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My family and I arrived at a rental car counter in Nice to collect a car that would take us through to
Paris on one of our voyages of discovery.

“Bon jour. Je suis David Morris..J’avez une reservation pour une voiture”, says I showing of my
mastery (not!) of the French language. The counter agent probably wished I had spoken English.
At least that way she could more clearly comprehend.

“Non, non monsieur,’ she said. “Oui! Oui!” says I, showing her my booking email.

“Monsieur, that was for yesterday”.

The only vehicle I could get that day was nearly three times the price.

Even experienced travel agents can cock it all up.

So check every detail item by item. Day by day. Date by date. Time by time. Flight number by
flight number.

Even check the destination itself. Yes, it’s true. A young man found himself in Auckland New
Zealand (AKL) when he thought he was going to Oakland, California (OAK).

And don’t trust travel agents to get it right. On one our recent trips to Europe, going in/out
Rome, we arrived at the Qatar check-in counter for our afternoon flight to be told we were
supposed to be on the early morning departure. It transpired that our travel agent, who confirmed
to me that she had booked us on the afternoon flight, in fact had us on the earlier departure.

It cost €900 in no-show fees.

Couldn’t complain. She had gone over the itinerary with me, line by line. I listened but didn’t hear.

And didn’t check. And check again. And again.

Passports. Well before your departure day check the status of your passport. Many destinations
require at least a six month validity on your passport.

Visas. Do you need a visa? Are you sure? Check. Nothing worse than arriving at immigration and
being turned back because you don’t have a visa and they won’t issue one there and then.

If nothing else, just check that your passport is all present and correct.

On the day before my last overseas trip I went to the drawer where I keep my passport. It’s
always there, right? Not this time, sunshine.

Less that 24 hours to the very final boarding call and I am without the single most important travel
document of all.

This embroils you in one of those terribly difficult decisions: I know, for certain, that it is
somewhere in the house. It’s a Sunday. At what point do I give up the manic search of every nook
and cranny and start the process of getting a new, emergency, passport from our Internal Affairs
Dept. people.

Two-thirty three. That’s when. I called the officials and they sprang into action. I take my hat off
and give them a deep bow of gratitude. By 5.17pm I had a brand new passport.

So – check, check, check, And then once more. Just for luck.