Squeamish Travel Tips

17/7/2013

Image: Vox EFX

I spend a lot of my life in planes and airports. A lot of my life. And in the course of collecting air mile after air mile* I have picked up a few tips that make life easier. They're not all budget tips, mind...

1. Charge your phone on the way to the loo

Some airports have charging stations in public areas, and those airports are buildings of wondrous joy. Most airports don't care whether or not you need to charge devices mid-journey, unless you're one of the lucky ones with lounge access, in which case life is wonderful wherever you are. When you're desperate for a quick charge, you're more likely to find unguarded plug sockets in those long halls on the way to the loo than you are anywhere else. Just travel with a universal plug adaptor in your hand
luggage and you'll be fine. Or fly Emirates, which has USB connections in every seat, enabling you to charge your phone as you fly. I love Emirates.

2. Use the lounge

If you're a gold level frequent flyer or you've bought a business/first class ticket, you'll have access to your airline's lounge and will already know how much nicer it makes flying. You lucky people can skip this one. For the rest of you, find out how much it costs to buy one-off lounge access and consider making it part of your holiday budget, especially if you have a long stopover somewhere. There's food and drink (quality and variety depend on the lounge, but there's always booze and soft drinks), free WiFi, showers, comfy seats. Some lounges have chairs where you can sleep, some have cinemas, indoor putting greens, spas... I always load up on magazines, snacks, and drinks for the plane, and the money I spend on doing that outside the lounge adds up to around what it costs to get in. Plus, you don't have to mix with the hoi polloi. At the Emirates lounge in Dubai, you can board your connecting plane without ever going back into the airport proper. Bliss.

3. Build an emergency pack

Everyone has different needs on a flight. I want to sleep as much as possible, so I never fly without several sets of earplugs and those sleepy eye masks. Planes are always too hot or too cold, so as well as wearing layers I bring a cardigan and a pashmina that I can use as extra blankets. Lip balm and Nurofen are essential, as headaches on planes suck balls. Extra layers aside, my in-flight emergency pack is smaller than my wallet, and even comes with me when I go short-haul. The recent trend for parents letting their sproglets watch things on iPads without headphones of any kind has made earplugs essential to my basic sanity/current lack of convictions for murder. Figure out what your in-flight essentials are and never travel without them.

4. Charity shops are your friend

I'm a voracious reader, but I also have a bad habit of breaking e-readers. I don't do it on purpose, but I just can't seem to keep the buggers alive. So instead of spending a fortune on new books all the time, or hauling library books around the world, I stock up on books from charity shops. When I'm done, I pass them on to friends, or leave them in hotels and airports for other people to find and read. The charity shops get my money, I don't spend a fortune, and I end up making space in my bag over the course of a trip. Win!

Forget about the booze and fags. Save cash and forget about annoying travel restrictions on your way out by stocking up on skincare and beauty products in the duty free.

5. Take advantage of the duty free

Forget about the booze and fags. Save cash and forget about annoying travel restrictions on your way out by stocking up on skincare and beauty products in the duty free. The moisturiser and serum I use come to about Â£40 combined on the British high street. In duty free in some countries I can buy them for Â£6. But it's not just about duty free beauty - some countries have excellent home-grown products on the high street and in pharmacies that are either unavailable or painfully expensive over here. Do some pre-trip research, and Google 'cult beauty + France' to pick up tips on what to buy. South Korea is particularly good, but every country has a few local tricks up their sleeve.

* No airline anywhere in the world calls them air kilometres, but everywhere takes the piss out of the UK for not being metric. Go figure.

F1Kate

2 Comments

Alianora La Canta link

20/7/2013 07:26:45 am

Those are all good tips, Kate.

About charging your phone. If you have a universal phone charger, make sure it's *universal*. I had a "universal" phone charger from a pound shop. Their definition of "universal" apparently did not include anywhere (outside the UK) I actually went. Thankfully I've got a newer phone since then that has a USB charging method - and comes with a universal phone charger designed for it (which means it might be of some use!)

My personal "emergency pack", in case anyone is wondering, is:

- 2 pairs of unused earplugs, with a container. If I don't need them, the person in the seat next to me (seat-neighbour) probably does. (I don't sleep, but I do have sensitive ears). The container is a good place to keep used earplugs separate should I decide to employ them myself. I prefer not to use them for take-off or landing, which leads to my next item...

- 1 pack of fruit Polos per flight, plus one spare. At a pinch, I'll accept other mints that come in a similar size of pack, but fruit Polos are my favourite. I chew them slowly during take-off and landing (usually half a pack for each part) to ward off the dreaded earache/pressurisation problem. Something to do with how the ear, nose and throat are connected, according to my mum. I've heard that doing chewing motions without actually consuming anything has the same effect, should you be on a diet. A spare tube may come in handy if you have a noisy child near you and the parent is out of ideas for how to calm him/her.

- A small bottle of drink. Fruit squash or juice for preference, but water and milkshake are also acceptable to me. I tend to get thirsty on long flights. If you have time after check-in, look for the offers. Also consider taking a (completely empty) drinks bottle and filling it in duty-free - either with duty-free purchased drink or water from the bathroom (in the latter case, check the water is definitely potable first!) This makes it easy to drink and also means you have less litter when disembarking from the plane (assuming there's somewhere to bin the duty-free bottles at the departing airport).

- A small amount of money, separate from other spending money, in case something needs buying or (as in one flight I was on) there's a charity collection in progress.

- Glasses cleaning cloth. Useful for keeping glasses clean, and also for cleaning in-flight screens, mobile phone displays and similar items if they're dirty.

- A watch. I like to know what time it was at the place I left. Late in the flight, I set it to the time it will be when I disembark. It helps me mentally reset for wherever I'm going.

- Two small books. Unlike Kate, I don't toss either of them. The first book is a fun one expected to last through all flights I do. The other is a phrasebook relevant to my journey (if it involves a place where I'm not fluent in the language). This is useful if I feel like chatting to people in adjacent seats, or wish to remind myself of how to say things I need to know. This doesn't help much if your flight is Roma-London (implying and your seat-neighbour is Spanish, but even then communication can be a fun thing to attempt. (Also, trying to translate the safety briefing for someone who would benefit from it can score brownie points from flight staff).

- Two pens and a small pad of paper. In case I feel like scribbling, need/want to exchange contact details with someone or want to remind myself of something. Post-it notes and basic ballpoint pens are fine, but I always want a spare pen in case I run out of ink or the pen fails on me.

- A note with my flight details that is separate from my flight ticket. It helps me find things like the correct baggage carousel on arrival (I once spent 20 minutes waiting for my bag at Roma Fiumicio without seeing it - because I was looking on the wrong carousel). If I lose the note, I know it's not the end of the world because I can simply copy the flight ticket using the pen and paper referred to earlier. I add things like the carousel number to it as and when I learn them.

- A clean jumper. This helps keep me the right temperature, especially on night flight, and makes it easier to avoid dropping crumbs from the in-flight food on the plane floor. (I eat a bit like the Cookie Monster, and lots of people work hard to make the flight happen - I'd prefer not to make their jobs more difficult without cause).

- A first aid kit. Granted, there may be half-a-dozen flight stewards fully certified to do first aid if necessary, but I'd prefer not to bother them if I accidentally cut a finger or notice I've got a blister coming up on my foot. (In the latter case, I'd obviously apply the plaster in the bathroom, rather than risk offending my seat-neighbour). And if it is more severe, the first aiders have more kit closer to hand than they would otherwise. Finally, a pair of disposable plastic gloves might be useful for handling something particularly icky.

- A coat. I invariably have one, and it

Alianora La Canta link

20/7/2013 07:40:56 am

The end of my previous comment fell off the end of the word limit, it appears. Part 2:

- My coat acts as a good blanket. Thread it through my backpack (my preferred means of hand luggage) loop when not in use.

- A jumper. Because I eat like the Cookie Monster.

- A small bar of chocolate or two. For reasons given later this comment.

Final tip. Follow the safety briefing. I don't just mean keeping your eyes and ears open (though these are good things to do in and of themselves). I mean doing touch-drill - when told about a safety feature like the inflatable vest, touch the place where it's located (no need to get it out, though!) When told about actions, mime them in your seat (so pretend to chuck out the plane door when you're told that's part of the evacuation procedure). When I did it on my flights to and from Rome in November, I did it to help my muscle memory and to avoid panicking in a crisis. (It also means you know the equipment to help you in a crisis is there, and that if you get things wrong, someone can help you do it correctly when there's no actual emergency).

Turns out that staff are very used to jaded travellers who don't pay attention and zone out in briefings. (In fairness, if you've flown 50 times with the same airline, and 30 of them are on the same type of plane, it's an understandable attitude). However, an enthusiastic and interested follower of the briefing is unusual for them, and makes them feel that someone is happy about the ritual they have to perform many times a week. At the end of the last flight I did, I was allowed to have a look in the plane's cockpit because the on-board staff were so happy with me (Extra tip: captains and their co-pilots often like chocolate). I imagine that if I'd had problems, the staff would have been more eager to help me - however hard you try to be helpful to all customers equally, it's easier to help those who make you feel valued.

(And it follows that anything else you do that helps the people who will be carrying you across land and sea is likely to help your journey, if only indirectly).

Squeamish Travel Tips

Forget about the booze and fags. Save cash and forget about annoying travel restrictions on your way out by stocking up on skincare and beauty products in the duty free.

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