This morning I saw a Facebook post about having problems
when traveling on a spear fishing trip. I have a few friends travelling to Lazarus Bank at the moment and it prompted me to think about the
lessons I have learned with all the travel I have done over the years.
I currently travel overseas and back for work every month and have worked that kind of life for
nearly 30 years and over that time I have come up with the following set of
rules that will almost always see you travel stress free and arrive on time
with all your luggage.
1.
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER fly a budget airline, I can’t
stress this enough.
2.
Always arrive at least 3 days before the start
of your intended trip, this allows for 3 things, lost luggage time to catch up
with you, time to make alternate arrangements if needed, time to recover from any jetlag.
3.
Weigh your bags and stay at least 2kg under the
weight limit on each bag, this allows for dodgy airport scales and, or your
gear not being fully dried out on your return trip.
4.
When asked what sporting gear you have when
checking in Spearfishing gear it is “Fishing Gear” NOT “Spear Guns” this will
save you a lot of hassles from check in staff and possibly some cash as some
airlines (US airlines in particular) that only allow 1 checked bag don’t charge
extra for fishing gear, it is classed as “Sporting gear, Fishing gear, long
thin”.
5.
Have as little carry-on luggage as possible,
just your Passport, tickets, wallet, camera , and essential toiletries/ medicine.
6.
Have everything set before you join the line for
security screening that means nothing in your pockets, jacket or jumper off and
belt removed and all in your carry on bag, so you can just dump 1 bag on the
belt and walk through, in the US this means wearing slip on shoes.
7.
Lock your bags with TSA lock’s and pack your
gear so it will survive being dropped from a height of 20ft, if you don’t I guarantee
you some baggage monkey will do it.
8.
If you have connecting flights that require a
change of airline or terminal during your journey never believe the check in
staff that your luggage is checked through to your destination.
9.
Allow a minimum of 3 hours between domestic and
international connections if possible this allows you to collect and recheck
your bags between connecting flights( see rule 8 ).
10.
Remove all unnecessary luggage tags from your
luggage and pay particular attention to the those little barcode ones.
If you follow these rules then I
am pretty confident you will have a trouble free journey and have all your
luggage arrive on time. In all my years of travel I have never had my luggage
go missing and fingers crossed it never happens, but if it does I know there’s
a pretty good chance it will catch up with me in time, and my trip will not be
ruined.
