With the new Midway terminal the crown jewel of our Metro Airport complex, we sometimes forget that there’s that … other terminal. If you have to fly almost any airline but Northwest, you’ll have to endure not only the Smith Terminal, but the Smith Terminal Under Construction, also known as the North Terminal Project. While that construction is well underway, until it is done you will most likely experience travel delays.

The most convenient parking for many flying out of Smith is the Big Blue Deck. If you’re parking there, I suggest you plan for a little extra time. Even the farthest reaches of the deck seem pretty full. Why? Floors 3-5 are under construction. If you have heavy luggage to travel with, beware. The elevators are all intermittently out of order as well.

I sure hope they get the new terminal finished soon. It’s pretty embarrassing. Even though this sounds great on the Web site, it’s going to be problematic for as long as it takes to complete. You can find frequently asked questions about the new project here . Notice there’s no firm completion date. The best case scenario as of now is two years down the road. Here’s hoping you can fly Northwest until 2008.

Speaking of airports, it makes me feel safer and less secure all at once to see heavily armed people in the airports. Detroit (DTW) has extra Sheriffs with tasers, guns, and Kevlar. What surprised me was seeing the sheriffs in Minneapolis (MSP) with assault rifles – fingers ready on the trigger guards. Once again - safer and less secure all at the same time. I think if we’re going to monitor travel more closely as a nation, we need to also watch the trains… busses… it really is a brave new world.

A suggestion all the more relevant in these times: Try to avoid booking flights with airline changes under the current restrictions. I switched from United to Northwest on my most recent trip, and they … yep… lost my bag. After being up for almost 24 hours, they finally delivered my bag to my hotel room. CTX, the carrier, must have wadded up my bag- my suit was a disaster. A hard shelled suitcase for checking is looking better and better.

Speaking of my hotel, I have a website to recommend: TripAdvisor. If I’d only heeded the advice found therein. It seems as though my hotel of choice (Crowne Plaza Minneapolis North) is an old Holiday Inn, and I mean old. The list of information and comments goes on and on and on. Fruit flies, dirty room on arrival, checked back into the same room after my meetings, and it was still dirty, just in more subtle ways. Oh, and the meeting room that I rented? FREEZING COLD with no way to adjust the air. Plus, some evangelical southern Baptists had a meeting there, and were singing loud praise music (which you could hear through the walls) all day long. The banquet people never replenished our water or coffee throughout our 8 hour day.

My one highlight from the trip? I paid 25% of what it would have cost for a direct flight by using Expedia, and accepting a layover in Chicago for the flight back (both Northworst flights). Then when I got to the airport, I paid a simple $25 fee to confirm myself on a direct flight 3 hours earlier. Try it. The extra effort paid off.