Travelers taking their first plane trips in months will find a very different experience. 
Waits at security checkpoints may take from a couple of minutes to a couple of hours. Nail clippers without attached blades are OK to bring aboard, but pocketknives aren't. Only one carry-on bag is permitted, not two. Meals on domestic flights have virtually disappeared. Friends and family can't greet fliers in gate areas, because only ticket holders are allowed past security. Thousands of parking spaces close to airport terminals stand empty because of new federal security rules.
Sharp cutbacks in airlines' schedules are requiring fliers to build more flexibility into their own. About half of all domestic routes have fewer non-stop flights a day than they did before Sept. 11. Roughly 4,500 flights 15% of the total are gone, according to a USA TODAY analysis of the airlines' November schedules now and before the attacks.
And that's not even taking into account the unexpected: bad weather that grounds planes or security breaches leading to terminal evacuations that could tie the retooled air system into knots.
"I'm not happy," says travel diehard Claire McFarlane, who is going from Lexington, Ky., to Oakland, "but I'm adjusting to a new world."

Airlines say they are preparing for the onslaught. Southwest Airlines has put out a call for off-duty employees to work in terminals helping passengers. Northwest Airlines is installing 25 new security checkpoints at its Minneapolis/St. Paul, Detroit and Memphis hub airports and seven others. United Airlines has added 14 security lanes at its Denver and Washington Dulles hubs and brought back 1,700 furloughed employees to help smooth passenger glitches at airports it serves.
Northwest is so confident that lines won't be snarled that executives shortened the recommended advance time for passengers to show up at the airport from 2 hours which is what most major carriers still advocate on domestic flights down to 90 minutes. Then they cut it again, to 75 minutes.
"We're confident we'll be able to meet the needs of getting travelers through the airport efficiently during the holiday period," says Northwest spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch.
Still, travel agents say it might not be enough. David Perelman, president of DMS Travel Group in New York, says he's telling his high-end clients to arrive up to 3 hours early.
Some regulars are calling off trips this year.
"It's going to be a nightmare," predicts Ronald Greisch, a sales manager who says he and his wife, Jennifer, will go next month instead. "Are we going to subject ourselves to that mess just for 4 days?"
But others are enduring jitters and schedule changes to push ahead with trips.
Jerry and Jan Foster of Reston, Va., say recent schedule changes forced them to reshuffle their schedule for a Thanksgiving Day getaway to the Caribbean, weeks before they board the plane.
The trouble started when they discovered American Airlines dumped the flight they would normally catch from nearby Dulles International Airport. The Fosters were able to rebook on an Air Jamaica flight, but it meant having to fly out of the more distant Baltimore/Washington International. Then, they were advised to arrive 2 1/2 hours early for their 9:30 a.m. flight requiring them to shell out $39 for an airport hotel room the night before.
Monday's crash was another blow but not enough to deter them. "I had so much anxiety when that plane went down, but I woke up today and realized today is all I have," Jan Foster says. "I'm not going to stay home."

Flight cutbacks. Many major airlines have cut their schedules by about 20% the past 2 months. Some airports have seen even sharper cutbacks. Raleigh/Durham, home of bankrupt Midway Airlines, is down 35%. Reagan Washington National is down 57% from its pre-Sept. 11 schedule. 
As the airlines have pared flight schedules, travelers will have fewer choices on certain routes. The 10 non-stops from Boston to San Francisco are now six. Akron, Ohio, has lost its non-stop flights to Washington Dulles. Rochester, Minn. no longer has non-stops to St. Louis.
Schedule changes are forcing travelers in smaller cities to make extra stops or switch carriers to reach their destinations, especially if it's another small town.
For instance, fliers from Fargo, N.D., to Little Rock no longer have United's one-stop service through Chicago. Now they must make two stops or more each way, including a possible change of airlines. One of the shortest routings between Lake Charles, La., and Evansville, Ind., takes 6 hours and 10 minutes, and requires stops in Houston and Cincinnati and a change of airlines from Continental to Delta.
Forced rebookings. Fliers who booked ahead might get tossed off their preferred flight, often with little warning, because airlines have dropped it from their schedule. 
Dick Kinney, a Milwaukee hotel franchising specialist, and his wife, Kay, in August booked a non-stop United flight from Chicago to Little Rock for Thanksgiving Day morning. They found out the flight had been canceled when Dick called Sept. 14 to check on it. A reservations agent told him the couple would have to make two stops, including a change of planes, that would have made them too late to have holiday dinner with his elderly parents. He says they got a refund from United and found a more convenient flight on Northwest.
Tighter air port parking. Security directives have forced some airports to empty hundreds of close-in parking spaces, which are needed most during the holidays. 
At Denver International, 1,800 of the 13,000 garage spaces can't be used. At San Francisco International, 1,000 of 5,500 close-in spaces are off-limits. At Dallas/Fort Worth, 2,700 parking spaces were lost from among 16,000 close-in spots.
Curbside passenger drop-offs and pickups still aren't allowed from private vehicles at Los Angeles International, but parking is available in the Central Terminal area, which was closed in the aftermath of Sept. 11.
Long lines at security checkpoints. Airlines, which currently run security in airport terminals they control, say they'll open as many lanes as possible to minimize delays. But some airline executives worry that a crush of holiday travelers unaware of new rules might create bottlenecks. 
Volunteer "ambassadors" at Dallas/Fort Worth International will be scouting for passengers held up in the longest lines at the airport's 17 security checkpoints and directing them to less crowded ones. The airport says checkpoint lines haven't been a problem. In a recent survey of 100 travelers, 94 said the security line wait time was less than 10 minutes.
If snafus occur, airline officials say they think they will be able to cope with them despite the announced layoffs of about 80,000 employees across the industry since Sept. 11. "The level of customer service will be higher as a result of the tragedy of Sept. 11," predicts Scott Kirby, executive vice president of America West Airlines. "Our employees have much higher morale and have banded together because the industry is in such difficult straits," he says.

Besides, he says, the reduction in flights has helped smooth some flight delays and cancellations that were the oft-voiced complaints about airlines before the terrorist attacks, he says.
Passengers apparently are expecting inconveniences. An Accenture survey finds 28% of those who canceled holiday flights cited long lines at the airport as a reason. Still, the survey of 2,764 travelers found that eight of 10 are still planning to go ahead with trips.
Ralph Obenauf and his wife, Joanne, are going ahead with their Thanksgiving trip to Aruba. But it hasn't been easy.
The Bridgewater, N.J., couple booked a flight 8 months ago on Continental Airlines to spend the Thanksgiving holiday at their time-share condo. On Nov. 3, Ralph was informed the flights to the island and back were canceled, and the airline was unable to rebook them on the same travel date.
They'll have to fly out a day earlier than planned, requiring they spend the night in a hotel. And they'll have to fly back a day early, costing them a night in their condo. But the Obenaufs are determined. "Who knows what tomorrow will bring? It's a different world now," Ralph Obenauf says. "But it won't (keep) me from that beach in Aruba."