As a seasoned travel veteran who has held some level of status with airlines for essentially the last 15 years, I’ve learned quite a few things that make travel easier for me. And recently, some really cool tools make traveling less burdensome.
Make your travel smoother with these timely travel tips.
1. Hotel — How to remember your room number
For many of us, we will be in 3 or more hotels in the month of January. For some, even 1 hotel room number is easy to forget (some due to a little too much fun…). When you check in, take a picture of your room number. As long as you don’t lose your phone, you’ll remember your room. 🙂 (PS This works for parking too).
Yes, my room is 938. Charge all you want to it. 🙂
2. Calendar
If you are crossing time zones (like most of us will for the PPAI Expo), set up your meetings in the proper time zone. Once you land, your phone will switch to the new time zone and mess you up especially if you have lots of meetings. So do 2 things:
A. Put the time in the title of EVERY meeting. So instead of saying “Maximize Mobile Seminar”, make the title “Maximize Mobile Seminar 11am-12am”. If you accidentally schedule it wrong, at least you’ll see the time it is supposed to be.
B. Schedule the time on the proper time zone. For me, I am on EST so my 11am MAXIMIZE MOBILE seminar is scheduled for 2pm EST. When I land in Las Vegas, it will show up at 11am. (If you want to get fancy, message me and I’ll show you how I have both time zones on my calendar.)
3. Electronics
A. Stop what you are doing and order a ZAGG charger http://www.zagg.com/accessories/zaggsparq.php. This will let you charge your phone and your ipad at the same time WITHOUT needing an outlet. Works great for phones but will only partially charge your ipad unless you are near an outlet.
B. Lose the Bluetooth. Seriously, it’s hideous and it doesn’t sound good. Get a good headset (Zagg makes one) that doesn’t tangle. Sound is way better and you can listen to music on the plane to avoid the annoying person next to you. (Unless you are that annoying person).
C. Buy a month long pass to gogo internet. If you are going to Vegas and your flight has wifi, it’s a good value. We can play Words With Friends together (but no streaming of videos so be sure to download your video’s before departing).
4. Food tips.
Whether everything goes smooth or not, you’ll need nourishment. And if you get delayed, this will really come in handy.
A. Bring an empty Gatorade or water bottle in your carry on. Unless you are a water snob, it’s a great way to avoid paying $4 for a bottle of water. Many airports now offer filtered water stations and those that don’t still have water fountains.
B. Pack a couple of your favorite snack bars. $1 at the grocery store or $4 in the airport, you decide.
C. Don’t pack a banana in your carry on. It’s very messy. I know from experience.
5. Apps
You do have tripit don’t you? No? Get it. Very cool app makes it much easier to keep your flights organized and if you buy premium helps you when things get messed up.
6. A great check point friendly carry on bag —
I have to give a plug to Leed’s who provided me with an incredible backpack that holds everything. And I mean everything. Checkpoint friendly and a really cool “TechTrap” to keep all the many cables and items from getting lost. (Unpaid, unsolicited, I love this bag.)
Did I miss a great tip? Please leave it in the comment below.
