Heading Home after the Holiday
JOHNS: Millions of Americans are heading home right now after the long Thanksgiving weekend with friends and relatives. CNN is committed to keeping you informed on travel issues you need to be aware of. Our Sandra Endo has been monitoring the comings and goings of Reagan National Airport in Washington -- Sandra.</s>SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Joe, pretty easy day for travelers here at Reagan National Airport. Take a look at all these lanes. We have not seen them filled up the entire day. And the short lines that we have seen, we've noticed that travelers have been easily getting through the security lines. What they will see is increased signage and travel advisories indicating what they can bring on board, what they're not allowed to. And one of the new requirements by TSA is that travelers cannot bring in, carry on or check in toner and printer cartridges. And as you know, that's a result of last month's terror bomb plot that targeted the United States. Now earlier we talked to travelers who had just arrived here in the nation's capital and this is what they had to say about their travel experience.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was good, not bad. A little bit increases security where I traveled from, Knoxville, Tennessee. But pretty smooth over all.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was fine honestly. I just walked right through. I had no problem moving up and back and I didn't -- I saw one person getting patted down, but it really -- it's actually faster than usual it seems like.</s>ENDO: And here at Reagan National, they have one of those controversial body scanning machines in effect right here. And actually there are only 400 used nationwide out of 70 airports. So when you do the math, there's really a small percentage of passengers who actually have to go through those screening machines and virtually, the consensus here so far is that so far so good in terms of air travel this very busy holiday weekend -- Joe.</s>JOHNS: All right. You got that right. Sandra Endo at Reagan National Airport this Sunday, thank you so much. And,</s>J.J.  --  JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, J.J.?</s>JOHNS: That's right. This is one of those places where you say J.J. and everybody and everybody looks up and says, what.</s>JERAS: What, me?</s>JOHNS: So, what have we got going on?</s>JERAS: Well, you know, like Sandra said, things have been going really well overall you know. The airports in particular, the delays have been relatively minor and it's only been a few airports that we've been talking about. Teterboro right now looking at a ground stop though; we've had some significant problems here all day today. And this is just due to volume; it's not even weather-related. Reagan National in D.C., departure delays, 30 minutes; it's been on the increase. And White Plains looking at two hour and 20-minute delays; that's getting into White Plains. Hartsfield Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, the busiest airport in the world, has been reporting no delays all day and security wait times of only ten minutes. Look at this -- it's a beautiful day in Atlanta albeit a little bit on the chilly side. Now, where have we been having some of these troubles? Primarily out west in terms of the interstates because we've had a lot of snow and a lot of wind to deal with; we've been focusing in particularly along Interstates 80 and 70. Across parts of Utah and into Colorado is where we've been seeing the snow. And of course Salt Lake City had a blizzard on Wednesday; yes, you're dealing with a</s>JOHNS: Yes, for sure. But I have to tell you. You know, I'm one of those people, normally this time of year, I want to see some snow, but I come from the Washington area, where we had three blizzards.</s>JERAS: Yes. Snow-mageddon on that last year.</s>JOHNS: You know, I can probably do without it this season but --</s>JERAS: Well, then it's the West Coast's turn and --</s>JOHNS: Right, yes. Let them have it, yes, and all of it. Enjoy. All right. Thanks Jacqui. Coming up pretty soon, education contributor Steve Perry shows us a California school where parents participate in almost every facet of their children's education and it's getting great results. And is it better to use a credit card or debit card when shopping? An expert weighs in.