Avoid 12 Airport Mistakes When You Travel in 2026

In 2026, I made a huge airport travel mistake and passengers keep making the same mistakes. So I'm gonna go over some past tips and tricks to help you avoid disastrous airport mistakes when you travel in your 2026. Number one is arriving late. I arrived, I did not look at the boarding time this year for my flight and I was running. That should never happen to me. Here is why this mistake can be disastrous for you. Number one, you're stressed. Number two, you are in a hurry. And when we are in a hurry, we forget things, we lose things, important vacation travel essentials like your identification, your phone. We are so distracted because we arrived late to the airport and therefore maybe we did not take a picture of the parking deck area column for the return flight home. Airport mistake number two is one of the ones I was talking about that I made. When you arrive and when you exit an airport in another country or in your home city airport, there are thieves that could be there. Airports have a safer zone. You all probably heard not to throw away your luggage tag into the trash can for safety reasons. I don't think that's that big of a safety deal, but it's one of the ones that passengers have made. So learn from us. Before you get to airport security, I'm thinking especially in a foreign country, I am so focused on where do I go? What do I do? That I'm holding my phone loosely and your phone can give a thief lots of money. So that is where people can steal your phone and then after airport security, this is another zone that is anti, this is another zone where passengers make mistakes. You are zoned in on where is your Uber car, for instance, and thieves could be walking through that part of the airport that is open to the public. It's just like your home airport before airport security. So just do two things. Number one, have your phone or your valuables in an easily accessible pocket that's closed or hidden. Number two, if you cannot do that, just hold your phone close to your person, okay? Here's the mistake that I made back in January of 2026. I was with my friend, Elvie. We were going to a cruise ship via Uber. And we all know for women, especially female travelers, do not get into an Uber car unless the license plate matches with your Uber app. Well, it didn't match with Elvie's Uber app. I just stood there with my mouth open. We could have been kidnapped. But seriously, what would you have told your daughter, okay? So she said, oh, your license plate does not match. And he goes, oh no, that's okay, I have two cars. I have two cars. And he was inching toward her to look at her app. And he said, let me see what your app says. She goes, oh no, sir, excuse me. The license plates do not match. And then he was like, oh, it's just, it's because I've got two cars. Well, now we know from our viewers like you, my viewers on Instagram, that there is a code that you can request on Uber. If the license plates do not match, you can use that code that he would tell you or she would tell you, and it would match. So we said, she said, I'm sorry, we're going to wait and get another driver. He threw up his arms, but that was safe. In an effort to be smart, several of my viewers have made this third airport mistake. And that is wearing a hidden money belt or this one that I have shared several times because it holds two passports. They think they're being smart in the airport, but it cannot be worn when you go through airport security. You may have heard the airport security officer saying, nothing inside your pockets, even Kleenexes. Sometimes that depends on the technology age in your airport security, or in the one that you're going to be going through on the return flight. And here's a travel hack. One thing that you can do to protect your valuables, use one of your personal item bags for your valuables. And here's what I mean. Once you show your identification picture on a passport or your driver's license and your phone, whatever has the barcode on it for your ticket, you're going to immediately hide those in an inside pocket that also zips in either personal item bag type that you travel with. I don't know if you heard this story, but in Miami, they had on video a TSA security officer who was stealing valuables out of a person's bag. So we want to slow them down or make them think, oh, there's nothing valuable here that's easily accessible. So they're going to go on to the next unknowing passenger. The number four mistake is underestimating the lines in airport security. First of all, holidays. Holidays are completely crowded now in airports, which means there are longer lines, but it also means this travel tip. There are going to be infrequent travelers who do not watch my videos, who do not know how to be ready to go through the security line. So they're going to be slowing down the lines or they did not pack their liquids correctly, which means they're going to be pulled out of line to be hand-screened or wanded. And that's going to slow down the lines, which means you are going to get to your flight late and it might not even be your fault. Number two, there are so many people now who are assuming their airport is going to say, oh, don't take anything out of your bags. And so they're going to pack their liquids in different spots, or they're going to pack a larger container, or number three, they're going to pack something that is really a liquid that they did not know was a liquid. And here's your travel tip. It's an easy way to avoid this mistake. You are going to assume and know that, in fact, the liquids rule still stands and your liquids have to be packed in a clear quart-sized bag even if someone in the comment section says that they do that all the time and they never get stopped. It does not mean it happens at your airport or in that country or in that state, all right? The rule still stands because safety is their number one priority. Just think of all the things you could do in that 20 minutes while you're standing in line in the airport, like getting coffee, going to the restroom, getting a snack, or getting in line for your flight that has already started boarding before you got there. The DHS, or Department of Homeland Security, has on its website that that site is not managed right now. In February, they stopped global entry usage. They did stop pre-check. Now they've reinstated it that they will have staffing for that. But I can tell you from experience, they reconfigured our pre-check line and for some reason we got in with other people and boy, passengers were fuming because probably they're not used to it and the lines were different. So expect the lines to be longer, especially if something like that happens, especially in the summer, especially near holidays. The lines are gonna be longer because they're not increasing the staffing usually. Or they're, for government shutdown, they're having to reconfigure the staffing. The number five mistake that airline passengers are still making, even myself, is we pack too much. The common mistake is to pack an outfit for every single day or every single adventure or excursion for your trip without being versatile. If you follow my travel tips for packing in a carry-on luggage only, which is what I have had to do, so learn from my mistakes. You're going to pack travel outfits that are versatile, but you're also going to only pack two pairs of shoes and you're going to make all of those outfits go with those shoes, plus your airport outfit shoes that you have as well. The number six mistake is wearing your third bag at the gate, trying to get past the gate agent to the jet bridge that gets you into the airplane. We know that airlines have gotten stricter with that, so here is a travel hack for you for 2026. When you get to your gate, you are going to help gravity do its magic. After shaking it three times down, can open your suitcase, and you'll now have a little bit of space at the top of your luggage. What you're gonna do is you're going to take out your liquids bag or take out a pouch, if you have pre-checked, some kind of a pouch, and put it in that top space. Now, because of that one move, you now have space for your third cross-body bag purse. The number seven mistake is saying goodbye for way too long. I have been behind two different couples this past year where they have just been kissing, and they're kissing their grandmother, hugging their grandmother goodbye forever and ever and ever. And there are all these people who are trying to get to the airport on time who you're just slowing down the whole traffic line. Travel mistake number eight is ignoring check-in procedures. You're going to check in online or in the app, and that's going to save you so much time. You will know ahead of time, before you leave to go to the airport, which terminal your airplane is leaving out of. So many airports since 2020 have made a new concourse or a new way through their airport, and there might be a faster way. There are so many good tips that you learn also from your airlines app, but your airport app also will give you a map and tell you where to get dropped off as well. You can also book or reserve parking through your airport app as well. The number nine mistake is, maybe it's the older generation, no offense, is you're trying to save money by lugging around a suitcase that is way too heavy and not manageable for you, which causes stress, and so you do not check it. I am all for traveling with only carry-on luggage because I am in more control of my bag, but we've also had to pack in carry-on suitcases when we flew standby all the time, and that way we would have to wait and see if they have room for us, and then they'd say, no, if we had checked our bag and it was in the belly of the airplane, we would make the airlines very angry if they would have to go retrieve our bag from the belly of the airplane. So we've always packed in carry-on luggage, but if you're just trying to save a buck, you might be missing the important travel tip, and that is so many airlines, so many credit card companies, they give you a free checked bag allowance just if it would help you be less stressed in the airport. Yes, they could lose your bag, but since 2022, the airline had new lost luggage tracking systems that they've installed since that fiasco a few Christmases ago. Here's a travel hack. If you are worried about losing your luggage, if you wanna check a bag, inside your personal item bag, you're going to pack a tiny compression cube. I get like six in my set. They use two zippers, no vacuum cleaner. In that, you're going to put your one shirt, two pairs of undies, and socks, and compress it so that it's like a thin book, and you're gonna put that in the very base of your personal item bag so that if your luggage is lost, then you will be okay. We all know that airlines are making airplanes with larger bins, and you now do not put them in the overhead bin like that. You stack them vertically or like on its side, but here's the caveat to that. Some of the airplanes are not larger, so they are having to check bags last minute because they've run out of space in the overhead bins. Here's where the travel tip comes in. You are going to keep all essential medicine that you must take, or any power banks, or phone chargers in your personal item bag, be it the tote bag or the backpack. The power banks and phone chargers, those have a battery in them that can catch on fire just by sitting somewhere, so you do not want those in the belly of the airplane if they don't have room for your overhead bin, in the overhead bins for your carry-on luggage. So that's why you need to have that and your medicine in your personal item bag, always, any flight. The next travel mistake is booking a connection flight or a stopover in another airport that is less than an hour, and then you miss your flight. You totally miss that flight. This happened to me when I flew on United Airlines. I bought a ticket. I was looking for the ticket to Vermont, and they had me connecting with less than 50 minutes to connect to another airplane that was going to get me to Vermont, and that is almost impossible for domestic travel. If you're flying, do not book a flight where you only have 50 minutes to get to that next airplane, and here are the reasons why. Number one, it takes at least 10 minutes to get off of an airplane if you are behind the wing in that airplane, and add in five passengers who take forever, who are not being respectful of other people trying to get off the airplane, it can take 20 minutes just to get off of the airplane. Number two, you are now having to change terminals to get to that other airplane, which means you might have to take a tram or the little whatever people mover thing to get to that concourse, so that would delay you even more. Number three, an important travel tip, the airplanes are larger, longer, hold more people, and so they are boarding 45 minutes. That means you have to get in the airplane 45 minutes before your departure time, and they also close the doors like 20 minutes prior to the flight so that the flight attendants can finish getting everything ready that they need to, and so the gate agents shut the door, and that means they will not open it back up, so you have missed that connecting flight. Another mistake that I have seen passengers still making in airports is that they are not packing things in the pockets that your personal item gives you. You can pack three things in this one pocket right here. Number one, a pair of socks. Number two, an empty bottle for water. Number three, a gallon bag with a pair of flip-flops that you're going to change into when you land. It's a way of maximizing space, so you can leave that pouch at home if that item matches the shape, and you want to look inside your personal item bag at the pocket shapes. What shape item do I have that would fit this pocket? What about this pocket? What about the inside pocket, okay? You're thinking in shapes, if that makes sense. Another mistake that I have seen in 2026 is passengers not telling airport security officers that they have liquid medication. In the Transportation Security Administration's website, they specifically, they explicitly state that you must tell officers if you are traveling with liquid medication. That is prescription. If it is medical, they will not make you throw it away, okay? But they have to know that it's in there, and it's gonna save them time. You just tell the officers. Here's what I did. I said, hey, I have some vials of medication. Do you need to see them? In Houston, they said, no, it's fine. But in Hawaii, they wanted me to pull them out just so it can be screened more efficiently, more effectively with that age of their machine in that city by itself, not inside with all of your baggage-type travel essentials. And the great part is that in 2026, you do not have to pack liquid medication in your liquids bag, but you do have to tell them you have it. If you're just now watching this video, be sure to list in the comments mistakes that you see that could easily be prevented before our community's vacation even starts, and we'll relieve each other's stress zone. All right, hope those help. Leave me a comment below and say, hey, if we've never met before. Thanks for your time.