I fly from Chicago to New York City quite a bit.  I always have, or at least, I always have since I made my home in New York after college.  And, truth be told, it makes me a little uncomfortable to think of how many hours of my life I’ve wasted twiddling my thumbs in the LaGuardia airport, delayed by weather. 

Last week, a few buckets of rain in New York resulted in spending more than five hours in the American Airlines terminal (yes, that’s the one with no food).  My Blackberry was out of juice (see tip 2) and so I had the opportunity to do quite a bit of people-watching.  Hundreds of hapless business travelers, red with frustration, were on their cell phones yelling to their assistants or significant others or children or whoever.  There were probably about a dozen heart attacks in the making in that airport. 

I’ve done this enough times to have some suggestions regarding business travel through the onerous air traffic hubs that are New York LaGuardia and Chicago O’Hare, and while I was stuck recently I decided to write them down for WCW.  They are:

• Surrender to a higher power:  Global warming has made the U.S. one of the most volatile countries in the world weather-wise, and if the planes aren’t flying, they aren’t flying.  There isn’t anything you can do about this, so instead of railing against God or the system or whatever, tell yourself that the situation is what it is and look for ways to make the best of it.   

• Get all your work done for the next week: In anticipation of something like this happening, do not pack your power cords in your luggage.  Keep them with you, and when faced with a delay of several hours, plug in and proceed to complete all the work-related tasks you’ve been procrastinating on, or haven’t finished because you’ve gotten distracted by the pull of Halo 3.

• Ring all the people you owe phone calls:  I’m not a huge phone person, and when I’m at home, sometimes I’d rather do anything else.  And at home, there are lots of options.  At the airport, not so much.  Getting stuck is the perfect opportunity to scroll down your contact list and touch base with folks you haven’t connected with in a while.

• Forget about standby and go get a beer: If the weather is bad and all the flights are delayed, you can bet that everyone has the same idea to try to get on the first plane to leave the terminal.  Unless you are a really, really, preferred member of the airline in question, your chances of getting one of the prized empty seats are slim to none.  Leave the hand-wringing to the 100 people ahead of you on the list waiting for their names to be called.

• Give into a guilty pleasure:  Personally, I can’t bring myself to purchase a People Magazine or US Weekly unless I’m feeling incredibly sorry for myself.  But once I find an excuse, reading those scintillating pages indeed makes time fly.  Think about an activity you’d normally feel guilty about doing during work hours, and engage with abandon.

• Cut your losses and leave:  Is it worth it to toss and turn in the airport all night, or should you just go back to your place of business and expense an extra day in the hotel?  Unless you have a pressing reason to get home as fast as possible, it’s often easier and much less stressful to get a good night’s sleep in anticipation of clearer skies.