12 Travel Mistakes You Think You're Too Smart To Make

Above, a United Boeing 787 Dreamliner. United will be avoided in the future by this traveler. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

To save you some possible grief while traveling, Condé Nast Traveler has posted an article on "Twelve Biggest Travel Mistakes You Think You're Too Smart To Make" by Wendy Perrin.

It begins with:

One of the savviest travelers I’ve ever met is my friend Mead Metcalf of Aspen, Colorado. He knows to pack valuables in his carry-on rather than risk entrusting them to checked luggage or shipping them from abroad. So last year in Hong Kong, he put $4,500 worth of souvenirs—jewelry, silks, and a new Nikon D3100—in his hand luggage for the flight home. In San Francisco, boarding his connection to Denver, the overhead bins were full and he was forced to check the carry-on to Aspen. That was the last time he ever saw it. Metcalf had taken every precaution but one. Read on for how to avoid such a trap, as well as other common mistakes that I watch even the smartest travelers make time and time again.

One of the other mistakes listed involves paying airline ticket change fees. The article points the finger at the "painfully punitive" $200 change fees levied by three U.S. carriers. But, fortunately, there are other U.S. airlines who don't charge any ticket change fees or lesser amounts. One of the airlines demanding $200 is United. Since I was greatly disappointed in United's meals during my February trip to Japan, I've pretty much written them off for any future flights. It is too bad since they were once my favorite U.S. airline.

To read the full article, go here.