10 Tips to Make Your Traveling Experience Easier
by Susan Foster

This has been and continues to be a very busy travel season for me! I constantly learn from my travel experiences and so have many tips to share with you. Some are reminders of points previously mentioned, but they are ones that I see consistently not being followed by other travelers. It is often the small details that make or break a trip. Read on and take heed so that your trip is the trip of your dreams and not a nightmare.

A Proven Timesaver:

Print boarding passes before leaving for the airport to avoid standing in at least one line. Most airlines allow printing 24 hours in advance, including Southwest Airlines who recently changed from allowing printing of boarding passes at 12:01AM on the day of flight to 24 hours in advance. Now Southwest passengers can get a decent sleep before departing.

TSA Reminder:

When my husband and I (we consider ourselves to be smart packers) have an item confiscated by the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) at airport security, we know others have had the same experience. Here are some recent mistakes:

Problem: Packing a bag for airline "checked luggage" and then deciding to carry on that bag at another point during a trip has caused the loss of 2 pairs of manicure scissors.

Solution: Review the contents before changing how a bag will be transported to save those scissors (or Swiss army knives, or ...) from confiscation.

Problem: Packing for airline "carry-on" but neglecting to clean out a bag that was previously used for a car trip caused the loss of my favorite blunt point sewing scissors (allowable by the TSA but confiscated in Frankfurt, Germany.)

Solution: Completely clean out any bag before packing for the next trip. Items that permanently live in that bag (identification, business cards, swim suit etc) should be in a see-through container and should not include any prohibited items.

Plan Ahead for Credit Card Use When Traveling:

I alert my credit card company when I am planning international travel, and recently learned that I must also alert them in advance of domestic travel. Imagine my chagrin when I could not use my Visa card to charge my new raincoat in Chicago. Visa rejected my purchase because of a small transaction error, and because I had charged in several cities in a very short time. The Fraud Division advised me to always call Visa (or any credit card provider) when I would be charging outside of my normal shopping area as that is a red alert indicator of a stolen card.

On a different note about rejected credit cards, Marsha McClintock of SAF-T-POCKETS Patterns said, "Recently several customers at consumer shows have had their credit cards declined because of numerous charges from all over the country on the same day. This occurs because vendors process the cards at the show, but their business addresses are scattered about the US". A call to your credit card customer service number should resolve the problem.

Plan Ahead (Way Ahead!) for Healthy International Travel:

For more than a year we have been planning a trip to Hong Kong, India, and Singapore during November/December. How to prepare and what to pack have been on our minds for a long time and are now reaching maximum focus. Here are some reminders if you are planning a long international trip:

- Visit a medical travel specialist or clinic for the latest information on required inoculations and health issues in the area where you plan to travel. Go to www.cdc.gov/travel for general information and to www.istm.org to locate a travel clinic. We found for India we need some booster shots, malaria prevention medications, and serious insect repellents for all areas.

- Plan for a safe water source. Magellan's Travel Supplies (my favorite travel resource, that sells SMART PACKING!) can help. Go to www.magellans.com and click on Travel Advice at the top right on the home page, then scroll down to locate your destination. We are looking at their purifying water bottles.

Plan Ahead (Way Ahead!) for Off-Season Travel Clothing:

Thank goodness I was thinking ahead about "what to wear" for our winter trip to Asia, a hot-weather climate, so we are set. But what can you do if you find out at the last minute that summer clothing is needed and stores are filled with coats and winter sweaters, or the reverse?

- Search the off-season sale racks at the back of the store and hope something works - items will certainly be deeply discounted!

- Do an online search at websites such as www.LandsEnd.com where swimwear and summer sportswear are available all year long. Click on "Overstock" at LandsEnd.com for off-season discounted clothing, or "sale" at other websites for the same.

- Hawaiian shops sell warm weather clothing all year around, and are located in many cities as well as on-line.

- Look in your closet for favorites that meet your needs. New and untested clothing is not always the best idea for travel; you don't know how it will perform. My classic mistake was wearing a new pair of pants on the plane to Hong Kong and finding the elastic relaxed so much in flight that I had to hold up my pants to keep from losing them! Yikes! And I had planned to wear these more than one time...

New International Airline Baggage Restrictions:

Airlines flying international routes have traditionally allowed heavier checked baggage, but since fall 2005 that is changing. The following airlines have lowered the free baggage allowance on international flights:

1. Air Canada
2. Continental Airlines
3. Northwest Airlines
4. United Airlines

Previously, the limit was 2 bags per ticketed passenger with a maximum weight of 70 pounds per bag; the new limit per bag is 50 pounds per bag. Premium class flyers and elite mileage members are generally exempt from these limits, at least for now.

The charge if your bag is over 50 pounds and less than 70 pounds is USD$25 each way, and for Air Canada it is C$35 for North American flights and C$60 on international flights.

Solution: First, call or check the website of your airlines to learn their baggage weight allowances, then weigh all bags on your bathroom scale before leaving for the airport. If a bag is close to the limit, edit the contents to take out excess weight or repack into two smaller bags that hold the same amount of volume but divide the weight.

If you don't have a bathroom scale and don't want to own one, check out Magellan's Travel Supplies for their hand-held scales for weighing luggage.

Fees Now Charged for Curbside Check-in:

If you use convenient curbside check-in as I frequently do, be aware that several airlines tested a service fee of $2 per bag to check luggage at the curbside, and have decided to charge this fee at all US airports. Plan to tip the skycap in addition to this airline-imposed $2 charge.

Solution: Call your airline or airport or check their websites to determine if this fee is charged at your airport, or if they plan to implement this in the future. Then you can decide if the convenience is worth the fee plus the skycap tip.