| Holiday travel is upon us, and if you’re going on a plane—good luck. But we have something better than luck: a full guide to making the most of crowded planes and overpriced airport turkey wraps. Plus: Unscrupulous academic journals are proliferating at an alarming rate. If this email was forwarded to you, click here to sign up. With weather delays, tech outages, seatmates who won’t share the armrest, fees for things you used to get for free—it’s easy to never want to step into an airport again. To help you survive flying this season, Bloomberg Businessweek scoured every part of the air travel experience to assemble 32 rules for how to fly now. They range from the best apps to help you take advantage of points (Rule 26) to why you shouldn’t fear the airport hotel (Rule 6). Holiday travel can be daunting, but we want to arm you with secrets, smarts and even a little humor to make it a bit easier. Here’s a sampling of the rules. For the full package, go here. #2: Don’t leave your partner behind When one person has Global Entry, and the other person has … a passport, the only guaranteed outcome is a post-red-eye argument. Splurge on the extra $120 for your better half’s Global Entry. #4: Booking the window seat is the ultimate flex  Illustration: Millie von Platen On a recent flight from Seattle to New York, as I sat in the window seat and stared at America rolling by, the woman in the middle seat asked me a shocking question: Would I lower the shade? It was too bright, she said; it appeared that she wanted to sleep. I lowered it by about 3 inches, which let me be both courteous and passive-aggressive. But I thought to myself: “Did she have any right to ask this of me?” Is the status of the shade a communal decision—or, as I’d believed, one in the hands of the passenger who chose (paid!) to sit by the window? What if there’s something interesting to look at on the ground in eastern Montana? There’s been much discussion on this topic of late—even the series finale of Curb Your Enthusiasm meditated on it—but no clear consensus on how to think about it. Some common approaches exist. There are the accommodationists, who point to practical issues like glare rendering a laptop screen unusable, and there are the die-hards, who say if controlling the shade is so important to you, book a window seat. Everyone agrees that you must abide by the shade-up requests from flight attendants on takeoff and landing. I was flying on Delta when this transgression occurred, and seeking answers, I wrote the airline and asked if it had an official position on the window seat conundrum. It punted. “Delta encourages courteous dialogue as conversations occur in the cabin,” a spokesperson said. Spokespeople for the Federal Aviation Administration and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency both told me this issue wasn’t something they regulated. A spokesperson for the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA said in an email, “If you’re not in the window seat but would like the shade open or closed, calmly explain to the person in the window seat why you’d appreciate it. More often than not, people will come to an understanding.” John Breyault, a vice president for the National Consumers League, wrote that the organization doesn’t have an official position. But, he added, “my general rule of thumb is that the window seat controls the shade, the middle seat controls the arm rests and the aisle seat can get up whenever s/he wants.” I can live with that. I’d rather float an elbow for five hours than be denied my right to enjoy the view. —Bret Begun #8: Deploy that Starbucks app There’s nothing worse than leaving yourself just enough time to buy a macchiato before your flight, only to discover a line of cranky, undercaffeinated travelers. Download the Starbucks app ahead of time and order before you go through security, so you can grab your customized coffee en route to the gate. #15: You can finally fly with (almost) no clothes  Illustration: Millie von Platen The grim environmental effects of flying were weighing on Miho Moriya. “I love to travel but also felt guilty about using flights that produce CO2,” says the 40-year-old accountant based in Japan. So when her employer, Japanese trading house Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., held its annual entrepreneurship competition in 2019, she pitched an idea that could make a tiny dent: a clothing-rental service for travelers. Instead of flyers hauling luggage—the weight adding to a plane’s carbon emissions—they could borrow clothes on the ground. The idea became Any Wear, Anywhere, part of a venture between Sumitomo and Japan Airlines Co. Travelers arriving in Japan can now rent clothing for as little as $31 for up to two weeks, delivered to their hotel. The online service, more for the utilitarian-minded than the fashionista, rents sets—including perhaps three pairs of pants, three tops and a couple of jackets—all secondhand or sourced from overstock to keep with the eco-friendly vibe. It offers seven size options for adults and nine for children, with sweaters and jeans for winter and shorts and T-shirts for summer. The service is currently available only in Japan, which happens to be enjoying a tourism boom. But traveling entirely suitcase-free is still just an aspiration: Shoes, underwear, PJs and toiletries aren’t yet part of the pitch. Moriya, who left her job in accounting to help operate Any Wear, Anywhere as its project leader, says going green feels good, but traveling without carrying luggage is even better. “My ultimate dream,” she says, “is making it possible to travel anywhere in the world hands-free.” —Supriya Singh #24: Ditch your work midair While you technically have hours to prepare that PowerPoint or do research for that RFP, the Wi-Fi is often so bad it’s sort of the perfect out. Why not just embrace the refuge of a liminal space and enjoy the soft confines of a bad rom-com? For more on traveling with kids, apps that help book travel with points, why everything is “premium” now, and so much more: 32 Rules for Flying Now | 
