MP Air Travel » Travel Tips

Travel Insurance for Your Lost Luggage

admin — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:22:13 +0000

Lost luggage can be a real pain. Even if you eventually get it back, nothing puts a damper on your travel like losing one or more pieces of your luggage. Even the threat of lost luggage makes us pack differently and consider taking less than we might actually need on the trip.

Up to 15 percent of lost luggage is never returned. After a certain amount of time, the airlines are obligated to reimburse you a standard amount. But that doesn’t really account for the items you actually had in your bag. If you want to receive true compensation for your actual possessions, you should consider taking out separate travel insurance. This type of private insurance will give you the extra piece of mind that even if you can’t avoid the trouble of lost luggage, you can avoid taking a major financial hit.

When shopping for travel insurance, it’s important to realize that not all of the policies are standard. That is, you can’t just purchase generic travel insurance and expect to know what’s covered. For this reason, you need to really do your homework and figure out precise what each policy protects you against, and how much this protection is going to cost.

You’ll definitely want insurance that covers the replacement value of your possessions contained in a permanently lost bag. However, you should also check into getting coverage for delayed insurance. Lots of lost bags tend to show up in the next day or so. Depending on how you’ve packed, this could cause a serious hardship and you may have to purchase items just to get you through the 24 to 48 hours that it will take your wayward bags to arrive. Travel insurance that covers delayed baggage will reimburse you for expenses to replace essential items like clothes and toiletries. Most of these provisions have a maximum of a few hundred dollars, but that could make a huge difference in your enjoyment of the trip.

How to Beat the New Airline Luggage Restrictions

admin — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:26:25 +0000

Back in the good old days of travel, you didn’t have to worry so much about how much your bags weighed or even how many bags you carried. Airlines were happy to accommodate your luggage in return for your travel business. Unfortunately, times have changed. Between terror threats, economic downturns and soaring jet fuel prices, airlines have started to look for ways to beef up their bottom line. Your baggage is an area where they are changing the rules in their favor.

First of all, you are generally allowed fewer bags than before. If you choose to take additional bags beyond the number limit, you will need to pay extra. In order to deal with this issue, it’s important to pack a little differently than you used to. Basically, you’re going to need to pack smarter. Instead of taking a variety of outfits for different days and events on your trip, your clothes need to mix and match. You need to pare your packing list down to a couple of essentials that combine well together and cover a variety of situations.

Weight limits are coming down too, which means that you will have to start weighing your bags. You should pick up some good luggage scales to prepare for check-in. Once you’re at the airport, it’s too late to start thinking about what you can take out of your baggage to lighten the load. You need to pare down in the comfort of your own home, and you can’t do this when you’re guessing at the weight of your bags. Don’t trust your bathroom scales to do this, it’s not what they were designed for.

Traveling in today’s world is not as carefree as it used to be, but there’s no reason you can’t still enjoy the journey. Just spend some additional time planning ahead. If all else fails, just carry enough cash to buy some of the things you need at your travel destination.

Staying Healthy in the Air

admin — Mon, 25 May 2009 21:28:26 +0000

Air travel is one of the safest ways to get from your home to any destination in the world. Although air crashes make spectacular news, when compared to the huge number of flights every day, your chances of being involved in one are tiny. However, crashing is not the only threat in the skies above. Recent years have seen the outbreak of several airborne diseases, including swine flu, bird flu and SARS. How can you protect yourself from the germs that inhabit the air around your airline seat?

The first thing you can do is stay informed about current health conditions abroad. Since prevention is always the best cure, you can prevent exposure to many illnesses simply by adjusting your travel plans in regard to current threats. In other words, if there is a current Asian pandemic, then don’t insist on flying to Singapore. Be flexible with your flight plans whenever possible.

If you must travel, then outfit your travel kit with some sanitizing wipes and hand sanitizer gel. Once you’re seated in the plane, use a few wipes to clean the plastic surfaces around you, including your tray table, your seat controls and the video panel. Keep your hand gel around and use it anytime you come into contact with surfaces, other passengers or the flight attendants. Don’t worry about offending someone. To be honest, they will probably envy your foresight and may ask if you can spare some wipes.

Considering the level of the threat, you may want to even carry along some surgical masks for protection against bugs in the air you breathe. You may also want to look for travel air purification kits. You may not have realized they exist, but there are travel sized purifying units that can actually make the air you breathe cleaner and healthier.