People travel all the time. It does not matter whether it is summer or winter.
You might be just planning your trip, or have everything done and just waiting for the day of your departure. Or you are still saving up for the vacation of your dreams. Whatever category you are in, it is never too late to get some tips on how to get ready for a flight.
Here we wrote down some tips of how it works and what you should think of before you even fly and will take you through the entire journey until you board the plane to your destination.
All for your stress free travels.
Travel documents
Make sure to check your travel documents before you even book your holiday as dealing with new passport may take some time, depends where you live of course. What i can also suggest you to do is to take a photo of your documents and send it to your email. Prevents you from being without any documentation in a foreign country in case of a loss, damage or theft. It is always way easier for the embassy to issue a new piece of paper, when you show them at least something.
I do not mean to scare you, but i prefer to be ready for anything. How about you?
Luggage
Whether you are planning to take only a backpack or a big suitcase, you should definitely take into account the rules of the airline you are about to fly with. Each has slightly different rules in terms of size, amount and kilos. It can become really useful to buy yourself a hand scale for a suitcase (not once it paid off for us) as we all know, we tend to buy things to bring back home and luggage might get overweight. Subsequent surcharges at the airport for such weight are really high.
If you carry your hand luggage (that is, on board an aircraft), then there are certain rules of what does not belong into such suitcase. Security workers will not argue with you, and they will just throw your spray, scissors and other "dangerous" things away. We will write closely about this topic in another article.
Departure to the airport
Calculate exactly when you need to be at the airport and count with some extra minutes in case of traffic. You need less time for flights within the Schengen area in Europe, as they do not check the travel documents, but you still have to go through the security check, which sometime takes really long due to people who have no idea what to do.
For flights outside the EU, 2 hours before departure are recommended. If you are flying for the first time, then it may be better to arrive a little earlier to be calm, go through everything you need without stress, have some toilet brake a snack and find a boarding bridge without the need of sprinting.
Upon arrival to the airport
Check the departure information board, to see where your check-in desk is. Here you will leave your luggage, get boarding passes and the boarding gate number. Again, some airlines require online check-in and they would charge you extra if they have to do it for you at the airport. Then you can print your ticket at home.
If you did it online, then just hand over the suitcase at the counter and you are done. You will then enter the security control zone. Here I recommend, that you prepare yourself in advance so that you do not delay anybody (including yourself). You will have to pass through the gate, so you should not have any coins, phone or keys in your pockets, nor you should wear your belt, put all of that in your bag or suitcase. You will not let go with a watch, scarf around your neck or heavy sweatshirt on, you put everything in a container there, designed for this purpose. There must be no liquids in your hand luggage / handbag / backpack - cosmetics, perfume, water (it doesn't matter that it has not been opened yet). You are allowed to carry only small size products up to 100 ml and up to ten of such products. All of them have to be in a ziplock bag. These are usually handed out by the airport staff in front of these gates, but i prefer to have everything ready from home. So that i can only get there, take it out of my bag in the ziplock and place it into the container. Saving time.
Boarding
Behind the security check is again an information board that tells you what gateway your aircraft will depart from. I recommend to find this gate first and only then go shopping. This will help you orientate at the terminal and prevent you missing the flight after spending too much time in the stores and not knowing where to go.
Be aware, that the gate can change.
Boarding takes place usually about half an hour before the scheduled departure and there is no need to stand in line or try to squeeze forward, your seat is already reserved. The only hitch that could happen is that you would not have space for your hand luggage (it would simply not fit into the compartments above you, due to the amount) and would have to go into the cargo. In this case, it is free of charge, but do not forget to take out any important things you may have there, such as medicines, or any expensive technique such as computer, camera, etc.
You can always see a number and a letter on the boarding pass, which indicates your seat. The number indicates the row, so if boarding both the front and rear doors of the aircraft, make sure where you sit, to take the correct turn.
1-15 row boards by front door and 16-32 row by rear door. (now speaking of a small aircraft, usually used for shorter distances)
The letter then indicates the seat. It is always marked from the letter A, which is by the window on the left (in the direction of flight). Which seat and row you are currently standing by can also be found on the trunk compartments above the seats.
During the flight
Keep in mind that you are not there alone, so try not to make too much noise, don´t put the back of your seat down without asking, don´t stand too long in the aisle to block the crew.
Keep your seat-belt on at any time due to the unexpected turbulence, that may occur as air velocity and temperature keep changing in this altitude. Some may be stronger and i bet that injury is nothing, that you are looking for.
WHAT TO TAKE ON BOARD OF AN AIRCRAFT? - read the blog post
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