COLUMN ONE : Avoiding Congested Airports : Savvy travelers book flights that will keep them away from crowds and delays. Their methods include flying at off-peak times and using suburban airfields.

Kathlyne Mulloy had to travel from New York to San Diego on business, but she was not happy about having to fly into San Diego’s Lindbergh Field because the waterfront airport has only one runway for commercial jets.

“It gets so backed up, there are so many delays,” the professional convention coordinator said. So, she figured, why not fly to Los Angeles, hop over to Union Station and take a train to San Diego?

“It was another way to get to San Diego and I had work to do anyway,” Mulloy said, adding that the three hours on the train were as relaxing as they were productive.

Mulloy’s ploy is typical of those that savvy travelers use to avoid delays, cancellations and congestion at the nation’s busiest airports. Twelve years after airline deregulation--which resulted in 69.8% more passengers jamming onto 37.6% more flights each year--these flyers have found new ways to cope with cattle-car seating, crowded runways and terminals brimming with vacationers.

Some have a list of overcrowded airports that they will not use, preferring smaller “satellite” airports in suburbs or nearby cities. Others travel only at certain times of the day to avoid traffic on freeways as well as runways. Most also book flights carefully to balance price, convenience and reliability.

A few have learned to play the game--if not for fun, certainly for profit.

“There are certain airports that are a nightmare to connect through, and we as travel agents try to be aware of that,” said Suzanne Moss of the Columbia Pictures studio travel office in Burbank.

Despite a fatal Feb. 1 collision of a jetliner and commuter plane on a runway at heavily congested Los Angeles International Airport, few frequent flyers avoid any particular airport for safety reasons, apparently because they feel that accidents are not common enough to outweigh convenience.

“I don’t see a lot of circuitous routing to avoid dangerous airports,” said Alan DeYoung, travel services manager for Bechtel Inc., a San Francisco construction company that spends $30 million a year flying its employees to job sites around the globe.

Some business flyers will go to great lengths to satisfy other personal concerns.

“When they banned smoking on domestic flights of six hours or less, we had one man who was panicked about not being able to smoke,” Moss said. “So we had to route him through an international destination, where the domestic laws don’t apply. . . . This man flew from L.A. to Mexico City and Mexico City to New York just so he could smoke a cigarette.”

More important to most professional travelers is slipping through or avoiding the nation’s busiest “hubs”--those crossroads airports through which airlines detour long flights in order to pick up more passengers.

At all costs, they try to avoid Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport on Mondays. As the major hub for the Southeast, they say, it is a zoo. The same for O’Hare International Airport in Chicago on Thursday and Friday nights--one traveler even claimed that at times he finds it easier to fly into Milwaukee and drive 87 miles to the Windy City.

Other airports that travelers are eager to avoid include Kennedy and La Guardia in New York, Stapleton in Denver, Dallas-Fort Worth, Logan in Boston and Lambert Field in St. Louis. Too many people get on too many jets at these airports, they said, and there are long, tiring walks between gates to make connections.

Los Angeles’ airport gets mixed reviews. Christopher Witkowski of the Aviation Consumer Action Project in Washington said it is so congested that he would not fly there even if he were offered triple frequent-flyer miles. Joe Brancatelli of Frequent Flyer magazine said nightmare experiences in New York have taught him that “As big airports go, LAX is one of the best.”

Miami International Airport is shunned as a bottleneck for flights to South America, while Greater Pittsburgh International Airport and Sky Harbor in Phoenix are considered usable only for customers of the airlines that dominate them. USAir has 80% of the flights in and out of Pittsburgh, and America West and Southwest divvy up Phoenix.

Sometimes, cities cannot be avoided. Seeing to business in Chicago means flying to Chicago. But savvy travelers know that it does not necessarily mean flying into overcrowded O’Hare. Many try to touch down at Midway Airport, which is smaller and closer to the Loop, Chicago’s downtown business center.

Similar alternatives exist in other major urban areas. The greater Los Angeles area has airports in Burbank, Orange County, Ontario and Long Beach as well as Los Angeles International. Travelers to the San Francisco Bay Area may arrive closer to their destinations by landing in Oakland or San Jose.

Newark Airport in New Jersey is actually closer to New York City’s Wall Street than La Guardia or Kennedy. Stewart Airport in Newburgh, N.Y., 50 miles north of New York City, is convenient to the suburban homes of corporate executives. In Houston, Hobby Airport is preferred by many over larger Houston International.

Such satellite airports are becoming so popular that airlines have started to limit the number of discounted seats at them.

Bob Wisse, president of Getz International Travel in San Francisco, said: “Because there is so much metal flying between here and L.A.--four planes an hour, or 450 seats--the bucket is open; you can get any discount you want. But there are fewer flights to suburban airports . . . so they realize they can get a premium on them because that’s where so many people want to go these days.”

Weather also leads frequent flyers to cross airports off their lists. Minneapolis-St. Paul is a convenient stopover for cross-country flights, but not if there is the least chance of snow. Dallas-Fort Worth is a bad place to make connections at the best of times, but even worse when spring thunderstorms cause flights to be diverted, delayed or canceled.

“If you route yourself outside weather pockets, you will be much happier,” said John Holland, publisher of Business Flyer, a newsletter published in Newton Centre, Mass.

In the winter, DeYoung said, he tries to steer Bechtel workers away from Denver and Chicago, two major hubs for United Airlines, the dominant carrier in San Francisco. “Instead, you take American to Dallas and stay a little warmer,” he said, “or Northwest to Memphis and connect there” with flights to the East Coast.

Even in bad weather, flying early in the morning lets seasoned travelers get where they are going before delays begin to upset the interdependent schedules of flights around the country. Early flights also avoid the morning airport rush hours when gates, runways and takeoff slots are jammed--a phenomenon that repeats itself every afternoon.

“When you travel at peak periods, your flight is probably going to be late, crowded, more expensive and seat selection most limited,” Holland said. “If you go home on a 5 o’clock shuttle (in the afternoon), for example, you can spend as much time in traffic, in line (and) waiting for takeoff that you don’t arrive much earlier than if you had waited for the 7 o’clock shuttle.

“The idea is to spend more of your time in the air flying and less of your time sitting in traffic or on the Tarmac.”

Because most trips also involve getting from the airport to a destination--a customer, vendor or conference--business travelers sometimes plan for congestion outside the airport as well as in it.

“We find our experienced flyers like to consider traffic whenever they fly into L.A.,” said Wisse, the San Francisco travel agency president. “They always plan their arrival times to miss as much of the rush hour as they can.”

Occasionally, flyers resign themselves to the sometimes difficult realities of air travel--the crowding, delays, canceled flights and missed connections--and try to make the best of it, and even turn a profit if they can.

Veteran flyers who have to be in the air around a major holiday often ask to book flights early in the morning. To get a jump on the day? Beat the rush? Hurry home? Avoid hassles?

Not quite.

They book early expecting to be bumped off crowded flights. In fact, they want to be bumped two, three or four times during the day--and collect good-as-cash travel vouchers each time they volunteer to give up their seats.

“I know people who have made $2,000 a day just waiting at the airport,” Wisse said. “We used to know professionals who said they made a living at it.”

AIR TRAVEL TIPS

Tips from travel experts on ways to avoid problems with air travel : * Use “satellite” airports. In major cities, consider alternatives to the main airport. Fly out of Burbank, Orange County, Ontario or Long Beach. When going to New York, fly into nearby Newark, N.J, for example, or touch down in Baltimore and drive into Washington.

* Get a boarding pass early. Request one when you buy your ticket. It doesn’t guarantee you that particular seat or any other, but it speeds check-in and makes it harder to bump you off a crowded flight.

* Know the flight’s history. Airlines track the on-time performance of each flight, and make that information available to travel agents. Ask for it.

* Avoid “rush hours.” Runways and gates are most congested from 7 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. Traveling at other times means fewer delays. Book a flight early in the morning, before delays caused by weather, congestion and mechanical problems--at your airport or elsewhere--start wreaking havoc with schedules.

* Fly nonstop. Making connections invites delays. And missing a connection can be disastrous.

* Leave time for connections. If you have to make connections, leave an hour to transfer from one flight to another on domestic trips, not the 30 or 45 minutes airlines recommend. Allow at least two hours on overseas flights.

* Travel midweek. Airports fill up Fridays and Sundays with vacationers and on Mondays and Thursdays with business travelers. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays are best to miss the crush.

* Plan for problems. If you must arrive someplace on time, go a day early. If that is not practical, pick the most convenient flight, then buy a ticket on the flight right before it. This allows room for delay and leaves the convenient flight as a backup.

* Reconfirm departure times. Call the airline as you are ready to leave for the airport to see if your flight is on time.

* Watch for labor problems. Grumpy employees can cause all sorts of delays, by not doing their jobs at all or by doing them so meticulously--and slowly--that even routine procedures take forever.

* Arrive early. Reduce hassles and decrease your chances of being bumped off an overcrowded flight. If you must check bags, early arrival lets you do so at least 30 minutes before flight time to make sure they get on board or assure your right to compensation if they don’t.

* Carry your luggage. Checking bags adds 20 to 30 minutes to any flight. Airlines usually allow two carry-on bags.

* Cope with cancellations. If your flight is canceled, do not follow the mob rushing to a ticket counter to transfer to the next flight. Rush to a telephone booth instead and call the airlines’ toll-free number to reserve a seat immediately. Then stroll to the gate and get on.

* Don’t get stranded. If possible, avoid the last flight of the day to your destination, especially as a connecting flight. A delay or cancellation could leave you stranded.

Sources: Business travelers, travel agents and travel writers.