We have become completely reliant on our phones.
As a traveler, your phone is the number one piece of equipment that you cannot be without. It contains your money, your tickets, the books and magazines you might read on a flight. It can track your progress, and help you find directions when you get lost. It can help you search for new places to visit, plan out a journey, find new and unique places to stay and keep in contact with those at home.
If you work remotely, it is a point of access to sensitive encrypted information on your laptop. It is linked to your online banking through OTPs.
It even keeps an eye on your home back in the UK through integrated home security apps that live stream to your phone wherever in the world you are.
HAVE YOU CONSIDERED WHAT IF…
Have you considered what would happen if you lost your phone in transit? Imagine you had picked up your taxi in your home town of Maidstone, driven all the way to Heathrow to catch your flight, and realized that between getting out of the taxi and queuing up at the check-in desk, your phone had vanished into thin air!
Everything is on it – telephone numbers, flight tickets, reservation details, travel schedule, payment methods. Gone.
You are left stranded having to sort it all out before you are able to get on that flight.
It is possible to unravel all the inconveniences in time, but without access to a phone or the internet, it is a long and laborious process that will impact on your ability to continue your journey as planned.
WRITE IT DOWN IN INK ON PAPER
As a result, you would be wise to make a note of some essential numbers and information and keep a hard copy, printed on a piece of real tangible paper, one that you can feel and touch and doesn’t rely on a battery to be accessed, and tuck it somewhere safe so that you know you can retrieve it should the need occur. In fact, make two or three copies, and secrete them in different places just in case you lose your luggage, or your backpack gets pinched. They weigh nothing, take up no space at all, but might well save your bacon should the worst happen.
Information you want on this piece of paper could include: the phone number of that Maidstone taxi company you used – you never know, you might just have inadvertently dropped your phone under the front passenger seat as you got out of the taxi.
Other information will include emergency contact numbers, telephone numbers for your bank, flight details, destination hotel details, insurance details, and passport details. Although you would not be advised to keep sensitive passwords noted on this piece of paper, maybe create a system that links a telephone number back to a trusted gatekeeper who can be called on in an emergency.
DON’T RELY ON YOUR PHONE
You don’t have to even lose your phone to experience this inconvenience – phones run on battery power. As phones age and batteries get used, the length of time they have to run diminishes. The older the phone, the shorter the battery life. Even a phone that is just 12 months old does not have as long battery life as a brand new one.
This problem is further perpetuated by the fact that your phone is in constant use while you’re traveling, draining the battery without convenient recharging opportunities.
Or maybe your phone simply dies on you for no reason (we’ve all felt it – that stomach-churning feeling when you’re doing everything you can to power up your phone, and all you get is a blank screen looking back at you.)
Don’t rely 100% on your phone. Back it up with paper!