If you think you have problems with airline travel, think of airline personnel. You are dealing with one problem. They sometimes deal with hundreds of frustrated and angry passengers. Take a lesson from them. During adverse conditions, flight attendants often manage to keep their sense of humor and use it to calm passengers, ease tension and make everyone's trip more pleasant.

At the end of one long and crowded flight the flight attendant botched up the pre-landing announcement. She misread words, gave the wrong time and announced the wrong city we were about to land in. But the attendant saved the day with some humor by ending her botched speech with, "This message has been pre-recorded."

If you can't find any laughter in a situation, remember to at least smile. When you smile, the world smiles back. "Smiles and frowns," says Dr. Jerry Teplitz, a stress specialist, "affect people whether we are aware of it or not. If you are in an airport where nobody wants to be, and planes are running really late, literally the energy of everyone around you is affecting you." So it is important to smile, whether there is anything to smile about or not. Research has shown that your body doesn't know the difference between a real smile and a fake one. So even if you don't feel like smiling, do it anyway. It triggers a time when you were smiling for real (like when the plane actually left on time).

And always remember to be nice to airport personnel, or they may use humor on you which you might not like. When your flight is delayed or canceled, it does not give you license to yell at airport personnel. The circumstances may be out of control, but that does not mean that you have to be. Ranting, raving or screaming when travel goes awry or bags go astray will not change the situation. In fact, it can make it worse. Remember, the ticketing agents and baggage handlers are the ones who have complete power over where you or your bags go.

Terry Paulson, a professional speaker and trainer, tells a story about a passenger he saw who was yelling at the curbside baggage handler. In spite of being barraged with anger, the handler remained perfectly calm. After the passenger left the scene, Paulson asked the man how he stayed unruffled in the face of such rage. The airline employee replied, "I just checked his bags in. He's going to Chicago. His bags are going to Japan."