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Life on the road: 12 Travel Lessons to Know

April 10, 2008

Rule No. 1: Travel is no fun!

Really. If you think it’s all about smiling flight attendants attending to your every whim, friendly hotels offering 5 star service, and accommodating taxi drivers, it’s time for a reality check.

Your flight attendant has been in an identity crisis ever since her title was downgraded from stewardess and will probably stop smiling when you refer to her as one, because no one calls a flight attendant a stewardess and gets away with it today. Your hotel? They’ll be pleasant until you check out. The moment you complain about that surprise $20-a-day resort fee or the $5 charge for receiving a fax, the grin on the manager’s face will tighten into a grimace of icy resolve. You’ll hear insincere apologies, but you will probably still pay while grinding your teeth.

And accommodating taxi drivers are as scarce as god’s word in an Islamic temple? If you run into one, book him for your entire stay.

The point is travel can be hard work. The word “Travel” reportedly came from the French word “Travail” which actually means “work”, but that was supposedly several hundreds of years ago when travel was putting one foot in front of the other, or sit on a wooden coach bench. Well, turns out, it’s still pretty much the same experience.

But when you do it for a living — when you’re a true blue, card-carrying, sleep-deprived traveler — you learn the ropes quickly. By the time you’re a million-miler, and maybe sooner, you know travel isn’t fun but you also know travel can be made tolerable.

Here are a dozen tips that can make it tolerable:

  1. Expect Nothing, that way, you won’t be disappointed.
    Hard nut to crack of course if you look at what the ticket price is, but if you “Lower your expectations when you travel,” you may not fall into the category of Travelocity’s recent survey that found a near total disconnect between what air travelers expect and what they get. As a result, nearly two-thirds of the respondents said they would avoid using an airline altogether if they had a comparable choice. Ouch. High speed trains are on the horizon!
  2. Be Nice

    Learn about the power of nice. Gate agents catch hell for anything that may go wrong, from bad weather delays to cancellations, to equipment repair to overbooked flights or lack of flight crews to fly the plane (oh yeah, that is happening with alarming frequency). None of it is the Gate Agent’s fault and there’s really nothing they can do. Be nice, be understanding, give them a little gift that goes a long way, little box of chocolates for example and you will see that nice meets nice: from free vouchers to first class upgrades.
    It’s true — nice pays.

  3. Never Pay Cash

    Putting your travel purchases on a credit card offers you some protection against charlatans. It wouldn’t be the first time that someone takes cash for a “reservation” which turns out to be bogus. With a credit card you can dispute the charge and receive a refund (in most cases).

  4. Travel Light

    The single most important lesson when traveling is to pack light. Ask yourself: ‘Can I live without this?’ “If the answer is yes, leave it home.” This is particularly important, given that airlines are losing checked luggage at an epidemic rate, while some are beginning to charge their customers a fee for all checked luggage. The less you take, the less you pay for. And the less you can lose.

  5. Have a Plan B

    No matter how simple your itinerary, no matter how many times you’ve traveled the same road, no matter how sure you are that nothing will go wrong, don’t go anywhere without a backup plan. Sometimes, a backup plan can be as simple as looking for another way out. Example: when a flight is cancelled for whatever reason, avoid the long line of yelling passengers. Instead immediately go to another counter, explain your predicament, and…get your hotel vouchers, meal vouchers, and a ticket for the next day’s flight. Your blood pressure stays healthier that way.
    Accept the unavoidable and take advantage of the options left…and remember be nice

  6. Be Skeptical

    Don’t believe everything you read and that applies to pretty much anything, from airline schedules to guide books to travel columns. Do not put your ultimate faith in them. You will be disappointed. Which isn’t to say they are totally untrue, but you should use them as a guide, instead.

  7. Don’t Trust a Reservation

    When making a reservation for hotels, always opt for late check in, else you may find that your reserved room was given away to someone who arrived earlier. Getting something in writing helps, but always call to confirm. And that’s particularly true for an airline reservation.

  8. Visualize First Class

    Profiling is very much a part of the traveling world. So how do people snag upgrades? Well, one of the secrets of frequent travelers is to look the part. Wear a sport jacket. If they are doing upgrades, then you have a better chance of getting one. Airline folks admit they’ll pick someone who looks like he/she belongs in the forward cabin.

  9. Join the Club (No…not that club)

    Even if you don’t plan to collect frequent flier miles (and my advice is to avoid becoming a collector, because points are as addictive as they are useless) you should still become a member of a loyalty program. It may make your trips go a lot smoother, from avoiding being pick out for additional TSA screenings, to upgrades, special luggage treatment, to an extra bag of peanuts, it has advantages.

  10. Keep a Photocopy of Your Passport (or at least write down your passport number down in a safe place.)

    It will help you get a replacement much faster when you’ve lost it.
    I have the number in my wallet and a scan copy on my laptop. Same for driver’s license. Feels good to be prepared for those eventualities.

  11. Get Plenty of Rest and Drink lots of water

    Travelers tend to be sleep-deprived. And worse, they’re often unaware of how tired and cranky they’ve become. The importance of a good night’s sleep can’t be understated. It makes you a lot less cranky, and so does a glass of water for every hour in the air.

  12. Enjoy the Perks

    Despite all the airline cutbacks, travel still has a few things going for it. And even a few freebies. Hotels have been doing very well in recent years and many of them have now standard room amenities such as soaps, shampoos and conditioners, coffees, teas, sugars etc. Don’t look the other way when they’re offered. Hotels people don’t mind their guests taking the soap. Even if you don’t use it, you can always give it to a good cause such as a homeless shelter.

Hey it may sound cheap, but you need balance things somehow, even if it’s only for your own peace of mind.

Written by admin · Filed Under Travel Tips 

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