Beware of these items!

If you fly often, you know that all flights are different. Some are on time, some are late. Some are full, some are empty. Some have a happy flight crew, some have a pissed off flight crew. You get the idea. Well, on a recent flight I had such a bizarre experience that I have to tell you all about it, and see if it’s more common than I think.

It started out typically enough. I waited in line, boarded the plane, stowed my bag, sat down, got settled with my water bottle and Kindle. The two people sitting next to me were kind of strange, but not enough to really pay attention to. No, the weird people on the plane were the flight crew. Before the safety talk, the flight attendant announced that if you had headphones on you had to remove them for takeoff—even if your device was turned off. She even went up and down the aisles and asked the strange people next to me to remove their headphones. During the talk, the flight attendant gave the typical warnings about fastening your seatbelt, cabin pressure, etc. Then she stated explicitly that during takeoff and landing, nothing was to be placed in the seatback pocket—not a laptop (which I’ve heard before), water bottle, or book (which was new)—nothing. I rolled my eyes a bit, but went ahead and moved my water bottle.

As the flight went on, I forgot about the seatback pocket warning and stuck my water bottle and Kindle in there. As we went into our final approach, the flight attendant walked by and asked me to remove them. The reason? It would make it harder to get out of your row in an emergency.

I know in the grand scheme of things this is not a big deal. But sort of like the flight attendant back in December who made me put away my knitting during takeoff, I just think it’s weird and unnecessary. If knitting needles or books in the seatback pocket are truly a danger, that’s totally fine and I will act accordingly. But does each individual flight attendant get to decide what they think is dangerous, and then enforce that on their passengers? What if a super paranoid flight attendant decides that writing utensils are dangerous (hey, I saw The Bourne Identity—you can do a lot of damage with a pen!) and bans people from writing?

Readers, what do you think? Have you heard a strange safety requirement while flying? Do you think flight attendants should be able to decide what’s dangerous, or should there be some sort of standard?

Boy, there was a lot going on last August!

Travel Safety: The Hotel Edition gave a roundup of tips for staying safe in a hotel room. Some readers thought they were excessive, but IMO better safe than sorry!

There were a lot of discussions about etiquette, especially remembering to watch your bags as you go down the aisle. Don’t want to hit anyone in the face with your purse or briefcase!

We talked about whether or not business travelers actually love business travel, or just do it because they have to.

A reader asked an excellent question about traveling for months at a time, and other readers banded together to give her great advice!

Reader M wowed us all with her amazing First Class Travel Kit. Honestly, I’m still pretty darn impressed!

Finally, a reminder: if your flight is cancelled while you’re at the airport, go get in line AND at the same time call customer service. You will get faster service with two potential avenues of help!

A few weeks ago we talked about minimizing the impact of theft while on a work trip. That’s definitely an important skill to have, but what’s even better? Avoiding theft in the first place! Here are a few of the ways in which I try to avoid being robbed while traveling for business. (Pictured: Kensington 64068F MicroSaver Notebook Lock and Security Cable, available for $17 at Amazon.)

• I make sure my suitcase is easily identifiable. Right now, I have a pretty distinctive bag with my company’s logo on it, as well as a colorful name tag. That way no one can pretend they have “accidentally” walked off with my bag. (I also have my business card inside my suitcase, just in case it really is an accident.) This also helps on the few occasions I check my bag.
• Keep all bag compartments zipped up. My purse is zipped at all times, any time I’m out in public. This way no one can stick their hand in and grab my wallet, passport, or laptop in passing.
• Don’t put valuables in checked luggage, ever. A few years ago my mom started traveling frequently for work, and wanted to put her computer in her checked bag. I get it—it was a hefty laptop, and wouldn’t have been comfortable to carry on. But it would have been so easy to steal! Plus, what if the airline lost her bag? Then she would have been without her computer for who knows long. Not worth it! Same goes with valuable jewelry and other electronics. Read more of this article »

You see them on almost every flight—a sleeping baby or bouncy toddler sitting on their parents’ lap. The recent stories about turbulence injuring flight attendants and travelers, the pilot who got disoriented and sent his plane into a dive, and lap children being the most unsafe passengers on a plane have got me thinking. What’s the deal with lap children?

First, the reality. Buying an extra ticket is expensive. Car seats often don’t fit into small airplane seats. And even if a child does have his own seat, will he really be buckled in the whole flight? Or will his parents set him up on the floor where it’s more comfortable?

Anyone without a seatbelt on, at any time, is risky. Turbulence can happen at any time—it’s not only for takeoff and landing. And if there is an impact, regardless of how much a parent my try to protect their lap child, the laws of physics could make it impossible to keep them safe.

Why are lap children allowed in the first place, if there are so many risks? It all harkens back to an FAA regulation passed in the fifties that said everyone on a plane had to have a seatbelt—except for children under 2. Of course, as the Time article states, in the fifties there were no car seats in cars either, so it may not have seemed such a big deal . But now that there is such an emphasis on safety, especially child safety, many wonder why the rules don’t change. According to the FAA, they have done the math, and if they change the regulations it will make families less likely to fly and more likely to drive, which is statistically more dangerous.

Readers, what do you think? Would changing safety regulations regarding lap children solve anything?

(For safety tips from the FAA, check out their new child safety page.)

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According to CNN, on Tuesday night around 8pm  a flight took off from Houston for New York. As per usual, about thirty minutes in the flight attendants stood up and started beverage service. Evidently, a couple of other people took that as their sign to take off their seatbelt. And then massive turbulence shook the airplane, causing people to literally fly out of their seats, hit the ceiling, and slam back down. Five people, three of which were flight attendants, were injured so severely that the plane had to make an emergency landing in Louisiana and those people had to go to the hospital. OMG. Around 2am a replacement flight crew arrived, and the flight finally made it to La Guardia at 6am.

Friends, this is just one more reminder, the second in just a couple of months (remember the pilot who got disoriented after a nap and took the plane for a dive?). PLEASE leave your seatbelts on whenever you’re seated. And even if the FAs are up, if the “Fasten Seatbelt” sign is still on, it is not time for you to get up! As a pregnant woman sometimes it’s hard to wait, but it is the safest thing to do. Also, if you travel with lap children (which now scares the heck out of me), make sure you are holding on to them tightly!

This so reminds me of that movie “The Day After Tomorrow.” I’m just glad the injuries weren’t worse! Stay safe out there.

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Safety is so important when traveling alone. As more and more women are traveling for business, some hotels are creating special programs to keep women safe. However, there are a great number of safety precautions we can take, regardless of where we’re staying. I have compiled a list of tips for being safe in a hotel, and will follow it up in the next few weeks with tips for other situations. This is by no means a comprehensive list, so if I missed one of your favorites, please put it in the comments! Travel safely, friends.

Before you go:

• If possible, choose national hotel chains with indoor room entrances.
• Don’t put your home address on your luggage tags. Put your business address.
• Make sure you have directions to your hotel. Also have their phone number and address handy. (This sounds obvious, but the last time I went to Salt Lake City I went to the wrong location of Hampton Inn, and then couldn’t find the correct location and drove around lost for thirty minutes. I finally found the phone number on my iPhone and the very nice man stayed on the phone with me until I got there. I should know better than this!!)

When you arrive:

• Use valet parking if it’s available. It may cost more but it’s much safer then wandering around a parking garage
• If the desk person says your room number aloud, ask for a different room.
• Ask for two keys—otherwise people will know you’re traveling alone.
• Avoid staying on the first floor whenever possible, especially if there is outside access to your room.

In your room:

• Make sure you have a deadbolt, and keep your deadbolt locked whenever you’re in the room.
• Make sure there is no door connecting to another room.
• Never put the “Please Clean My Room” sign on the door. It’s an open invitation to thieves! Call housekeeping instead.
• Don’t use the door sign provided for ordering breakfast. This alerts anyone who looks at it that you are ordering for one. When they knock, make sure the person with your food is a hotel employee.
• If someone knocks on your door without you requesting anything, check to see who it is. If it’s a hotel employee, call the front desk to find out if it’s legit. If it’s not, speak through the door without opening it.
• When you leave your hotel for the evening put the “Do Not Disturb” sign on your door. This makes it look like someone is there.

Readers, what are your best hotel safety tips?

Wow, July just flew by. Can’t believe it will be August next week! Looking back at posts from a year ago, it’s pretty obvious what was on my mind…..food, etiquette, and clothes!

I was in the middle of my healthy eating “life change” and struggling to figure out how to eat well while traveling. Even though it’s been a year, I’m still working on this…..guess that’s why it’s a “life change”…..

One of my most popular and controversial posts ever asked “Is It Rude to Recline Your Seat While Flying?”

There were a few posts about shoes, clothes, makeup, and bags, including a teeny tiny rant about TSA and how many bags you can take through security.

And from two years ago……

A very important post about travel safety.

My first packing list! Ah, memories……

In January, I went to The Philippines. I printed out my hotel information, but not my flight itinerary. What was the point? I thought. I know when I’m leaving, what my flight number is, and there’s only one airport in Manila. However, when I got to the door of the airport, there were two things that were unusual. First of all, they scanned our luggage literally as we were walking in the door. It’s good that they do that, but it’s a slightly uncomfortable reminder of the violence that sometimes plagues that part of the world. The second unusual thing was that they asked for my itinerary. Well, I did not have it. I didn’t have a ticket printed out. I had no way of proving that I had business being in that airport. The guard really did not want to let me in at first, but after some fast talking and showing him my passport, he decided I wasn’t too much of a risk.

My friend Grace from Fly Gracefully told me a similar story about a different part of the world. One time, she was driving into Canada from New York. Because she was driving, she hadn’t thought to print out her itinerary. The Canadian border guards were very suspicious of Grace, driving into Canada with no proof that she intended to leave. For the future she had to get letters signed by her Canadian co-worker, stating what her business was. Crazy.

The moral of the story is that you need to print out your itinerary when traveling internationally, even if you never do it otherwise. Even if you are going to Canada. It’s just better to be safe than sorry.

Last night, after I FINALLY made it to my aunt and uncle’s house for the last thirty minutes of my grandmother’s birthday dinner (see tweets on the sidebar for the details of my day), we got into a travel discussion. Makes sense, really, considering that I travel constantly, had just arrived from the airport after a bunch of plane delays, and one of my cousins lives in Portland with his son and my other cousin is moving to New York with his daughter so my aunt and uncle are about to start traveling a LOT. We started talking about vintage suitcases (I love them and collect them, have for years) and somehow ended up talking about luggage locks.

Apparently my aunt was traveling somewhere (years ago) in South America, didn’t lock her suitcase, and someone stole all of her jewelry. This led to the following statement: “That’s why it freaks me out so much now that you can’t lock your luggage because of TSA.”  Wait, you can lock your luggage! Road Warriorette to the rescue!!

There are actually several locks you can purchase to lock up your suitcase. They just have to be TSA approved. According to the TSA website, “TSA has worked with several companies to develop locks that can be opened by security officers using universal “master” keys so that the locks may not have to be cut.” You can actually buy these locks in many places, including airports, online, Target, some grocery stores, etc.

So don’t worry, friends (and Aunt S)! You can lock your suitcase and protect your valuables from would-be thieves. (In fact, I highly recommend it, especially if you are traveling internationally.) Just pick a TSA approved lock and you are good to go.

I was perusing the Women Travelers board on FlyerTalk this morning, and read a lengthy discussion about travel safety for women. Most of the requests the posters had are very similar to mine , but there was one new one that I hadn’t heard before that jumped out at me.

Whenever I am checking in and the front desk person asks me, "How many keys?" I always say, "Just one." It never occurred to me (until this morning) that by saying that I was broadcasting to anyone in the lobby that I am a female traveling alone. So, from now on, I am going to say, "Two keys please!" And I recommend that you all do the same.