ground holds,” says Michael Taylor, director of Travel Services for J.D. Power and Associates, which provides surveys and marketing information to the travel industry.

Airline officials are urging passengers to arrive at the airport two hours early for domestic flights and three for international, although that varies from airport to airport and airline to airline. Some carriers are figuring out ways to process passengers more quickly. Northwest Airlines allows Internet and kiosk check-in and advises passengers to get to the airport 90 minutes ahead for domestic flights. JetBlue, which has three flights a day from Long Beach to JFK, tells passengers that an hour is sufficient. Southwest updates its phone agents and Internet site throughout the day on how much time passengers should allow for check-in at various airports; it may be two hours ahead at LAX and one hour ahead in Lubbock, Texas.

Find out from your airline whether Internet and kiosk check-in are available at your departure airport. (Checking in at a kiosk generally requires just a credit card and record locator number.) Also ask about curbside check-in, which airlines have reinstated at most--but not all--airports. If you can check your bags at the curb or plan to fly with only carry-ons, you may not have to stand in line at airline check-in counters.

At checkpoints, sensitivity levels of metal detectors have been turned up. Passengers generally are required to show government-issued identification (such as a state driver’s license) at check-in counters, security checkpoints and gates. They must have paper tickets or printed confirmation of electronic tickets to be admitted into the concourse area, ending the long goodbye now that non-ticketed passengers generally are not allowed past checkpoints. Carry-ons are strictly limited to one bag and one personal item (such as a purse or briefcase) per passenger, and the FAA has cracked down on what may be carried on, banning, among other things, metal nail files and corkscrews. (See story on Page L13.)

Security may even open wrapped holiday packages. “This year, you’re going to have your pumpkin pie X-rayed,” says Jack Evans, a spokesman for Alaska Airlines.

The new prohibitions are being enforced rigorously. Recently a woman was stopped at security because she had a pair of small, blunt-tipped scissors in her purse, a memento from her years as a grade school teacher. But screeners don’t catch everything--as a Nov. 3 incident horrifically pointed out when a man carrying seven knives and a stun gun got through security at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. Nevertheless, passengers need to be aware of the rules to avoid slowing down themselves or others.

“Every breach of security, no matter how trifling it may appear to be, will be handled as if it’s serious, meaning we close terminals and recheck everybody,” says Jerry Snyder, an FAA spokesman in L.A.

Unattended baggage also creates huge problems, says LAX spokeswoman Nancy Castles. “A lot of people just forget a camera bag or briefcase,” she said. “But if ownership can’t be resolved quickly, the bag ... goes from being unattended to suspicious. And pretty soon we have yellow tape all around it.”

Amtrak

Thanksgiving week is Amtrak’s busiest travel period. The company estimates that 580,000 people took the train at Thanksgiving last year, a 35% increase from a typical week.

Ross Capon, executive director of the National Assn. of Railroad Passengers, says that traffic on long-distance trains increases even more at Christmas. “But on shorter runs, the train will be a lot more popular than a year ago,” Capon says.

As usual over the Thanksgiving holiday, Amtrak will add trains and cars on busy routes, like those of the Pacific Surfliner, between Seattle and L.A.-San Diego, and the Coast Starlight, between San Luis Obispo and L.A.-San Diego. It also is seeking $3 billion from Congress to beef up security and capacity systemwide. But as it stands now, no new federally mandated security measures have been instituted.

Amtrak has, however, made several changes aimed at tightening security, including hiring more security personnel, in uniform and plainclothes, to monitor stations and trains. Baggage and passengers are not screened, but a state-issued photo driver’s license (or, for non-drivers, a state-issued ID with a photo or physical descriptions of the bearer), passport, government-issued employee ID or school ID is now required to buy tickets and check luggage.

The result may be longer lines at counters, so travelers are advised to buy round-trip tickets in advance or get to the train station well before departure. Passengers must have a reservation to travel on a train in the Northeast corridor this year; on-board ticketing on that heavily traveled route is not available, says Vernae Graham, an Amtrak spokeswoman.

Buses

Greyhound Lines Inc. has seen a 20% increase in advance purchase tickets, with long-haul bus trips picking up especially, says Michele Janis, a spokeswoman for the American Bus Assn. Moreover, the holidays are peak bus travel times; ridership reached 800,000 during Thanksgiving week last year (twice that of an average week). In general, more people travel by bus than by plane, but buses are capacity flexible, meaning that more are put in service when one fills, says Lynn Brown, a spokeswoman for Greyhound.

Partly in response to a handful of attempted bus hijacking incidents unrelated to international terrorism since Sept. 11 (one of which resulted in the death of seven people on Oct. 3 in Manchester, Tenn., and the temporary shutdown of Greyhound service nationwide), the bus company has instituted new security procedures.

Passengers on randomly selected buses will be screened by a hand-held metal-detecting wand. Front-row seats on buses will be left empty to create a buffer zone between the driver and passengers. And travelers must stay with their checked bags until their luggage is loaded on the bus.

Cars

The good news for car travelers this year: Gasoline prices are down (in California the average cost of a gallon of regular, unleaded, self-service gas is $1.32, compared with $1.71 a year ago), and good deals on car rentals are available. AAA says the average daily car rental rate has declined 19% for the Thanksgiving period, with the biggest decreases reported in Washington, D.C., Boston and Chicago.

Jerry Cheske, a spokesman for AAA, expects car traffic to be highest the Sunday after Thanksgiving. He advises those who want to minimize time spent in traffic snarls to leave very early or very late on Sunday, avoid malls on the busy shopping days right after the holiday and stay away from city centers, where special events are often held on Thanksgiving Day.

Besides home, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon and Disneyland are expected to be the top three Thanksgiving destinations for Southern Californians, says Carol Thorp, a spokeswoman for the Automobile Club of Southern California.

Apart from border crossings (see story on Page L17), AAA anticipates no special trouble spots in California.

Traffic is flowing freely on bridges, says Anne Da Vigo, a spokeswoman for the California Highway Patrol, despite uncorroborated terrorist threats to the Golden Gate Bridge, Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro and others reported by Gov. Gray Davis in early November. Travelers are strongly urged to call the California Department of Transportation Highway Information Network, a hotline supplying updates on conditions along specific routes.

Maybe now more than ever, driving advice from the California Highway Patrol applies: Get an early start, designate a nondrinking driver, watch your speed, take breaks and, of course, buckle up.

How to Go the Distance

Here’s what you need to know to travel this holiday season:

If you don’t know for sure, ask the airline. When making a reservation by phone, ask for guidelines about how early to get to the airport, baggage limitations and whether a meal will be served on your flight. On the Internet, seek the airline’s tips for holiday-season flying, usually found on the home page.

Be sure to have proper identification. The FAA requires that passengers show a government-issued photo identification (federal, state or local) at airline check-in points; O’Hare International Airport in Chicago is requiring two government-issued IDs. If a photo ID is not available, two non-photo forms of ID may be acceptable if one is government, but check with airports or airlines to be sure. Non-U.S. citizens and resident aliens should check with U.S. Customs about what forms of ID will be required.

If you have an e-ticket, take a printed confirmation. Or take a passenger record locater number.

Keep documents together. You’ll need tickets, boarding passes and ID readily at hand because they will be required at checkpoints and airline gates. Agents will make sure that the name on the ticket matches the name on the ID.

Allow sufficient time. Factor in crowds that may slow down the process of checking in, getting a boarding pass, going through security and finding your gate. The industry standard is two hours before a domestic flight and three hours before an international flight, but conditions vary among airports and airlines. Call the airline for guidance.

Ask about curbside check-in. It has been reinstated at most but not all airports. (Curbside baggage check is now available again at LAX, except at the international terminal.) If you can check your bags at the curb or plan to fly with only carry-ons, you should not have to stand in line at airline check-in counters.

Keep baggage close at hand. Report unattended bags to authorities.

Take only one carry-on and a personal item. These must be X-rayed at security checkpoints. The FAA advises travelers not to wear items made of metal. Electronic devices such as laptops and cell phones will be checked more carefully; in most cases passengers will need to take a laptop out of the case, pass the case through the X-ray machine and hand over the computer for further scrutiny.

Be prepared to be searched. The FAA is conducting more random searches at airports since Sept. 11, chiefly using hand-held metal-detecting wands.

Understand the realities of airport pickup and drop-off. Call ahead if you’re uncertain. At LAX you must park in a parking structure in the airport area to let passengers off. Only commercial vehicles, such as taxis, may drop off passengers at the curb.

Check with the airline about procedures for unaccompanied minors. Rules have tightened in many cases since Sept. 11.

Check the status of the flight shortly before leaving for the airport. Call the airline or check its Web site.