Few of us are flying first class anymore, but planning ahead and expecting the unexpected can make traveling with kids more palatable than Mr. Benchley might have imagined

Start by remembering all the problems that made past flights less than pleasurable for you and your child and think of remedies for those issues this time. You can’t control delays and annoyances, but you can put sufficient toys, snacks, and money in your carry-on to turn an unscheduled layover into tolerable together time.

Here are some hints to make plane travel easier on the wee ones.

Book Early for Best Selection

Airports are booooring. And if waiting around in them makes you cranky, it’s going to be worse for your child. Although they’re more expensive, nonstops are less stressful and time-consuming. And re4member, connecting flights require getting off a plane and spending time in another airport before boarding the next flight. Any delays can mean a mad dash to the next gate at best and missed connections with long layovers at worst.

Talk about Things

Explain things ahead of time. Even if your child has flown before, explaining each stage of the process and flight will allay any anxieties. Make sure young children realize that there will be bumpiness and engine noises so they don’t get scared. If practical, visit the airport ahead of time so that part of the trip is familiar at least.

Comfort Is the Goal

Let your kids wear comfortable play clothes and don’t forget to pack extra clothes in the carry-on, especially when traveling with toddlers. Airplanes tend to be cold and airline blankets are fast disappearing. Make sure all children have a sweater or jacket at their seat.

Stick Together

If your airline offers reserved seating, it will be worth an extra fee to keep your kids with you tfor reassurance or refereeing. Cutting costs by skipping sear reservation can be disastrous for parents traveling with small children.

Safety and Security

Children who require car seats will be safest (and probably more comfortable) using their seats on the plane. But remember, the car seat or harness must contain a label indicating it is approved by the FAA for air travel.

Children and all children’s items — including strollers, diaper bags and toys — must go through TSA screening. Equipment such as folded strollers small enough to pass through the X-ray machine must be placed on the belt.

Babies and children must be removed from strollers or infant carriers before passing through the walk-through metal detector at the security checkpoint. Toddlers old enough to walk unassisted should walk through detectors on their own.

Breast milk, juice, formula and medications are allowed on flights in reasonable qualities, even if they exceed the usual 3.4 ounce limit for liquids. These items must be declared at the security checkpoint.

Air pressure changes during takeoff and landing can cause ear pain in babies and young children. Bottle or breastfeeding babies or providing a pacifier to encourage swallowing may help the ears adjust to air pressure changes. Sucking on lollipops or eating crackers encourages toddlers to swallow, while older children may find relief by chewing gum.

Your forethought and planning can help your kids have the last laugh on Mr. Benchley.

The airline industry trade organization Air Transport Association supports the rules. The International Air Transport Association, however, is critical of Secure Flight, citing inefficiencies in the process. It feels that the Department of Homeland Security is asking too much information on passengers too often.

Although the new rule imposes demands on the travel industry, travel agencies – online and brick-and-mortar – and computer reservations systems are on board. Expedia, Orbitz, and other major travel sites provide online updates. The National Business Travel Association also provides resources to support the program.

Some airlines had already adopted these new provisions. Since mid-September, American Airlines has required all passengers to comply and provide the data for all tickets purchased. American also requires a “redress number” for passengers who have been assigned a TSA-issued code for those whose names have erroneously appeared on the watch list. United Airlines also had been requiring passenger compliance.

So when you book air travel you need to be certain of all personal information you provide for you and for others you are booking for. your traveling companions. In particular, make sure that names and dates provided match other I.D. – especially passports – and that changing information related to marriages, divorces, adoptions, and any other relevant circumstances. Typing in a wrong letter or number could mean denied boarding and a ruined trip.

You may need to build extra travel time into your plans for the holiday season. The rules and processes will still be new and may cause check-in and boarding delays.

On the TSA site the agency has a guide to Secure Flight with a complete set of Frequently Asked Questions about the program.

Travelers have raised privacy concerns about the possibility that “naked” images from the machines may be too revealing when viewed by security personnel and even more that these images may be saved with identifying data that might be obtained by unauthorized individuals.

Manufacturers have indicated that new software upgrades will deliver a generic cartoon-type avatar rather than an actual image of the individual passenger’s body. The new display would mark sections of a person’s body that need to be checked.
The Transportation Security Administration will add the software to its machines, 194 of which are in use at 51 U.S. airports with 28 more scheduled to receive the units in the second half of 2010. It is hoped that the revisions will address most privacy concerns, although some passengers worry that the original images may be saved and could be obtained by unauthorized persons.

TSA considers the use of full-body imaging voluntary, but says that passengers who refuse to be scanned may be frisked by U.S. security employees. The agency said that passengers offered the choice of the scanner or alternate screening such as a pat-down, chose scanning in more than 98 percent of cases.

Currently, a TSA employee in a separate room monitors the images to prevent passengers and other security workers at the checkpoint from viewing the full-body image that sees through undergarments. The software upgrade would replace the images with an avatar and alert authorities to a potential hidden threat, which officials believe will eliminate the need to keep the employee in a remote room. This would reduce personnel costs considerably.

However, others have expressed concern that the machinery may subject them to dangerous levels of radiation. Although manufacturers say the amount is very low, worries persist that scanners might malfunction and emit more radiation than they are supposed to, as well as what the health effects may be for frequent travelers submitted to multiple scans over time. Some medical experts also worry that insufficient consideration has been given to potential risks for certain segments of the population, particularly children, pregnant women, cancer patients and those sensitive to radiation.

Daniel Kassiday, an FDA. radiation official who was co-chairman of the committee that created the standard for the machines, said an individual could receive up to 1,000 screenings a year before reaching recommended annual limits for this type of radiation exposure.

New equipment is being developed to detect explosives in water bottles, toothpaste tubes, and other containers will be installed at most airport security checkpoints by 2012, allowing restrictions on boarding flights with creams, gels and liquids to be lifted. This security measure took effect in 2006 after British agencies detected a transatlantic plot to detonate liquid explosives aboard airliners flying to Canada and the United States.

According to news sources, the bomb allegedly smuggled aboard Northwest Flight 253 was a packet of powder sewn into the bomber’s underwear. How do you find a nonmetallic bomb tucked into such a private place? By looking right through the bomber’s clothing with a naked-body scanner. Whole-body imaging looks like our best shot.

The TSA already has 40 scanners in operation at 19 U.S. airports: six provide primary screening at six airports, and 34 other machines (at 13 airports) are used for secondary screening and an alternative to pat downs. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced plans for the Transportation Security Administration to step up the purchase, installation, and general use of full-body scanners at the nation’s airports. An additional 300 units are scheduled to be rolled out in U.S. airports by the end of this year.

These machines use a variety of technologies to scan for prohibited and dangerous items that may be concealed on a person. In doing so, the scanners peer through a person’s clothing and can reveal not just weapons and explosives, but also clear images of the size and shape of body parts.

The graphic images created by these scanners, and worries about the unauthorized and inappropriate places the scanned images might end up, has some groups worried. “These technologies are way too invasive,” says Chris Calabrese, on the ACLU’s Legislative Council. “For some people it’s a religious issue. For most people, it’s an issue of modesty. They don’t want some TSA employee ogling them, and they don’t feel it should be a cost of air travel.”

The TSA is telling travelers there’s really no need to be concerned. According to TSA spokesperson Greg Soule, on its Web site, in videos, and in official documents, the agency explains that the whole body imaging machines will have no ability to “save, transmit, or print” images.”  But the ACLU ‘s Calabrese says, “There are a large number of both legal and policy reasons why the government would feel it would have to save images; no matter what they’re saying now.”

The Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) joins the ACLU in sounding an alarm. “They say, ‘don’t worry,’ but they completely don’t talk about the fact that the scanners are essentially digital cameras designed to peer through clothes,” says EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg. Rotenberg says the TSA’s technical specifications for the body scanners show that vendors are being asked to deliver machines that can, among other things, save, record, and transfer images. “EPIC feels that further deployment of the scanner devices should be suspended until the privacy and security problems brought up by these documents have been resolved.”

Unless legislators suspend or delay use of the scanners, there’s a fair chance that someday soon a Transportation Security Officer at an airport will ask you to step into one of these body scanners. Right now, you don’t have to. The TSA’s Greg Soule says, “At this point, the technology is 100 percent optional. However, if a passenger chooses not to go through, they will get a commensurate level of screening to include a full body pat down.”

But don’t assume everyone will say no to body scanners. “Pat downs seem slower, more invasive, and less guaranteed to detect objects than body scanners do,” says a software engineer in Palo Alto, Calif. He agrees with 78 percent of respondents in a recent TripAdvisor.com poll on body scanners who said they thought the machines “would enhance security” and with the 88 percent who said they were more comfortable with a full-body scan than with a full-body pat down.

Most people apparently believe that there are more important groups to worry about than the TSA.

The new regulations — which are to be announced later Thursday — were not described in detail, but a senior U.S. official told NBC News that they would include further in-flight restrictions on passengers’ movement, more random pre-flight screening of passengers, and an increase in the number of federal air marshals on flights.

“In view of the event of Christmas Day we must remain vigilant about the continued threat we face from al-Qaida,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said, “We are taking an additional set of aviation security precautions to protect the American people.”

The tightened security comes after U.S. officials said new intelligence data suggested that the al-Qaida offshoot in the Arabian country of Yemen was planning another attack on the United States. A British-based Nigerian man affiliated with the group is believed to have been responsible for the aborted attempt to bomb a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas Day.

The new intelligence was first reported Wednesday by NBC News, which quoted three U.S. officials as saying the intelligence was considered credible. The officials would not describe the information or say whether it indicated a specific target or date.

“No one believes al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has stopped planning for attacks on the United States,” one of the officials said. “No one believes that the events of December 25 are the last we will see of these guys.”