From a survey of members of Priority Pass, the world’s largest independent airport lounge program.
1. Protect laptops and essential business documents. Always make sure that vital documents are backed up and ensure that any sensitive information on your laptop is securely encrypted. Don’t check your laptop into the hold of an aircraft, unless you are not really bothered about not seeing it again.
2. Get adequate insurance. For frequent fliers, an annual policy makes sense, but don’t choose the cheapest without comparing deals. Take a moment to think how much your luggage is worth, and how much it would cost you to replace all of the items in your suitcase.
3. Think about medication, glasses and more. Unless you’ve been stuck in a foreign land without the right medication, it may not occur to you how important it is. If you have prescription drugs, make sure you take enough with you. Less obvious are glasses and contact lenses. If you can’t live without your glasses, then take a spare pair with you.
4. Control the cost of keeping in touch. Expensive roaming charges on your mobile phone, Wi-Fi charges to check your e-mails using your laptop, even just receiving calls and texts on your mobile can all add up to a lot more than you expect.
5. Overcoming jet lag. The most common advice is that you should set your watch to the time in your destination as soon as you start your trip, and start acting that way straightaway.
6. Avoiding airport stress. Online check-in, when available, is one obvious solution, and ensuring that you know the airline’s baggage limits is another.
7. Avoid excessive charges on foreign exchange and credit cards. It’s always a good idea to think about how you will pay for things on your trip. Does your bank charge a fee every time you use a card abroad? If that’s the case you may be better off getting money from an ATM (or using a different card). It wouldn’t do any harm to advise your bank of a forthcoming trip, especially if it’s to somewhere off the beaten track. Finally, if you are changing money, watch out for “commission free” deals that can actually work out to be very expensive because of the terrible exchange rate.
8. Getting an upgrade. Upgrades happen, but it seems not to be something you can plan for. Our feedback is that dressing relatively smartly and being friendly and polite at check-in helps, and it doesn’t do any harm to ask gently if there is any possibility of an upgrade.
9. Don’t be selfish — think of others! This is not exactly a tip, but a plea. One of the biggest complaints travelers have is the selfish behavior of others, things like talking loudly on a mobile phone or playing loud music through headphones.
10. And finally — enjoy yourself! This may sound daft, but sometimes the stresses of a journey can almost hide the pleasures, especially if it’s a business trip.
