Avoiding The Oops Moment In Your Travel
When hopping countries becomes a habit, one tends to overlook the more pedestrian aspects of travel. We bring you a checklist to save the hassles that might catch you unawares
Image: Sameer Pawar
Health Certificate
Fish out your polio vaccination certificates. Fast. Good news: India is finally polio-free. Bad news: If you are returning from a country that isn’t (Nigeria, for instance), you may be quarantined at the airport unless you flash your certificates.
Flights by Night
Taking a red-eye flight to London? Check the ticket date again. A large number of international flights take off past midnight, the following day on the calendar. You might think you are flying on the 10th when you actually booked a seat for the 9th.
Stuck at the Gate
London by morning, Paris by evening, and back to London the next day? Make sure you’ve got a multiple entry visa to the UK. Often, innocuous paperwork stops business travellers from entering a country. If you are planning your travel in advance, put the visa on your checklist.
Long-Term Trouble
Frequent flyers often opt for year-long visas to avoid paperwork every time they board a flight. And then they just forget about it. Unless the immigration officer points out that their visa has expired and the only journey they are allowed to make is the one back home.
(With Inputs from Madhav Oza, owner, Blue Star Air Travel Services, and Ryan D’Souza, travel manager, Trust Travel and Tours)
(This story appears in the 07 March, 2014 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
