How to survive holiday air travel this year
Holiday air travel is crowded, delayed, and usually at least a little chaotic. You can’t control the weather or the guy reclining into your knees, but you can control your setup. The right bag, a serious power bank, and a travel-ready grooming kit go a long way toward making a long day in transit feel less like a slog.
Here are three smart Black Friday picks that actually make holiday travel smoother, not just more expensive.
Upgrade your carry-on game with a proper travel bag
A lot of holiday travel stress starts with one simple thing: your bag is fighting you. The Kenneth Cole Reaction Out Of The Bag Manhattan Colombian Leather Laptop Briefcase is built for the guy who wants to walk onto a plane looking like he meant to be there, not like he sprinted through a college campus.
It fits up to a 15.6-inch laptop, has dedicated compartments for chargers, documents, and headphones, and adds RFID protection for cards and passports. The Colombian leather gives it a polished, grown-up look that works from gate to hotel lobby, and the layout actually makes sense when you are hunting for your boarding pass at the scanner. Slide it onto your suitcase handle, and it becomes one of those pieces you stop thinking about because it simply works.
Right now, the briefcase is a Black Friday deal at $159.99 (20 percent off the $199.99 list price), which is a fair price for something you can carry all year, not just during the holidays.
Never fight for an outlet again
Holiday travel is basically one long test of your battery anxiety. Airport outlets are all taken, the one near your gate is broken, and you are trying to ration that last 12 percent across maps, boarding passes, and playlists. A real power bank solves that.
The Anker laptop power bank, 25,000mAh portable charger is built for exactly this mess. You get 25,000mAh of capacity, triple 100W USB-C ports, and built-in retractable cables, so you are not digging for cords at the bottom of your bag. It is flight-approved, which matters when you are going through security with a larger battery, and it has enough output to top up a MacBook, tablet, phone, and wireless earbuds through a full travel day.
As a Black Friday deal, it is $87.99 with 35 percent savings off the $134.99 list price. If your holiday travel involves connections, delays, or working in transit, this is the single piece of tech that will keep everything else running.
Keep your routine intact at 30,000 feet
Flying all day in dry cabin air, airport food, and recycled air is not exactly kind to your skin or hair. Instead of scooping random travel bottles into a plastic bag, you can treat your toiletries like the rest of your packing: intentional and compact.
The Malin + Goetz Essentials Starter Kit packs six travel-size staples into a small, carry-on-friendly setup: face cleanser, face moisturizer, hand and body wash, body moisturizer, shampoo, and conditioner, all in 1 oz bottles. It is simple, but that is the point. You can wash up in an airport bathroom during a long layover, reset at the hotel after a red eye, and keep your skin from completely drying out by the time you arrive at family photos.
For Black Friday, the kit is $34.00, with 15 percent savings off the $40.00 list price. If you already like Malin + Goetz, this is an easy win. If you are just looking for a clean, well-edited grooming kit that will last you through holiday travel and a few weekend trips after that, it is a very low-friction upgrade.
The bottom line
Holiday air travel will always be crowded and unpredictable. But if your bag is dialed in, your devices stay alive, and you can clean up properly when you land, the whole thing feels a lot less painful. Start with a better travel bag, a serious power bank, and a compact skincare kit, and you are already ahead of most of the boarding group.
