5 Things That Actually Matter When Flying This Month

01

Give yourself more time at the airport

Arrive at least three hours before departure. At hard-hit airports, make it four.

The partial DHS shutdown is now in its sixth week. More than 400 TSA officers have quit since February 14, and those who remain are working without pay for the third time in six months. The national callout rate — unscheduled absences among frontline screeners — hit nearly 12% on March 22. At individual airports, the numbers are more pronounced: New Orleans topped 42%, Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson hit 41%, Baltimore-Washington reached 38%, and JFK was at 37%.

Waits past three hours have been reported at multiple hubs. Houston Hobby, New Orleans, Atlanta, Charlotte, Philadelphia, and JFK have all been hit hard in recent days — though which airports get hit on any given day remains difficult to predict.

TSA PreCheck remains operational and is worth using. CLEAR is another option at participating airports. If you have neither, time is your only buffer.

Even domestic travelers at major U.S. gateways to Asia — LAX, SFO, JFK, SEA, ORD, DFW — are facing unusual congestion right now. With Middle East airspace largely closed and European routings to Asia significantly more expensive, demand for nonstop U.S.-to-Asia flights has surged. That volume hits the entire airport, not just international terminals.

02

Book the earlier flight

Early-morning departures are less susceptible to delays, leave more rebooking options if something goes wrong, and reduce the risk of a misconnection on multi-leg itineraries. When two options cost roughly the same, take the earlier one — especially when TSA staffing is unpredictable and rebooking options thin out as the day goes on.

The Middle East airspace closures are beginning to affect fares more broadly. Jet fuel climbed from roughly $2.11/gal at the start of the year to $3.78 by mid-March — a jump of nearly 80%. Global jet fuel prices rose roughly 83% over the prior month, according to IATA data. Several carriers have confirmed they'll pass along some of that cost. Watch fares rather than panic-buy them — fuel surcharges could ease if the conflict winds down and oil markets stabilize. Use Google Flights price alerts to track where things land.

03

Cruisers: arrive early and check your itinerary

Fly in at least one day before embarkation. A late hotel check-in is an inconvenience. A missed embarkation means the ship sails without you. That pre-cruise hotel night ($200–400 in most port cities during spring break) is cheap relative to the alternative — and this advice carries even more weight right now given the TSA staffing situation.

Several Caribbean itineraries are shifting. Royal Caribbean has suspended all visits to Labadee, Haiti for the remainder of 2026 due to security concerns. Norwegian has skipped port calls in Curaçao tied to the Venezuela situation, and Southern Caribbean sailings near Aruba and Trinidad may see further adjustments. Lines are rerouting to Nassau, Cozumel, and their private islands.

04

Know what the State Department knows

Start with STEP — the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program. It's free, takes two minutes, and registers your trip with the nearest U.S. embassy. Once enrolled, you receive real-time security alerts, travel warnings, and emergency notifications for every country on your itinerary. Set it up at step.state.gov.

Then check the State Department's travel advisory map. Every country is assigned a risk level from 1 (exercise normal precautions) through 4 (do not travel). The detail matters more than the headline — and Mexico is the best example of why.

Mexico — state by state

That's the full spectrum — from "no special precautions" to "U.S. government employees are prohibited from visiting" — within a single country. The full Mexico advisory breaks it down state by state.

Middle East — the biggest recent shift

The UAE (including Dubai and Abu Dhabi), Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Cyprus remain at Level 3 — Reconsider Travel. The European Aviation Safety Agency's conflict zone advisory, covering airspace over a dozen countries from Israel to Oman, remains in effect through at least March 27.

A reminder of how far west the military activity now extends: a drone struck near Dubai Airport's Terminal 3 on March 7, briefly halting operations. Iranian drones hit Nakhchivan airport in Azerbaijan on March 5, and a ballistic missile was intercepted over southern Turkey on March 4.

That said, the picture is not uniformly bleak. Emirates has resumed roughly 90% of its pre-war flight schedule, and some commercial traffic is moving through UAE, Omani, and Qatari airspace under strict permissions. Other carriers are more constrained: Gulf Air is operating a limited schedule out of Dammam, Saudi Arabia rather than its Bahrain home base, and Kuwait Airways has essentially suspended operations. Conditions are changing frequently enough that you should check more than once before traveling.

05

Pack your carry-on like it's your only bag

Your carry-on is the bag that survives a disrupted travel day. Through rebookings, gate changes, and overnight airport stays, it goes where you go. The difference between a manageable disruption and a miserable one often comes down to whether you can function for 24 hours without your checked luggage.

06

Travel insurance, briefly

Travel medical. Most U.S. health insurance plans do not cover you overseas. A travel medical policy covers that gap, and many include emergency evacuation coverage — which alone can cost six figures.

Cancel for any reason (CFAR). Reimburses 50–75% of prepaid trip costs regardless of why you cancel. It typically doubles the insurance premium and must be purchased within 10–21 days of your first trip payment. If your trip is already booked and you didn't add CFAR in that window, the option has likely passed.

For both, Squaremouth and InsureMyTrip let you compare quotes from multiple providers — usually a better value than the insurance airlines upsell at checkout.