Very good thread, good ideas & suggestions. I am very hyphenated about such, but always looking for new ideas as well as those I forgot...
Yeah, I copy all important papers, put a copy in my roll-on since the orginals are in my backpack, send copies to my daughter and brother. I actually put my hotel name, city, and dates on a luggage tag to assist in late deliver if needed. Learned that one from Windjammer.
A new one I recently learned, called your bank to let them knwo where you're going, so they won't cancel your credit card if you use it outside of the US. This is happening more and more. I even had one turned off in Florida, but that was easy to fix. Calling to reactivate outside of US could be challening, as well as paying for dinner if the card is declined.
...many standard health and hospitalization policies do not cover you when travelling outside the United States.
Yep, the #1 reason for me to take trip insurance on trips out of the US. DAN's Travel Assist might get me back to Houston if needed for a heart attack or stroke - and I have knowm people in their 20s with these, but I need the local hospital to believe they'll get paid for rendering top care before evacuation. Otherwise, the death report could say
"We did all we reasonably could."There are other reasons for spending $50 to insure a $1,000 trip. If the airline loses your bags on an International trip, they're only liable for $9.07 per pound - about $453.50 max per bag for most. Trip ins helps here, too - and I don't really want to file a claim on my homeowners, hope they pay without exclusions, and hope they don't look at this as a reason to drop me.
Or what if the van driver, ferry bag handler, or hotel porter misplaces your bags? Returning from my first SD trip to Coz, we got to the airport, and when we unloaded out bags - we had two bags from a traveler who'd just arrived at the hotel that day that the porter had loaded along with ours. Poor fellow had traveled half a day to get to Coz, got his bags to the hotel, checked in and went to his room with his roll-on, left the big bags with the porter - and next he would be told:
"We do not know where your bags are Senor? Are you sure you brought them to us? Do you have a receipt?" He would be out of luck. I didn't trust the van driver with the task - altho it could have been ok. I took his bags into the airport, to his arrival airline, and got them to promise to handle it - then called him at the hotel myself. What's the chances of someone finding my bags someplace, tho - and being that deligent? Who knows, but for the tiny premium of Trip Ins, I'm covered for all these
When traveling with dive gear, I think it's best not to advertise what's inside - no dive stickers, no dive flags, no gear logos, etc.
Nah! Used dive gear has little street value. If a thief is going to go after luggage, he's going to look for nice, regular bags more likely to have nice things that are easy to sale. Beat up looking bags are fine, but if it looks like dive gear - thieves will be less interested.
I do carry my regs, masks, computers, and as much other as possible in my roll-on - just bought a new one closer to the maximym size allowed, but cameras go in my backpack with my laptop and meds. On many smaller planes the roll-ons are gate checked, and I have seen cameras broken that way, even gate-checked bags lost when someone grabs the wrong one. Also carry my Travelers' Checks and envelope of small bills in my backpack, which never leave my person.
I have noticed a lot of people trying colored ribbons to their bags, so I have started using two contrasting colors tied together on several spots on each bag, as well as my backpack - so if i have to file a lost bag claim, I can say
"Ribbons like these." One lady in Houston waiting for her bags saw my red & yellow ribbons and said
"Oh my son is a Marine, too"
Edited by DandyDon, 25 February 2007 - 06:28 PM.