Sam's Travel Tips

Here are some tips for international travel from globetrotter and Air Ambulance Card president Sam Jackson. Have some great tips of your own? Share them here.

1. Make a copy of your passport and driver's license. Use a copy machine to reduce the size down to the point that you can fold it and put it in your wallet. Leave a copy of the passport and driver's license with someone at home who could fax it to you in an emergency. If you have access to a scanner, make a PDF file of both and leave with someone who could email it to you. With these copies, an embassy office can quickly issue you a temporary passport; they have all the information they need.

2. Put copies of your itinerary in a zip lock bag and put it in an outer pocket of your bag. If your luggage gets lost, the airline can locate your and send it to meet you.

3. Use bright luggage tags that are hard to rip off. Also consider using luggage straps. These can help prevent a disaster if the zipper on your overstuffed luggage decides to separate! Here is a great luggage tag that I use. They have a place for your itinerary inside the tag. I also use their TSA-Proof MyStrap. These are heavy duty items sure to last.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for more soon.

On a Mission from God, protected by Air Ambulance Card

Air Ambulance Card is a proud new member of the World Religious Travel Association. Here's what they say about themselves:

The World Religious Travel Association (WRTA) is the leading global network for the $18 billion faith tourism industry. WRTA's primary purpose is to guide, enrich, and expand religious travel and hospitality around the globe via the trade, consumer, and media. WRTA also exists to provide networking, educational, job market, and vacation opportunities for the travel trade and consumers.

We want their members (and you) to know we offer special rates for groups of ten or more who are travelling together, for mission work or other large group trips. Mission work takes people to far-flung and often dangerous locations. If they fall ill or are injured, we will bring them home.

Coed Calamities

This week, financial writer Christine Larson wrote about the monetary risk families take when they send their kids off to college. I'm not talking about skyrocketing tuition, in an article in US News and World Report she explained the costs to a family to transport a sick or injured child to your hometown hospital for treatment. Without a membership plan like Air Ambulance Card, air ambulance transports can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and that's money that must be paid BEFORE the patient boards the plane!
The article looks at three services, one that is more expensive than Air Ambulance Card, and one that allows the company, not the parents, to choose whether the student will be flown home.
Parents don't have a lot of say about what a kid does once he or she goes off to school... this is one choice you probably don't want to leave up to someone else.