These days I’m lucky as I don’t often have to travel on business. On a recent business trip to America I think I made almost every mistake in the book.
Things didn’t start well as, when I arrived at Gatwick there were no more nearby airport parking spaces in the car parks close to my airport terminal. I had to pay a premium price for a parking space that was miles from the airport.
This delayed my getting to the checkin desk and I was already a bit late. This didn’t go down well at the check in desk where they told me that I should have arrived an hour earlier. They also told me that I could have checked in online and printed my boarding pass myself before leaving home. Well you live and learn I suppose.
The early start had meant that I left home without having any breakfast so I immediately headed for one of the many airport restaurants. I couldn’t believe the extortionate prices they were charging for an English breakfast, but luckily for me I was spending expenses money.
As soon as I arrived in Atlanta I headed for the car hire suppliers. It turned out that there were a whole load of conferences in town and most of their more comfortable models had already been hired out. I ended up having to accept a Dodge pickup for the duration of my two day visit. Again, if I’d used my head and booked in advance I could have reserved the car that I wanted and saved my employers some money.
When I returned to the airport I was wearing a different belt, with a heavy metal buckle, and I had my big bunch of keys in my pocket. This resulted in my undergoing no less than three body scans before I successfully passed through the security check.
It was after I’d boarded the aircraft that I realised that I had left my PDA somewhere in the airport. Or it may have been stolen from my pocket. It wasn’t until I got home that I found out that my travel insurance policy didn’t cover lost or stolen items like this. I really wished then that I had checked before leaving home and maybe taken out some useful gadget insurance.
It’s pretty obvious that I am a little out of practice when it comes to air travel these days. I think the best thing for me would be to stay put here in the UK.