Do not make these 10 airport mistakes when you travel in 2025.

Airline passengers are making disastrous mistakes in airports that can ruin a vacation. 

You will learn 10 travel tips and tricks to avoid these recurring mistakes airline passengers make when in an airport. I have made some of these bad mistakes this past year too.

In 2025 you will have less stress because you stressed less in airports, airport security, arriving at the airport and getting into your airplane.

10 Secret Airport Travel Mistakes that Will Shock You!

1. Arriving late cause you to be: stress and hurried. You could lose ID in the TSA line, and since you are distracted because in a hurry, maybe you forgot to take a picture of your parking deck area, which could be disastrous on your return flight.

2. Walking with phone held loosely makes you a prime target for theft; it is the easiest item for pickpocket thieves to steal and make big money from

3. Wearing a hidden money belt through airport security is smart to protect your valuables when traveling. But anything extra that is on you besides clothes could mean they want extra screening which could delay you. 

This is a travel tip that many of you like: inside your backpack or a tote bag, you immediately hide your ID or phone or passport or wallet in its inner zipped pocket.

Some passenger or greedy TSA officer may try to steal those items. When you have it concealed in the carryon bag’s inner zipper, it will slow them down so that they will move on to steal from another passenger.

4. Don’t underestimate the lines!

  • Holidays are when infrequent passengers are going through airport security.
  • So many passengers were in line waiting for additional screening on their personal item or carry-on luggage. It is true that most airports do not require you to pull out your liquids bag, but the travel tip is that safety is their top priority.

Several of my viewers said that it took 20 minutes.

What could you do in 20 minutes once you get through the TSA line? Coffee, restrooms, check the gate for your flight again.

5. Packing too much. Try to fit an outfit for every single day with pairs of shoes for each outfit.

I have a video to help you pack just enough.

Tip: pack only 2 pairs of shoes and make every travel outfit be versatile with those sneakers plus the airplane outfit shoes.

6. Laced shoes holds up the line.

Travel Hack: loosen laces

7. Saying goodbye for too long outside. Just please be respectful of others who are trying to get their family dropped off in time.

8. Ignoring check-in procedures. Check-in online or in the app to save so much time!

Tip: Airlines now have a few employees moving about in the line if you have a specific question.

9. Lugging around a suitcase because you refuse to check it so that you save money. So many credit cards and loyalty programs for airlines offer one free checked bag.

Tip: Airlines have smoothed out their misplaced luggage fiascos that happened a few Christmases ago.

Travel Hack: pack shirt, undies and socks in compression cube in case gets lost and keep it in your personal item bag.

The caveat to this is that there may not be enough room for your carryon luggage in overhead bins.

Tip: Keep essential medicine and phone chargers in your personal item bag. Power bank chargers can catch on fire so those are not allowed in the belly of the airplane.

10. Booking a connection flight or stopover that is less than an hour and you miss your flight (I will talk about travel insurance in a bit). Some airports are huge. Airplanes are huge.

The travel tip I learned when United showed me a 50 min connection to get to Vermont:

  • It takes at least 10 minutes to get off the airplane if you are behind the wing.
  • Then you have to change terminals to find the next flight.
  • That flight you are running to started boarding 45 minutes before your next departure so your bag will be checked last minute. Or worse, you could miss your flight.

Travel Tip: We used travel insurance and it was so hard to understand. Thankfully we never needed it for our river cruise.

Travel Insurance

There are 2 types of travel insurance I like to have:

1. Insurance for canceled flights

2. Insurance for Medical emergencies, especially unexpected physical injuries while on vacation abroad.

They also let you choose a plan so you have a say in the matter for your next trip and the next. And if you have preexisting issues, you can find plans for that too.

If packing for 2 seasonal temperatures both hot and cold, watch this video with tips and tricks to help you pack in only carryon bags.