This has been a question I’ve been long wanting to ask people. Everyone has their own habits or quirks related to travel, and I just wanted to put out some of mine and understand those of my readers to see how people tackle things in the world of travel. Here are my pre-flight habits.

For me, when I refer to travel here, I am talking about international trips and not the domestic trips that happen on an urgent basis, for example, at 8 pm you decide to be flying for a meeting at 10 am next morning.

Here are some of mine:

1. Packing at the last minute: While I usually would have brought out my clothes a day ahead and laid them out, I usually have so much to do before a trip that I end up moving packing to one of my last things on the agenda. Usually, I get by, but sometimes (rarely!) you do get egg in your face, for instance, missing out on trousers from a suit. Eh! I try and knock down everything I want to carry in a rollaboard, but there are times I am going on a longer trip such as 3 weeks, and I would have a bigger suitcase along.
2. Eating an Indian meal: This is especially true for the times when I am heading to Europe or Americas. I grew up eating warm food, and I’d love me a warm meal before I head out into the western world where I would be living on a lot of exotic food, but not eating Indian warm food for sure. Because I focus on travel for Indians a lot, I do also try and eat an Indian meal on the plane to check out their Indian capabilities! I hardly remember times I’ve broken that rule for something more exotic.
3. A hot shower before leaving home: Take note that flights from India to the West almost always originate late in the night, which means I’m usually flying after a full day at work and pretty tired. To sooth the nerves, I’ve made it a point to shower before I leave home for a long night, be it business class, first class or economy class!
4. Dress up to fly: This is something I’m particular about as well and we touched upon in this earlier blog post. On a long flight, if I am not directly getting off the plane and walking into a meeting (I’ve done that!), I dress up in my jeans and T-shirt along with a sports coat to fly!

And of course, Shipra insists I put this on record, for these trips, the house is turned upside down if I don’t find something I need! So, yeah, that happens too! Time to do it all over again before my next flight!

What are your travel quirks/habits? I’m looking forward to hearing what do people to before they get set to fly away…