Holiday is meant to be a time off for pleasure or perhaps to gain insight about other places, people, culture and even weather conditions. Many at times we plan our holiday with the intention of having a blissful experience but out of our negligence we make some avoidable mistakes that leave everything shattered and what is supposed to be a delightful experience turn out to be a painful one. This article highlights some avoidable air travel mistakes that can ruin a holiday.
Travel Documents
The first analysis rests on travel document. The common mistakes that many travellers make with their travel documents that are worth mentioning: passport expiration and travelling with wrong passport. In view of passport expiration, some travellers get to the airport before realising that their passport has expired. I also have seen travellers bringing wrong passport to the airport €" husband come with wife's passport or wife come with husband's when the husband is not travelling. Perhaps the reason for this is because those travel documents are usually kept together in the same place. These are careless mistakes that can be avoided if we do a pre-travel check on all our documents some days before commencing on a trip.
Special Requirement
Secondly, some countries require that travellers have at least six months validity remaining on their passport before coming to the country, while in some other the requirement is that you have at least one empty page remaining in your passport before you can pay a visit. Many holidaymakers never find out about these special requirements until they get to the airport where they are turned back on the day of their travel. What a painful experience that will be for a holiday one has hoped for! These problems can be avoided; a careful holiday maker will check the Embassy, High Commission or the Consular representative of the country he is planning to travel to so as to have good knowledge of the entire immigration requirements before going ahead to even book a flight.
Baggage Mistakes
The third thing that travellers should be careful with when travelling is their luggage. The mistakes associating with luggage are many. Prominent among them is missing luggage. To safeguard this, it is better for a holiday maker who is travelling for a shot visit not to check in any bags especially if he is connecting another flight. Travel advisers will normally ask you to check in your bags directly to your final destination if you are connecting. While that is good, however, there is high tendency that you may be travelling without your luggage. The connecting airline may not wait for your bags to be transferred from other flight before departing and you may not receive the bag until three or four days later. What a painful experience for someone who has gone on a short visit of four or five days. The best option, though very expensive, is for you to send your luggage ahead using reliable courier service.
Not Declaring Your Money
Money laundering is serious offence all over the world. Seasoned travellers know about it and they usually travel with widely acceptable credit cards. Credit card has its own disadvantages as you have the tendency of spending beyond your budget. Therefore travelling with some cash may be a good option. However, if a traveller must enter another country with cash, the amount of money he is holding must be declared to the customs or the immigrations at the airport. It is a simple process; it only involves writing the amount of cash you are holding in your arrival card and the departure card as the case may be. If a traveller however carry a large amount of money (amount may vary by countries) without declaration, then he is liable to delay, prosecution, fine or imprisonment as the case may be. Holiday travellers should therefore watch it.
Not Giving Enough Time for Connecting Flight
Booking direct flight is the best way to travel if we don't want to experience the problems associating with connecting flight. However, this is sometimes unavoidable as traveller's destination may require a connecting flight. The mistake that most travellers make then comes up €" they give just 45 minutes or less to connect. Well 45 minutes is good enough if €all things remain equal' but that can be disastrous as well if there arise a delay with the first flight. If you are on a short holiday and you missed your connecting flight, you may need to sleep at the airport and not even get to your destination until the following day. Experienced travellers will normally give more that 45 minutes to connect especially if they are travelling to a destination they have never been before.
Travel Documents
The first analysis rests on travel document. The common mistakes that many travellers make with their travel documents that are worth mentioning: passport expiration and travelling with wrong passport. In view of passport expiration, some travellers get to the airport before realising that their passport has expired. I also have seen travellers bringing wrong passport to the airport €" husband come with wife's passport or wife come with husband's when the husband is not travelling. Perhaps the reason for this is because those travel documents are usually kept together in the same place. These are careless mistakes that can be avoided if we do a pre-travel check on all our documents some days before commencing on a trip.
Special Requirement
Secondly, some countries require that travellers have at least six months validity remaining on their passport before coming to the country, while in some other the requirement is that you have at least one empty page remaining in your passport before you can pay a visit. Many holidaymakers never find out about these special requirements until they get to the airport where they are turned back on the day of their travel. What a painful experience that will be for a holiday one has hoped for! These problems can be avoided; a careful holiday maker will check the Embassy, High Commission or the Consular representative of the country he is planning to travel to so as to have good knowledge of the entire immigration requirements before going ahead to even book a flight.
Baggage Mistakes
The third thing that travellers should be careful with when travelling is their luggage. The mistakes associating with luggage are many. Prominent among them is missing luggage. To safeguard this, it is better for a holiday maker who is travelling for a shot visit not to check in any bags especially if he is connecting another flight. Travel advisers will normally ask you to check in your bags directly to your final destination if you are connecting. While that is good, however, there is high tendency that you may be travelling without your luggage. The connecting airline may not wait for your bags to be transferred from other flight before departing and you may not receive the bag until three or four days later. What a painful experience for someone who has gone on a short visit of four or five days. The best option, though very expensive, is for you to send your luggage ahead using reliable courier service.
Not Declaring Your Money
Money laundering is serious offence all over the world. Seasoned travellers know about it and they usually travel with widely acceptable credit cards. Credit card has its own disadvantages as you have the tendency of spending beyond your budget. Therefore travelling with some cash may be a good option. However, if a traveller must enter another country with cash, the amount of money he is holding must be declared to the customs or the immigrations at the airport. It is a simple process; it only involves writing the amount of cash you are holding in your arrival card and the departure card as the case may be. If a traveller however carry a large amount of money (amount may vary by countries) without declaration, then he is liable to delay, prosecution, fine or imprisonment as the case may be. Holiday travellers should therefore watch it.
Not Giving Enough Time for Connecting Flight
Booking direct flight is the best way to travel if we don't want to experience the problems associating with connecting flight. However, this is sometimes unavoidable as traveller's destination may require a connecting flight. The mistake that most travellers make then comes up €" they give just 45 minutes or less to connect. Well 45 minutes is good enough if €all things remain equal' but that can be disastrous as well if there arise a delay with the first flight. If you are on a short holiday and you missed your connecting flight, you may need to sleep at the airport and not even get to your destination until the following day. Experienced travellers will normally give more that 45 minutes to connect especially if they are travelling to a destination they have never been before.