When planning to take a flight, there are a number of important things one should do before boarding the plane. Whether it is for personal or business reasons, making sure you have made the appropriate preparations is a key component of having a pleasant flight experience. Below are a few pre-flight airline travel tips to help you prepare for your flight.
Pack Smart: Don't put all of your essential items in one luggage bag. Divide the essentials between your luggage bags. If you do this and a luggage piece is lost, you will not lose all of your important belongings. Mark your luggage bags with something that will make it easy to identify. This will help prevent someone else from taking your luggage by mistake. When it comes to traveling with cash in another country, carry only the required amount of local currency that you need when you are in the foreign country. Make sure that you will be able to use your bank debit card in another country. As well, make sure you have the appropriate traveler's checks that can be used in the country.
Make Copies of Essentials Documents: With any important document that you are taking with you on your trip, make sure you have made copies of those documents and they are stored in a safe place on your trip and in a safe place at home.
Flight Confirmation: It is important to call and reconfirm your booking about 24-72 hours in advance of the scheduled flight. Check with news sources such as local television to make sure there have not been any issues that will cause a flight disruption or cancellation. You can also check the airline online to see if there have been any changes with your flight.
Identification and Passports: Passengers over the age of 16 must show government-issued photo identification for domestic air travel such as a driver's license or health card. For those under the age of 16, non-government issued identification such as a student ID card or birth certificate is recommended. When traveling internationally, every passenger, including their children, must provide a valid passport.
Visas: It is essential that you check the visa requirements for the countries you are visiting. The Consular Affairs website has a list of countries that you need a visa to travel to. Check the International Travel Reports to make sure there are no security, safety, and health issues with the county you are going to visit.
Insurance: When traveling to another country or even state or province, it is important that you are protected. Check with your Credit Card Company, home insurance policy, and auto club insurance to see if you have adequate coverage for medical emergencies, lost or stolen luggage...etc. Consider purchasing travel insurance. Make sure you know exactly what your coverage entails.
Immunizations: It is important to make sure you have the appropriate vaccinations for the health risks associated with the country you are traveling. In some countries, immunization is a requirement for entering that country. Anti-malarial medications may have to be started weeks in advance of the flight.
Prepare for Airport Security: Make sure you know what you can take on the flight and what is prohibited. Passengers are allowed to bring liquids, gels and aerosols through security screening as long as the items are packaged in containers with a capacity of 100ml / 100 grams or less, and that the containers fit in one sealable clear plastic bag.
Before you embark on your next flight, it is important to make the necessary preparations so that your trip will be relaxing and enjoyable.
Cheapflights is all about providing fast and easy-to-use services to help you find cheap tickets and
flights online. Easily look at price comparisons for
cheap flights to London.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Adriana_N.Labels: pre-flight travel planning tips
Flight travel deals are out there, but not many travel industry insiders are offering them up, without you first asking about them. So, if you want to get the
best flight travel deals, you are going to have to do some research on your own. This article will go a long way toward helping get you started in that direction. The following basic tips are available to anyone (i.e., they don't require "insider connections" to achieve good results).
1) Book in advance. So basic and well known, I almost feel guilty offering it as a tip. Nonetheless, it can save you big money. Reserve your flight a month in advance, optimize your discount. Reserve your flight the week before, expect to pay premium prices.
2) Don't fly during regular business hours. Airline flight is a supply-and-demand business. If you insist on flying between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. -
when available seats are at their minimum - then plan on paying higher prices. Flying "the red-eye" - when LOTS of seats are available - can greatly lower the cost of your ticket.
3) Check the prices for flying out of/into an alternate airport. Sometimes, you'll get a better deal by driving to a larger, metropolitan area, rather than insisting on a flight departing from your local "community" airport. On the other hand, Los Angelenos, for example, know that driving to one of the smaller airports - NOT known as LAX - can save them
mucho dinero.
4) Ask the airline to adjust the price of your ticket to reflect the current price they are charging - IF, that is, prices have gone down since you booked your ticket. Few people do this - or even KNOW about this - but the airlines will adjust the price if you ask them to. Just don't expect them to do it without your prompting them first.
5) Don't park your car at the airport, if possible. Parking fees amass quickly - and might even offset all of the savings you managed to get through your other money-saving efforts. I once took a trip to Hawaii when I was fresh out of high-school (about 30 years ago...gulp!), and upon returning to Denver after two weeks, the cost of parking the car for all of that time came to over $100, leaving the four of us who went on the trip arriving home with nothing but coins in our pockets and fumes in the gas tank by the time we completed our 300-mile car ride home from the airport. Obviously, not parking at the airport isn't always an option. So, at the very least, consider the cost of parking your car in your budgeting plans.
6) Try to fly "off-season." Granted, flying to Hawaii for the Christmas holiday sounds very appealing when your home is under several feet of snow, but flying there in the summer can be much cheaper. I, for one, found Hawaii in July to be very enjoyable - especially with that extra cash for Mai-Tais on the beach.
7) Check into package deals. Sometimes you can save a lot of money by purchasing a package deal, where you buy your flight, your motel room, and possibly even a rental car all in one "package deal." You might even get some extras thrown in, like a luau (in Hawaii), or a Broadway show (in New York City).
8) Bulk discounts. Sometimes organizations or communities arrange trips for their members, saving each individual some cash in the deal. Senior communities commonly do this with trips to Las Vegas, for example.
9) Check with the aggregators. These outfits - aggregators - will compare multiple airlines and travel agencies, at once - finding you the best deal from all the places they dig around into. Of course, an aggregator can't possibly check ALL travel outlets, so try a few aggregators, and then try going directly through the airline that the aggregators deemed cheapest. You may find that the "going direct" to the airline of your choosing might reap better discounts for you, through frequent-flier programs, and such - not to mention allowing you to bypass the travel agency fees (minimal though they are).
There you have it, follow the above tips and you'll be well on your way to getting yourself a flight travel deal. But for some truly awesome money-savings tips, check out my website,
http://flight-travel-deals.com for more travel-related tips - including the insider secrets provided by a former travel industry insider! You'll also have access to an aggregator that - at the click of a button - will check more than 30 different hotel discount websites to help you get the best deal for your next hotel room, anywhere in the world. You'll also find insider secrets for car rental, hotel rental and even a guide to help you prepare for airport security - saving you the annoyance of having to leave behind items that the airlines won't allow on board!
Happy Travels, Sam Knotts
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sam_Knotts
Labels: flight travel deals - 9 tips for traveling on the cheap
