[17:46]  Yes, getting wheelchair assistance can help you get through the line faster, but there are things that TSA Pre✓ will do for you that just having that wheelchair assistance won’t do for you and here are some of those:

1. You don’t have to take your shoes off.
2. You don’t have to take your belt off.
3. You don’t have to take off your jacket unless it’s a big, heavy, bulky winter jacket. If you’re wearing a normal blazer or that type of a jacket — jean jacket, that kind of a thing — you don’t have to take that off.
4. You don’t have to take your computer out of your bag. You don’t have to take your liquids out of the bag. You don’t have to take your CPAP machine out of the bag. You don’t have to take your tablet out of the bag. All of those things. You just put your bag on the belt, and it goes through the scanner. You walk through the scanner. That’s it. It’s so simple. Of course, you have to make you don’t have a lot of metal on because you don’t want to set off the metal detector.  But other than that, this is what the TSA Pre✓ will save you.

[18:53]  The last trip I was on, when I was coming home from Minneapolis, it was literally about eight minutes — I’m not exaggerating one way or the other, truly it was about eight minutes — from the time I got out of my friend’s car to the time I was at my gate. Minneapolis is now my favorite airport, because of how simple it was. Some airports are bigger than that. Seattle — it’s never going to be eight minutes because it will take me longer than that to just get to the gate. 

But [TSA Pre✓] saves so much time going through security. It saves so much time physically, in juggling all of your bags, putting things in and out, and getting them through the scanner. The TSA Pre✓ is worth every penny, and then some, even if you only go on one trip.

[19:40]  Here are a couple of other tips with TSA Pre✓:

1. First of all, if you have an American Express card, some of them will actually reimburse you for TSA Pre✓ or Global Entry, making it free for you. There’s really no reason to do it.
2. You have to plan this enough in advance, because of the whole point in being able to go through security without them looking at you quite so closely, is that they’ve done all of the background checks on you in advance. You’ve got to be able to have that TSA Pre✓ appointment. They get your fingerprints early. All of that kind of that stuff has to happen several months in advance, so you can get your Known Traveler Number and be able to put that on your reservation and be able to go through the TSA Pre✓ line. Plan that in advance. But, honestly, every single fibro person who travels on an airplane should have TSA Pre✓. It’s just a no brainer to me.

[20:44]  You can also choose to sometimes pay a small fee to board the airline early or be in larger, bigger seats where there’s more leg room. All of those things you can plan in advance when you are picking your seats.

Sometimes you can also do things like airport lounges. If you have a long layover somewhere, or if you have to, for whatever reason, get to the airport early, you can pay a fee to be part of the airline member lounge. It’s quiet. They feed you snacks. There are nice bathrooms. There are comfortable chairs. There are places where you can charge your electronic devices. You can get individual, one-day passes or year-long passes, depending on how much you travel.

[21:43]  I don’t often use the lounges, simply because I am taking direct flights, and don’t really have a lot of time where I’m just sitting around and waiting at the airport. If you do, that can be a huge help. When Scott and I were moving him and his kitties from Florida to Oregon when we got married, we bought the day pass in the American lounge, because we had his cats, and we had a 3-4 hour layover. We wanted a quiet place for the cats — and for us — so we weren’t stressing them out to much. We paid for the day pass so we could sit in a quiet place with the kitties and have it be calm.

[22:28]  As you’re doing your planning ahead, if you are booking hotel rooms, you can do things like ask for them to have a refrigerator in your room, if that is not already a part of your room. You can actually ask for that for medical purposes, especially if you have medication that needs to be refrigerated or if you need to use ice packs. Granted, those tiny little refrigerators, they don’t have awesome freezer sections, but it’s better than nothing. And you can actually request that for medical purposes. Sometimes there’s a charge for that; sometimes there’s not.

[23:03]  Then, plan to use the facilities that can help your body feel better. Use the hot tub and the pool. Use the bathtub with your Epsom salts. Even if you’re soaking your feet, it’s better than nothing. One of the things I used to do all the time — this was before fibromyalgia, in my old life, when I worked for the software company and we would work at trade shows — I would go and sit outside and put my feet in the hot tub for a few minutes, and then I would go over and I would put my feet in the pool for a few minutes. I would alternate back and forth, which really helps to increase circulation, which helps get the swelling down. It really helps your feet feel so much better. Doing some of that kind of stuff can be super helpful.

[23:53]  Also look for things, like what kind of amenities does the hotel have? Sometimes, when you have something like fibromyalgia and maybe not making a lot of income, and you are on a budget, it can be really, really tempting to go for someplace cheap. But I have learned that quite often there’s a direct correlation between how comfortable the beds are and how much the hotel costs. There is nothing that will put me in a flare faster than a bad bed!

[24:26]  In fact, the last time I had to take pain medication was because Scott and I were on a trip, in a hotel, and they had a bad bed. It actually put me in pain the next day. That was at the beginning of this year, over New Year’s. I actually had to take pain medication, and it was 100% because the bed was bad. I haven’t had to take it since.

Make sure that you spend a little bit of extra money on the hotel and maybe save money somewhere else because that’s not the place to try to save money.