When you go online to plan your trip:

Head to www.kayak.com.
Kayak is like the Google of travel deals, according to Dave Fox, a guide for Rick Steves’s tour company, Europe Through the Back Door. Instead of visiting multiple sites — such as Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz — to check out airline and hotel prices, Kayak’s search engine lets you compare those sites’ options, then book flights and accommodations directly with whichever one has the best deal.

When you get out your suitcase:

Update the luggage tags. Remove your home address and add your cell-phone number.
Most of us dutifully write our full name, home phone, and home address on our tags, but that reveals too much personal information, says Anne McAlpin, a packing expert and the author of Pack It Up: The Essential Guide to Organized Travel (Flying Cloud, $20, www.amazon.com). Instead, print your first initial and last name — a safety precaution for women, since it doesn’t signal your sex or that you might have jewelry in your bag. Second, leave off your home address. It tells a potentially unscrupulous baggage handler, “No one’s home at this address.” Third, instead of including a home phone (which isn’t much use when you’re not home), include your e-mail address and your cell-phone number. Other information to include on the airline’s paper bag tags (which you can update for each trip): a phone number for (1) your first hotel and (2) a friend or a relative at home who can reach you.

When your flight gets canceled:

Avoid the long line at the airline counter. Instead, call your carrier’s reservations number.
You may get faster help by contacting the airline directly, says Peter Greenberg, NBC’s travel editor and the author of The Complete Travel Detective Bible (Rodale, $18, www.amazon.com). Politely ask to be rebooked on the next available flight. If it’s going to be a long wait, ask the representative to transfer your ticket to another airline with a more immediate flight. Although not all carriers are required to do this, some agents can work it out. Stranded overnight? Ask about meal or hotel vouchers. (Every airline has a different policy.) By the way, the possibility of a delay is a good reason to avoid flights later in the day, since there will be fewer same-day rebooking options, says Greenberg.