Plan and then expect the worse but hope for the best.
I fly frequently for business. When in NH, I fly out of Manchester. Yes, it's small and almost always involves a connection. But I'm happy that the time lost with that is at least partially made up by the fact that MHT is easy to get to, easy to navigate, easy to get out, offers ample parking and a straight shot home to the lake. Not that I have a lot of choices.
Important to successful air travel is planning your connections so that:
1. There's at least 90 minutes between flights; two hours is better. This gives you flexibility with potential delays or getting from one gate in terminal A to your next one in Terminal G. There's nothing worse than a flight worrying about whether you're going to make your connection.
2. You stay away from more difficult airports if possible (such as Philly, Dulles or LaGuardia IMHO). East coast airports - Baltimore, Charlotte and Atlanta have been pretty good for me and offer great access to the rest of the US.
3. You consider smaller airports if they can fit into your itinerary which, as suggested above, may offer benefits that outweigh less convenient connections or a longer drive once you land. For example, when traveling to DC, I'll sometimes fly into Baltimore and drive from there. Compared to Reagan or Dulles, it can be less of a hassle plus Southwest-Manchester offers good access to BWI.
4. You are flying earlier in the day. If possible, get out on that first flight in the morning so that there's less opportunity that you'll be impacted by downstream events.
5. Most of all, you try to be in the right state of mind to begin with. Expect unforeseen problems - be happy when there aren't any and role with the punches when there are. If you fly frequently, then you're eventually going to have some issues, period. I try to remind myself that there most certainly are others in the airport that for whatever reasons are having a far worse day than I am.
Granted, I'm compensated for my travel so I'm able to make choices that others on a tighter budget may not be able to. But, I'm sure that saving some additional dollars isn't always worth the additional stress and headaches that can result.
Happy travels...I hope.
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