Time and money-saving tips at Sea-Tac Airport this holiday

by JIM FORMAN / KING 5 News Bio | Email | Follow: @Jimformanking5 KING5.comPosted on November 16, 2010 at 10:30 PMUpdated Wednesday, Nov 17 at 1:19 PMSEATAC, Wash. -- The holiday season is approaching. Even if you are not traveling this year odds are you will make a trip to the airport to pick-up or drop off a loved one and there is plenty you need to know.The busiest time for drop off at Sea-Tac is the morning. Big backups can occur when everyone is trying to drop off at the same time. A great tip is to use the baggage claim drive to drop people off. In the afternoon and evening when the arrivals drive starts to stack up, think about picking up your passengers on the departure drive.If you decide to not check-in online at home and you are only traveling with a carry on, you do not have wait in line at your airline counter to check-in. Throughout Sea-Tac, there are machines to help you quickly check-in with most of the major airlines.Big changes at security checkpoints means lines will be longer. The new full body scanners are at Sea-Tac now, and the Transportation Security Administration says everything must come out of your pockets, and they mean everything. If you neglect to discard something from your pockets the item will be detected by the full body scanners and signal a red flag. If you are red-flagged, you will receive an 'aggressive' full body pat down.An easy way to shorten your wait is to look for the checkpoint with the shortest line. Every checkpoint accessible to any gate and traditionally the north checkpoint is the busiest, so try the central or south screening lanes. A short walk might save you a lot of time waiting.If you are planning on meeting someone arriving at Sea-Tac, you can park for free and wait for them in the cell phone parking lot. More spots have been added to the lot, but they fill up fast and there is a 30 minute time limit for waiting. Chances are the time limit will be strictly enforced soon at Sea-Tac, which is a growing trend at other airports.If you think you will be waiting longer than the cell phone lot time limit try the terminal direct parking. Normally the cost is $4 an hour but when you print out this coupon from the airport's website you can get half off parking for $3 an hour. If you purchase the coupon at Seattle's Best Coffee behind the�Delta ticketing counter, you can get one free cup of coffee with your coupon purchase.Many�travelers have horror stories of wildly expensive food in airports. At Sea-Tac, the�Port of Seattle requires what is called ?street pricing?. This means the prices at the airport have to be comparable to what you would pay at the local mall, and the�Port is constantly checking to make sure the prices are on par.These are just a few useful tips to help you survive the Thanksgiving holiday, when�80,000 to�90,000�people are expected to pass through Sea-Tac Airport each day.� Share this article: Print

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