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[INTRO MUSIC]
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SIGNED: Hey, what’s up?!
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So, I’ve been traveling a lot in the past
year and
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with every new trip that I take, I end up
learning something that
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I should do for future trips to
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either get myself more organized or just to
try to make
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actually being in the airport and being on
the plane easier.
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So I’ve accumulated ten tips and I’m
going to share them with you.
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1: Have a carry on pouch.
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Something that looks like this with a little
zipper is fine.
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Or like a little crossbody bag.
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This is what you would want to have to put
your wallet,
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boarding pass,
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passport, and a pen in.
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Now, obviously, you can just take your regular
carry on or your personal item and put your
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stuff in there.
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But if you’re like me, sometimes you tend
to forget to actually put things where they’re
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supposed to in there
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and they get misplaced and you might end up
losing your passport or your boarding pass
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that way.
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I’ve accidentally lost my passport for about
20 minutes that way.
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And as I’ve walked around the airports a
couple of times, I’ve seen boarding passes
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get left behind by accident.
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So it’s just nice to have something small
like this to always hold in your hand or have
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out so if you’re going to get something
to eat or if you’re at customs and you need
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to get your passports and stuff out, it’s all right
here instead of having to, like, take your
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bag off or open up your carry on and, you
know,
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fiddle through that.
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I carry a carry on that’s kind of like a
small suitcase and a backpack
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and opening those just takes too much time.
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So it’s just nice to have everything in
one little spot.
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2: Pack smart and organized.
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It’s easy to just throw everything in a
bag and go, especially if you’re packing
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at the last minute -
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which, by the way, don’t pack at the last
minute.
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I am that person that will actually pack about
a week ahead of time.
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Mostly, I pack clothes first like
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shirts and stuff.
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I have a lot of shirts already, so I can just
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put the ones that I know I don’t really
need to wear here and just put those in my
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bag so it’s already there.
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If you’re going somewhere for only a short
amount of time and you don’t want to unpack
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everything and leave it in a room,
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it’s nice to make sure everything is organized
so you can just pick something out and when
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you’re done, put it back in where it was
before which is
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what I like to do when I’m taking small
business trips like VidCon and, uhm,
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the public speaking thing that I did.
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It’s just nice to have it all still there.
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3: Have multiple copies of your boarding passes
in various formats.
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So what I mean is have a physical copy of
your boarding pass that you can actually hold,
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like, a piece of paper.
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Have them mailed to you in your email so it’s
always there online if you need to get back
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to it.
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And if you can, which you should be able to,
save it or put it in, like, the little -
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I don’t know what it’s called, but iPhone
has it.
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Excuse me for a second.
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I think it might be the Wallet app on this,
but I’m not really sure.
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You probably know what I’m talking about
anyway.
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But like I said in the previous tip, I’ve
seen people leave their boarding passes behind
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and, sometimes, there’s not enough time
to go to the customer service desk and get
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them reprinted,
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so just have a bunch of them in different
formats and be good.
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4: If you don’t already use a credit card,
get a prepaid credit card for emergencies,
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just in case.
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When I was flying back to Charlotte in November
from Toronto,
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I unexpectedly had a third bag.
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So, instead of just having my little carry
on and my bookbag and getting, you know, just
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ready to go on the plane, I had to check that
bag in.
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Now, I had $30 in cash which was enough to
check in -
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or to check it -
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But they wouldn’t take cash.
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United would not take cash and I was kind
of screwed because I didn’t have a credit
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card or a prepaid credit card.
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They told me to go down to the 7-11 to get
one, but they would only take it [the cash]
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if I had $50 because that was the minimum
requirement.
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So, I spent about an hour not knowing what
to do because I had nobody to contact,
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but thankfully, somebody else who was going
to be on the same flight as me,
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or he just happened to be on the same flight
as me, it doesn’t really matter,
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but he had a credit card and he took my cash
and then used his credit card to check my
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bag which was really, really awesome.
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But now I know that, just in case,
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because I know I’m going to be bringing
an actual gigantic suitcase to Toronto.
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On my next trip, I’m going to have to have
a credit card just in case.
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Which brings me to this next one -
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5: Bring emergency cash.
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This is probably unlikely at an airport, but
some places in general might not take *cards,
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or credit card machines might be down, so
if you want to get something to eat or, you know, just
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buy something, it’s always good to have
a little bit of cash.
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You don’t need a lot of it, just maybe $10-20
depending on how much you actually want to get.
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But I was always using just cash during my
Toronto trips,
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but now I know it’s just nice to have both
just in case.
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6: Get an international phone plan.
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This is just in case there’s a delay on
your flight or a cancellation and if you are
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being picked up, then you want to contact
them.
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Of course, you could do it on Facebook or
something, but not everybody has social media
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so you gotta get their attention somehow.
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I’m always being picked up; I’ve never
driven myself to the airport and parked my
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car there, so if something happens, I can’t
be stranded at the airport.
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Not only that, but just in case something
happens while you’re in the other country,
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it’s nice to get in touch with people.
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7: Keep your devices charged.
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This is kind of a given because people are
always trying to get their phones charged
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and plugged into the wall,
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but it can get very, very crowded in the airports,
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so you might not be able to find a spot to
charge your phone.
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so just in case,
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overnight before your flight, charge everything:
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your computer, your phone, your tablet, whatever
you have, charge it.
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8: Bring a pen and notebook.
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Mostly the pen rather than the notebook depending
on the situation.
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If you are flying internationally, bring a
pen for the declaration card when you’re
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on the plane,
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that way, you don’t have to wait and see
if somebody else has a pen or for the flight attendant.
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‘cos if they have a pen, it’s normally
a limited amount.
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So just to get it out of the way,
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have your pen in your carry on pouch, it’s
easy to get, and you’re done.
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And bring a notebook in case there’s some
information that’s being told and you want
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to write it down really quick.
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I know you can put the information down in
your phone, but sometimes, maybe you feel
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like writing it down instead.
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And you can always doodle on the plane.
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You know, fun stuff.
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9: Bring a book or some sort of entertainment.
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If you get a delay, it gets boring.
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Depending on the delay.
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I had a five and a half layover in Philadelphia
which turned into about six or seven hours
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of layover which was so boring.
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Thankfully, I had work to do, so that kept
me busy, but not everybody has work to do.
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Or you don’t want to do work anymore because
ehh.
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So bring a book or have games on your iPad
or your phone, whatever.
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I have the Sailor Moon version of that Candy
Crush game on my iPad.
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So if I’m really, really bored, that’s
usually the game that I go to play because
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it really keeps me occupied and I must finish
a game and I must get to the next level when
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I play or I am not a happy person.
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And last but not least -
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10: Get there at least an hour earlier than
they tell you.
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If you’re flying internationally, normally,
you have to be there two hours before departure.
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Unless you’re flying from Hawaii, then it’s
three hours for some reason, I don’t know.
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Now, normally, you can probably get away with
the one hour or the two hours if you’re
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flying domestically or internationally, but
sometimes,
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it will sneak up on you,
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the lines get way too long,
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the airport’s understaffed,
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and you take forever.
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I will have a future video of this if I don’t
post that before this, but the last trip from
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Toronto to Charlotte,
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I had to wait in customs for two hours even
though I was there two hours before departure.
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Which I kind of missed my flight which ended
up being delayed anyway so I didn’t miss it.
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You’ll know more later.
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I’m someone that loves to be at the airport
about three to four hours before my flight.
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Which sounds ridiculous, but I would rather
spend a little more time in the airport doing
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nothing than miss my flight and have to go
through the trouble of hoping to have a different
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flight and all of that.
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Like I said, normally, there isn’t much
of a problem.
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I’ve been on, I would say, more than five
trips, I think.
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Yeah, more than five trips and I’ve had
not really any problems except for the last
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one which was two hours in a customs line
and that was - that - that was very, very
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stressful, so.
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You don’t want that.
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So as of right now, those are the tips that
I can think of and if I end up coming up with
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more tips in the future, we’ll make another
video.
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But if you have any traveling tips, feel free
to leave them down in the comments because
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I am always wanting to make my trips a lot
easier.
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[COUGH] SIGNED: Can’t talk.
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I’ll see you later. Bye.