Pre Flight Ritutals

Always better to be safe than sorry is my motto, even though I am not away until sept next year I have a folder with my holiday stuff in it already, ESTA printed off and in the folder, holiday insurance sorted and in the folder, all my holiday details printed off in duplicate and into the folder and the spare copy into another folder.
I also have a usb drive with all my holiday details on it too

It's interesting that we all print off ESTAs despite us not needing to!

In fairness I only printed off Mrs D's (previously did print both)
It is just a record of when I did them so easier than looking up on line if we have something in the travel document folder.

Dick D

I never take my licence counterpart and of course Sod's law now says I will need it.

OH forgot his counterpart licence when we went to NZ in 2008 which meant all car hire had to be done in my name - he could drive but not hire so it wasn't the end of the world but it did have a drawback.

I too print out ESTAs! :w

I too have printed out my ESTAs, and made digital copies that I've emailed to my iCloud address so I have copies on phone and iPad, same with printed copy of passports, I've sent scans to myself so I have these on both devices too.

I used to type and print a packing list which comes from my days as a trainer giving presentations as it made me organised with various documents and handouts plus presentation equipment, PowerPoint presentations blah blah. Now I have an app that produces a packing list and I can customise short and long trips and include gadgets etc. Brill! :w

Good to hear I am not the only one to give the fuselage a tap before boarding. Some good tips here as I will be travelling with our little one for the first time later this year, not Virgin but Ryanair from Stanstead, will treat this as practice for the big trip next year to Barbados, have ordered a flight log book already! Its seems to be a lot easier (and less fun) on the way home, quick scoot of the room, double and triple checking especially the safe and the bed sheets, still same routine though for the plane.

I also print my ESTA. I check my passport the night before, when I wake up, before I leave the house, as I'm locking the door, and when I'm in the cab. As a result I have never forgotten it

My ritual is usually to do with liquids. I pack them all in a neat little clear plastic bag, including the borderline products (lip balm, which really is a solid product under the UK weather), put them somewhere easy to get, raedy for security. I also bring a water bottle for the cab journey (all 30 minutes of it, to LGW or LHR), just in case I get really thirsty. And you guessed it, many times my bag had to be searched at security, because I've left the bl00dy bottle full of water in it!

So my ritual now will be to remember to throw it away before I join the queue.

I never take my licence counterpart and of course Sod's law now says I will need it.

OH forgot his counterpart licence when we went to NZ in 2008 which meant all car hire had to be done in my name - he could drive but not hire so it wasn't the end of the world but it did have a drawback.

I too print out ESTAs! :w

Actually I hired a car in NZ in Feb and they did not ask for it which sounds like it was a result ! Or they have relaxed that rule, this was with Hertz and I am in their Presidents Cirgle thingy so perhaps that makes a difference, who knows. Might try and remember it for next time just in case now !

Our habits are very similar to a lot of people's here. We obsessively check travel documents, and as we travel so frequently we have packing down to a fairly fine art. I still like to follow a list and usually pack about 48-24 hours in advance; any earlier and I'll change my mind too often about what to bring. Flights, accommodation, hire cars, ESTAs etc. are all sorted well in advance. We get travel insurance through my husband's bank account, which gives us one less thing to worry about organising.

Bretty, what's the app that you use for a packing list?

Actually I hired a car in NZ in Feb and they did not ask for it which sounds like it was a result ! Or they have relaxed that rule, this was with Hertz and I am in their Presidents Cirgle thingy so perhaps that makes a difference, who knows. Might try and remember it for next time just in case now !

Hertz are the only company that ever ask me ( at every rental I have ) for both bits ( I'm PC too LOL ) with NZ being the worst place .Mr DL only had the plastic bit and they wouldn't add him to the rental :0 .
Rituals?
Decanting cards and money into a more manageable purse ( and a mix of cards), printing a hard copy of all my documents ( the thought of losing anything that's just on my phone causes me to become a bit edgy) and making sure I have a spare phone as a backup .
Constantly asking Mr DL if all the chargers/power cables are in the laptop bag...
I don't obsess about lists or packing ( cubes? what?) -I just pack for every eventuality .
DL

The last 2 flights I've had I've been unable to find my camera charger.
So my ritual is looking for it the day before the flight. Not finding it so having to stop somewhere on the way to the airport to buy another charger!
I've asked where it was last week but not bothered to look for it yet so i might be on number 3 on Saturday.

Hi spacedog, it's called Pack my bag, and in the Apple App Store it has a yellow suitcase logo. It was all of 69p and is basic but suited to purpose.

The last 2 flights I've had I've been unable to find my camera charger.
So my ritual is looking for it the day before the flight. Not finding it so having to stop somewhere on the way to the airport to buy another charger!
I've asked where it was last week but not bothered to look for it yet so i might be on number 3 on Saturday.

All my spare chargers, cables, cameras, even a small set of speakers in case I want music in my hotel room, are all in a container in my wardrobe |:)

i have but one exception - short haul travel. for some reason i just dont get so excited or organised. In prague this week and only packed the night before. although travel docs including pdfs were sorted weeks before. just before sleepung the,night before our flight at LHR i asked the,missus "wheres my passport?"
but for Tokyo next spring i have already booked two hotels and have been following the Yen multiples times daily since getting off the last NRT flight.

i have but one exception - short haul travel. for some reason i just dont get so excited or organised. In prague this week and only packed the night before. although travel docs including pdfs were sorted weeks before. just before sleepung the,night before our flight at LHR i asked the,missus "wheres my passport?"
but for Tokyo next spring i have already booked two hotels and have been following the Yen multiples times daily since getting off the last NRT flight.

I get excited about my short haul trips but more about where I'm going, whereas long haul and flying VS I get excited about the flight experience too (before I discovered VS I wouldn't have said this, they really put the fun into flying for me).

So how are you finding Prague gfonk? I've been several times and love it, but haven't been in summer.

i think thats the same for me too bretty.
VS make flying fun. DTCI and the CH!
prague - loving it. people are very friendly the food is fantastic. and though not a great drinker am really enjoying the beer.
we went to a classical music recital last night and are going to a concert tonight.
i can certainly see why you have been here a few times.
just wondering but does anybodies rituals extend to the return flight?

I always touch the outside of the aircraft just before I enter into the cabin.

I buy new shoes, yea wierd huh

I must have my Worthers Originals regardless of outward or return

Ahh, shoes... I tend to buy new shoes at my destination. Imelda Marcos me.

i think thats the same for me too bretty.
VS make flying fun. DTCI and the CH!
prague - loving it. people are very friendly the food is fantastic. and though not a great drinker am really enjoying the beer.
we went to a classical music recital last night and are going to a concert tonight.
i can certainly see why you have been here a few times.
just wondering but does anybodies rituals extend to the return flight?

That's what I love about places like Prague, Krakow, Warsaw, Tallinn etc. There's lots of arts related stuff at the heart of the culture. And it's cheap! We've seen great opera, ballet, classical recitals over the years for a fraction of the cost in the UK and just more accessible to everyone. On my first visit to Prague we saw / listened to a fantastic soprano soloist give a recital simply accompanied by a classical pianist. It was stunning. The next night we listened to an 8 piece orchestra play Vivaldi's Four Seasons with some Mozart and Dvořák thrown in.

Anyway, onto the return journey. Well... it's coming home isn't it. I still make all the same prep with packing, especially if we've shopped a lot as it has to be done precisely to ensure items are safe. And then I still make sure I've got plenty of time to get to airport etc, but otherwise, am not always keen to come back!

For me, my packing routine for my return journey takes a fraction of that for the outbound. Assuming that I haven't made a lot of purchases during the holiday (sometimes true, and others not so much), on the way back it's a matter of chucking everything into the case, making sure that I haven't missed anything (sometimes successful at that, sometimes not). If I have made significant purchases, well then it often takes quite a bit longer, due to reshuffling things between all the bags that I have, and sitting on some of them so that they would zip up...

Ha! I love this thread!

I've had the same Clubhouse rituals for years.
Arrive at 8, get to the Clubhouse at 8:10 (;)) straight to treatments for booking, bar for whiskey, one hour in the steam shower and jacuzzi, over for massages and hair treatments, then late breakfast or lunch, one more for the air road and off we go to whichever random gate they've picked on the other side of the airport that day

On the plane before the takeoff, I double tap the armrest on the seat, like Kevin Spacey does in House of Cards.

I'm lucky enough to have two residences in the UK and Japan, so recently I've been traveling with significantly less and less as I've been buying doubles of everything. It's my aim to travel to the UK with a ScottEVest with my passport and iPad in it only and no bags whatsoever.

fair play ryosan wow
on your ipad and passport phew wonder if any other vflyers have managed the same?