Get Travel Ready!
Many times in getting ready for a cruise, trip, etc travelers struggle with what documents to have in place to travel or knowing that there are opportunities to have a smoother trip. Because of that I decided to put together a quick list of items to get you travel ready!
1- Passport- You’d be surprised but many people want to travel but don’t have a passport and unless you are going to Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Guam, US Virgin Island to name a few, guess what? you’ll need a passport to go everywhere else! Recently passport fees have increased a bit but if you do international travel especially by air you want to have a passport in place. You can get your passport at https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports.html/ Don’t forget that if anything changes with your status, for example, you were married now you are single, change your passport information too as it can cause issues with your boarding pass and immigration. If you do a lot of travel from US to Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, and the Caribbean you can look into a passport card especially if its through land borders and ports of entry.
2- Global Entry- When traveling nothing makes me happier than breezing through the security lines after I checked in and through the customs line when arriving after a long flight. I’ve literally have seen both lines take so long especially at LAX airport with all the renovations going on. Imagine if you can cut your wait time by an hour? Many major city airports have a lot of congestion getting in and out that’s why a Global Entry Card is a great investment. The great thing is that the investment is small in comparison to the time you spent on lines at the airport. For $100 you will have the benefit for 5 years to travel by air, land, and sea as well as TSA PreCheck is included. If you only want to fly domestic, then you can set up TSA PreCheck for travel by air at a cost of $85. It's truly worth it if you travel a couple times a year. For both options start the application here: https://ttp.dhs.gov/
3- Alternative for TSA PreCheck- You may have been at a major city airport and seen a big white kiosk and wondered, what’s that? That is a competitive travel private company membership to TSA PreCheck called CLEAR. Clear is a bit pricier but it may or may not benefit you. One time I was on a business trip in San Francisco and with all the shuffle getting to the airport and through security I was running late! The airport was packed that even with my global entry card I would miss my flight but thankfully I had CLEAR too and I jumped in that super short line and eased by security and caught my flight. If you don’t travel often domestically it may not be worth the $179 to sign up. The other limitation is that not every airport has CLEAR so if you are traveling from small airport chances are it may not help. If you are a big sports fan and go to watch events at stadiums regularly then maybe it could be a good investment as CLEAR Sports lets you breeze through lines at stadiums making it a smoother experience and its part of your clear membership. You can start your membership with Clear at www.clearme.com
4- Vaccination Card or Negative Covid Exam Result- Travel indeed is different now so much so that passport holders come with a pocket for your vaccine card. You always want to double check what requirements the country you are visiting has to make sure that if you are vaccinated you have a copy of your vaccination card, QR code, or negative result of a covid exam- PCR or Antigen. Not having these particulars could cause a delay and frustration on your travels. Don’t leave home without it!
Many people have said it was the best $100 spent to get Global Entry and I agree but first make sure you have a valid passport as you always need your passport to have 6 months validity from your date of travel to not have issues with immigration in other countries and to set up Global Entry. Also, don’t forget your vaccination card or negative covid results! From there make the investment to get through security and customs as quickly as possible, you can thank me later. Check out your credit cards and frequent flyer miles as they may have discounts to sign up for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, Clear and sometimes they offer it complimentary. Lastly once you have everything, take a picture of it and store it in your cloud while traveling so you have your important documents backed up. If you have these things in place, you are travel ready! Now you must book one of our group trips at www.ladiestouchent.com/travel to start filling up your passport with stamps from around the world!
