Can I offer you a few travel tips? Perhaps some of
you are ready to take off for a winter escape, and perhaps that might even take
you out of the country. Please consider this advice.
- Make sure you have your luggage with the proper identification. Look at the tag hanging on your suitcase; does it have the name on your ticket? Does it have your correct home address? I see this all the time, and as a Patricia that goes by Patti Beth, I’m guilty of it myself. I have all kinds of names and mixed information dangling from my handles. If your bag is misplaced, you will want all the help you can get to point it back to you and not be a source of confusion.
- A good idea is to use a small return address label on the ID tags. There is no need to offer up the location of the home that is going to be empty to any bad guys to easily read at the airport.
- Make sure you also have your correct information, including your mobile phone number on the inside of your bag. If all identification is torn off the outside, have the correct information on the inside. I have my info written in black marker on the lining. Again, if you are borrowing a suitcase, make sure YOUR information is what is showing.
- If you are traveling out of the country, make sure the person you have designated as your emergency contact person has a valid passport. It’s certainly a worst case scenario, but IF you became ill or injured, and IF you required assistance to get home, and IF someone had to fly to help you get home, what IF that person didn’t have a passport? That is alot of “ifs” but one of peers recently had that scene play out. A client was left in France for two weeks in ICU. They were so glad they had taken the travel insurance! But the group continued their tour and when the patient was released, they needed help to come home and no one had a passport.
- So, international travelers, maybe you should consider who is on your emergency call list. If they don’t have a current passport, that might be a wonderful idea for a Christmas gift. Passports are valid for 10 years, and are important to have for those “just in case” situations.
