TSA Administrator John Pistole was busy making the rounds during Thanksgiving week, trying to assure holiday air travelers that their screening experience would be better than last year.
THANKSGIVING
Today is, by some estimates, the busiest air travel day of the year. Here’s what to expect if you’re flying. No significant delays have been reported yet, although there are a few potential challenges that you should know about.
The TSA body-scan/pat-down crisis isn’t over — yet.
Flying somewhere this Thanksgiving? You might want to read this first.
Booking a flight online may be convenient, but it’s far from problem-free. Just ask Charles Bornheim, whose son is holding an extra airline ticket he booked through Orbitz.
Here’s a heart-warming story for the Thanksgiving holiday: James Thomson and a longtime friend, who is suffering from terminal cancer, ran into trouble with their flights from San Francisco to Bali. One leg of Thompson’s flight was canceled, which threatened to end his friend’s final vacation.
Thanksgiving evokes memories of cold weather and warm Turkey dinner, but here in Florida it’s a great time to go to the beach.
Take your car in for a tuneup. Give yourself extra time if you’re flying. Oh, and it’s going to be one for the record books.
After a sharp drop last year, more Americans are expected to travel for the 2009 Thanksgiving holiday, although travel by air will decline. That’s how the play-it-straight AP played the just-released AAA Thanksgiving forecast.
Debbie Gitlan’s Thanksgiving flights, which she booked last March on Spirit Airlines, kept getting rescheduled to the point where she couldn’t take the trip anymore.
You can’t talk about the worst holiday travel experiences without mentioning the movie “Planes, Trains & Automobiles.” The 1987 comedy, starring Steve Martin and John Candy, is about one frazzled business traveler’s struggle to get home in time for Thanksgiving. It’s a textbook holiday travel nightmare.
Here’s a holiday travel forecast you probably won’t read anywhere else: look for lower prices on everything from air fares to hotel room rates, smaller crowds and a more pleasant overall experience. Am I nuts? Well, no.
Elliott is consumer advocate 
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