3 *MASSIVE* International Flight Mistakes (will YOU make them?)

in today's video I'll be covering three major mistakes to avoid when taking an international flight the second one can be especially tricky and I even made it on a recent flight home from Europe despite having flown hundreds of times you'd think I would have learned by now the first big mistake that International Travelers make is not knowing that their flight is going to begin boarding 45 minutes prior to the departure time and to add to this not knowing that boarding usually closes about 20 minutes before the scheduled departure meaning that if you get to the gate 20 minutes before takeoff you are likely not getting on the plane aim to be at your gate one hour prior to take off time so that you are around to catch all of the flight announcements and board the plane in a timely manner you do not want to delay boarding the plane because even if your seat is assigned the overhead bin space is not if you are the last to board the plane you will likely be asked to check your carry-on suitcase as most international flights are completely full these days and there is just not enough space for everyone's carry-on suitcase checking a carry-on suitcase for an international flight is never a good idea if you can avoid it as your belongings are now at risk of being damaged or even been lost by the airline the next mistake that could actually cause you to miss your international flight would be not preparing enough time to go through some sort of immigration or passport control line the trouble is that you don't always know when this passport check is going to be on my most recent flight from Lisbon to Canada I went through the Lisbon airport checkpoint hours before my flight and then started killing time in the general area where all of the airport shops restaurants and boarding gates work or at least I thought that was where they were it turns out that the area I was in was not where all of the gates were and I got a little bit nervous when it was just over an hour before my flight as I go to make my way to gate 37 only to realize that there is a passport control line between where I was and where the gate was a rather long passport control Line This checkpoint is not something to stress over and oftentimes you'll get a stamp without even a single question being asked about your travels but it is a checkpoint that could cause quite the hold up if you did not budget enough time for it and there happened to be lots of other passengers waiting ahead of you if you end up in a situation where your flight is boarding soon and you are at the back of a long passport control lineup see if you can find a member of the airport staff let them know your situation and see if you can get to the front of that line it can be quite annoying to the other passengers who are patiently waiting but honestly sometimes it's better to be a little bit annoying than it is to miss an international flight let us know down in the comments if you would try to get ahead of the line or if you would just cross your fingers and hope that it moves quickly I hate to admit that I have been that traveler that has asked a staff member or sometimes even if a staff member is not available asked other passengers if I could move ahead not something I like doing but also not something I have regretted the next mistake before an international flight would be not carrying both a physical and a digital version of your boarding pass it's always great to have both just in case you couldn't access the digital copy or if you lost the physical copy it's nice to have a backup as a digital version in addition to having a backup boarding pass there is another reason why it is a good idea to have both a physical and a digital copy sometimes when you're a boarding an international flight there are two separate lineups one lineup is for passengers with a digital boarding pass and one is for passengers with a physical boarding pass often one of these lineups is moving much quicker than the other having both a physical and a digital boarding pass is going to give you the advantage of choosing either lineup to go into you're usually going to want to pick the shorter one but if it's not obvious as to which one is shorter always go for the one with the physical boarding passes as it is often more difficult to scan a barcode from a device it can be glitchy or the brightness needs to be changed and in general that lineup is just going to move a little bit slower and another benefit of having both is that if you missed the announcement about which line is which you won't end up getting to the gate only to be told you need to go to the back of the other line based on your ticket type in an effort to board the flight as quickly as possible consider checking in for your flight online and then having your boarding pass emailed to you or even added to your digital wallet on your phone and then additionally print a copy at home or ask the front desk at your hotel you can also use the kiosks when you arrive at the airport even if you have already checked in to print your boarding passes completely free of charge if you are taking an international flight soon you may be interested in some of my favorite hacks to stay extra comfortable on a long flight in economy I'll have that video for you linked down in the description for you to watch next my name is Megan and I would love to see you subscribe for more travel tips next week thank you for watching and safe travels bye

Channel: Portable Professional (Travel Tips with Megan)

Views: 54,844

Keywords: first international flight, first time international flight procedure, how to travel in international flight first time, international flight, long international flight tips, international flight tips, tips for long flights, airport mistakes, airport security, travel mistakes, airport security tips, common airport mistakes, boarding international flight, lisbon airport arrivals, lisbon airport, first international flight guide, international travel, europe travel mistakes

Id: XfuPCLCgtwk

Length: 5min 14sec (314 seconds)

Published: Wed May 17 2023