With the school holidays here in Singapore and many people traveling either for work or to visit family over Christmas, the new year and Lunar new year, Here are some air travel tips to make travel, less travail, particularly over long distances.

1. Get some sleep: Use “The Kit” to help you sleep on the plane; a series of sleeping aids you buy in advance or grab when I board the plane. Include: GOOD ear plugs, an inflateable pillow to avoid neck kinks (not necessary in most business class seats with ‘wings’), eye shades, comfy slippers, lip balm, facial cream, a light zippered jacket to regulate personal body temperature, a blanket (on legs only) and pillow for low back, take pressure off the legs or to act as insulation from cold window-wall of plane.

2. The right seat is everything. I have varied my departure from Asia on a 3 week trip by as much as 3 days to get the right seat. As all airlines are different and have different configurations, you need to go to SeatGuru.com

On most airlines, ANY seat in First Class is fine. If flying business class, most transPacific airlines window seats in the nose of the plane or against the bulkhead give you more freedom to get up and out at any time but still let you lie undisturbed when you want to sleep. You also get served first for all F&B and cleared up first after the meal. On some flights, middle row bulkhead BC affords you the same advantages.

AVOID like the plague the seats next to the toilets… sheer HELL with noise and smell.

If flying KLM or other carriers where BC is upstairs, I’d suggest the bulkhead or exit aisles.

For SAA, the only suggestion is if you must fly coach, take 52 A or K… window seats and only 2 of you, plus you have raft storage on your side to act as a shelf.

3. Passport, Frequent flyer, hotel frequent guest and rental car numbers printed on one sheet of paper with 4 colour copies of your passport key pages on the other side of the page and place them hidden inside of every bag you carry. If you have even one bag left after being robbed, you can get a new passport quicker. Sending a copy to yourself on your Google account and never deleting it also gives you access to your documents from any computer in the world. Also, no need to carry all those bulky cards. If plans change and you take another airline or stay at another hotel, you have the privliges and points you deserve. If you have a camera phone, keep a copy of all these details in your phone as well.

4. Faster Immigration, move to the line (cue) next to the special row for flight crew. If there is someone at the immigration desk, when flight crew is not going through immigration, many times they wave in the next person from the closest line. This can make the line closest to the customs line move TWICE as fast as the other lines.

NEXT TIME I’ll share more travel tips.

Smile Maker: Murphy’s Laws for airline passengers

1. No flight ever leaves on time unless you are running late and need the delay to make the flight.
2. If you are running late for a flight, it will depart from the farthest gate in the terminal.
3. If you arrive very early for a flight, it inevitably will be delayed and after a long delay, possibly cancelled.
4. Flights never leave from Gate #1 at any terminal in the world.
5. If you must work on your flight, you will experience extreme turbulence as soon as you open your laptop.
6. If stuck in a middle seat, you can determine who has the aisle and the window seats next to you while you are still in the boarding area. Just look for the two largest passengers.
7. Only passengers seated in window seats ever have to get up to go to the lavatory.
8. The crying baby on board your flight is always seated next to you or in front of you on its mother’s shoulder, mouth pointed directly at you.