packing tips Archives - Stuck at the Airport

Packing for a trip? Do you fold or roll?

When it’s time to hit the road, do you fold, roll, layer or squish? Do you make a packing list or just wing it?

Those are just a few of the questions Cheapflights.com recently asked travelers in a quick on-line survey.

Here’s what they found:

Just over 56 percent of Americans make packing lists and 77 percent plan or lay out outfits.

Forty-two percent of us start packing two to three days before leaving home and an another 30 percent start packing a week ahead of a trip.

26 percent admitted waiting until the night before a trip to start packing while just over 2 percent said they lived on the edge and and didn’t pack anything until a hour or less before leaving.

No doubt, those are people you see looking for a place to buy underwear at the airport.

Fold or roll?

70 percent of survey respondents said they folded clothes in their suitcases, while 30 percent said rolling was their method of choice.

And maybe it doesn’t really matter what you pack or how: only 45 percent of Americans reported that they ended up wearing everything they packed.

Packing tips from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Last week, custom agents, or rather a Customs and Border protection dog, at Washington Dulles International Airport smelled something fishy in the suitcase belonging to a man arriving from Africa.

As reported in the Washington Business Journal and loads of other places, it wasn’t fish inside that suitcase. The man had three dead monkeys, 10 pounds of deer meat and 10 pounds of dried beef in there.

The meat products were seized, but the traveler wasn’t fined. Turns out that he, like other travelers, just didn’t know that you can’t bring any meat products into the U.S. from other countries.

What else won’t pass muster? Fruits, vegetables, plants, soil, products made from animal or plant materials – and the items in a new display at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The airport’s art program has partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to set up this temporary exhibit in Concourse E.

(Photo courtesy Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport)

Airport officials say, except for a few pieces of coral and tortoise-shell jewelry on loan from the Federal Repository in Denver, everything in the 13 exhibit cases was seized at ATL.

Here’s a sampling of what’s on display: a complete polar bear skin, a stuffed hyena, a blowgun from South America decorated with rare macaw feathers, giant mounted spiders, hiking boots made from elephant hide, beauty products made from caviar, and much, much more!