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Saturday, February 22, 2020

Frequent Flyer Habits

My first plane ride was to the US when I was four years old. It was our grand family trip which my parents organized because my brother and sister were on a long break. I remember going to Disneyland, Great America, watching Mr. Rogers and learning to cross the street to get the newspaper. We went home on my birthday and I celebrated it three times - at my Mom's best friend's home in San Francisco, on the plane and in Manila.

It was my first time to fly alone to the US when I joined my current job. I shed some tears when I arrived in San Francisco because I felt it was such a grown up thing to do. It was a huge learning experience for me and I've had to figure flights, hotels, getting from one point to another eversince.

I've done some crazy traveling in the last 10+ years. More than 90% of my travel has been work related, all memorable nonetheless. Here are some things I do whenever I have a flight.

1. Come to the airport early. I don't like rushing and I can't run.
2. Visit airport lounges selectively. I only go to the lounge when I'm at an airport I frequently visit or when I have some work to do.
3. Check out the airport bookshop and buy a magnet. I usually also check if there's any interesting tea to bring home for Sweetie.
4. Drink celebratory milk tea (where available). I have my favorite spots in Singapore, Malaysia, and Taiwan.
5. Make sure I have water. I always bring two bottles with me, one for water and one for coffee to avoid buying plastic bottles.
6. Wear a mask. I'm immuno-compromised so my doctor advised me to always wear a mask when traveling. I read though that germs abound more at the airport, but I wear a mask usually for take-off and landing. I could feel the air is very dirty during take off and landing. This is usually very obvious during haze season. So protect your lungs from dirty air!


One thing I need to work on though is reducing my handcarry. It's hard though because I have essentials I can't put in the check-in luggage (meds/essential oils). It really helps though that I use a Chromebook and it's much, much lighter than previous devices I used to bring with me.

What about you? What are your frequent flyer habits?




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