Tunes - Tuneflow

Like it or not, customer service representatives don't exist to act as your personal grievance sounding board—they're there to resolve problems customers encounter. Speak their language and make action-based requests to get better service.Photo by Seattle Municipal Archive.

If you like to travel light but have a well stocked toiletries bag upon arriving at your destination, Suite Arrival makes it easy to ship your bathroom favorites ahead.

Searching for the best price for a plane ticket is a never-ending struggle, but reader jeff.niblett writes in with a potentially money-saving tip that even frequent fliers may not be aware of: Book longer trips with layovers in your actual destination city.Photo by Andrei Dimofte.

Avoid the hassle of lugging your bags to the airport, getting slapped with over-limit fees, and fighting with the airlines to be reimbursed in the case of loss or theft by shipping your bags ahead.Photo by cliff1066.

If you don't like your bags being out of your sight and it makes you uncomfortable to think that airline workers are rifling through your stuff, you can take advantage of the TSA's own security rules by—eek—packing a gun. Photo by Vince Alongi.

If you're on a decently long flight and want to connect to the net, there are more options than ever this year. If you're not flying Virgin America, however, they're not free. Unless you have these coupon codes, that is.

Nobody wants to get hit with a massive over-limit luggage charge when they're already stressed and rushing to catch their flight. Hit up Luggage Limits before you travel to avoid any check-in counter surprises. We don't know if you've visited the web site of a major airline lately and attempted to decode their baggage policies but a significant number of the airlines have baggage policies that are not only buried deeply in their sites but written in a less than clear fashion.

Leaving on a jet plane for the long holiday weekend? The Wall Street Journal suggests a few tips to overcome the stress of delayed flights, including a suggestion to cool your heels in the first class lounge. Photo by joiseyshowaa.

Enticed by Google's free airport Wi-Fi to lug along a laptop this holiday season? PC World reminds us that taking a few precautions in how you connect is a very wise move. Photo by Mr.Thomas.

Delayed flights and hold-overs won't tempt you with $10-a-day Wi-Fi this holiday season. That's because Google has bought out web service at 47 airports through Jan. 15, 2010, and offers it free, assuming you don't mind a little soft advertising.